Category Archives: Leelanau

Grand Rapids, Leelanau, Michigan

Slip-sliding into Winter

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December 17, 2020, Leelanau County, written by Jim

Back when I was still working, one of my colleagues scoffed at the mention of climate change, which back then was referred to as global warming. Knowing he was a capitalist, I chuckled and said to him that he was missing out on a huge opportunity. I told him “buy a place on Lake Michigan and build a tiki bar, as Michigan will be a tropical paradise and Florida will be under water!” I saw the wheels turning as he fell silent. Love ya’ buddy! 🙂

Well, we aren’t quite there yet, at least in Michigan…but we are going to be in the 40’s this Christmas! El Niño is in full force, and our snowfall totals are way down. While we aren’t seeing tourists lounging on Grand Traverse Bay’s beaches, we did see a teenager riding a skateboard in shorts the other night in Traverse City. Oh, wait…that’s not unusual. With that said, our snowfall totals are definitely below average.

We did get a very snowy week in early December, which allowed me to get my tractor into snow removal mode! The combination of bucket on the front and blade on the back made quick work of the foot of the white stuff that fell. The bulk of our driveway is gravel, but the steep section by the road is asphalt. One portion of that is a 10% grade with a sweeping curve. When I was in high school, I plowed our church parking lot with the same set-up on a 1953 Ford tractor, but that lot was flat as a pancake. Our hill concerned me, so I took to the John Deere Facebook group I belong to for suggestions. There were two schools of thought to that hill. One said to use tire chains for traction. The others said that my turf tires were sufficient to run up and down it, warning that tire chains would damage the asphalt. Not wanting to mess up our pretty, new driveway surface, I chose the latter…even though I had already purchased the chains. It is here I should mention that I was running the back blade inverted…the concave portion facing rearward…so as to not scoop all the gravel off our drive. I continued that practice down the asphalt section, which left a hard-packed 1/2 inch of snow on it. That part of the driveway takes three passes to clear, with the bulk of it being finished it two. After my second pass down, I lifted the blade, turned around and headed up the hill. About 50 feet from the top, all 4 wheels started spinning and the front of the tractor drifted sideways. Being sideways on a tractor on an icy 10% grade is not an ideal place to be, so I went into problem-solving mode and dropped the bucket and back blade down. That acted as a brake and it also lowered my center of gravity. I came to a stop perpendicular to the driveway, 200 feet from the road…still on that steep grade. I gingerly got off the tractor and informed Diana of my predicament, then set out to try and use my truck to pull the tractor back up. I ended up not having enough tow strap and chains to reach it, so I scrapped that idea. I then got back on the tractor, refastened my seatbelt and lifted the front bucket ever so slightly. I then tried to drive forward, which swung the front end around and pointed it downhill. With the back blade acting as a brake, I slid all the way to the road. I then slogged through the deep snow on the side and joined the former school of thought and got the chains. Once installed, that did the trick. I backed up the drive without issue.

I’m now turning the rear blade with the concave portion facing forward on the asphalt section, which scrapes down to bare pavement. I then sprinkle a light coating of ice melt on it for insurance. That seems to have taken care of the problem. Now…where do we want to put that tiki bar…

Many of you may be wondering why we chose to forego the warm beaches of Florida for the winter scenes in the above photos. There was no one particular reason, but the fact we were just settling in and enjoying our new place made it really hard to leave. El Niño was not yet forecasted, so that didn’t play into it. Little did we know at the time that we would be facing a major health challenge that made us extremely glad to be close to our Michigan doctors, which we’ve kept throughout our full time RV journey. Diana had her annual mammogram in early November in Grand Rapids, which revealed a suspicious spot. Further testing revealed that it was a very treatable tumor. She underwent surgery in early December. We meet with her doctors again over the next month, as there will be further treatment to improve her chances of not having the cancer come back. It all looks very promising, and a process we are glad to complete from the comfort of our home base. If there is one thing we want to stress to others, it’s this: For your own sake and the sake of your loved ones, stay up to date on your physicals and annual checkups. Both of us are now cancer survivors who were fortunate to have caught our cancers through early detection.

Beyond all of that, I am sure there are those of you who are shivering at the thought of us up here in northern Michigan. We had those concerns too, but we knew we had spent our first 55 years in snowy environs and were well equipped to handle it. What are our thoughts to this point? Mind you, it is still only mid-December, but we have to say we are pleasantly surprised! You may recall that we named our homestead “MapleVistas” as both a continuation of our full time RV moniker and the fact that our property is loaded with maple trees…and we have this ‘vista’ of the valley below us:

Well, 99% of our trees are deciduous, which means our vista expanded when the leaves fell.

Our sunrises have been incredible, as a result!

The lack of leaves, coupled with the snow actually makes our great room brighter than in the summer. We weren’t expecting that, as we’ve seen plenty of dreary winters in our lifetimes. Still, I am sure we will be glad to see the leaves return, come spring. We’ve also discovered that this time of year is known as ‘locals season’. Leelanau does not roll up the sidewalks once the summer tourists leave, as there are enough locals who support the shops and wineries in the winter to make it worthwhile to stay open.

Lane, Patti, Diana and I took advantage of that recently and visited a few uncrowded wineries.

They also took us on an incredible hike in our neighborhood about the time we were feeling a bit shell shocked from Diana’s diagnosis. That was much appreciated and good for our souls. We were also blessed with visits bearing the gifts of friendship and food from our neighbors on each side of us, Renate and Linda. Having great neighbors is really special.

So, that’s our current situation. Challenges and blessings, all rolled into one incredible life that we are fortunate to be living. We are thankful indeed. We appreciate the prayers that have come our way and the ones that have yet to be prayed. We hold each and every one of you close in our hearts this holiday season and we wish you all the best. Until next time, safe and happy travels to all!

Fulltime RVing, Leelanau, Michigan

A Fun-filled Summer!

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September 19, 2023 – Leelanau County, MI – Written by Jim

To say that this summer has been filled to the brim would be an understatement! When we last posted, we had just had our new sofa and recliners delivered, along with a new mattress for the guest room. We had emptied our storage room in Grand Rapids and had everything we owned here at home…the first time that had happened since September, 2014. We figured out early on that our plan of landscaping and moving in would be whittled down to just moving in, as we wanted to enjoy our place and not be constantly working.

It wasn’t long before our guests started arriving!

We’ve hosted several groups of friends and family over the summer, which has been very special for us. Just like I have said about full-time RVing: it’s not about the places…it’s about the people.

Smiling faces who make our lives complete.

Every one of them bring joy to our lives!

Rarely a week went by without getting together with someone.

We even have a few of our great nephew’s small handprints on the refrigerator door that we can never wash off. 😊

I even delayed this post to visit with a dear friend from college. Apologies to those who we failed to get photos of! We enjoyed seeing each and every one of you!

We also made six trips downstate! We’ve had birthday, graduation and anniversary celebrations, doctor appointments, memorials and a very special afternoon in Detroit. You may recall a past post about my great-grandfather being the general contractor on Old Mackinac Lighthouse in 1892. That post can be seen here. Well, nine years before that, he was the general contractor on the bell tower at St Joseph Shrine in Detroit. Completion of that tower made the building the tallest in Detroit at that time. There had been a family story about the largest bell being dropped by the crew, which ended up in the basement of the vestibule. When the crew couldn’t find my great-grandfather, they feared he was below the wreckage. They ran two blocks to my great-grandmother’s house to tell her, only to find him there for some reason. Anyone with first-hand knowledge of the event had long passed on, so it pretty much was just a story in my generation’s minds. It turns out that the story actually is true!

This year is the 150th anniversary of the church. I saw a post on a Detroit historical architecture Facebook group Diana and I belong to where a member of the church was looking for information on the early families from the parish. He is doing a Ken Burns-style documentary on them. I provided him all the information I had and asked if there was any way that Diana and I could personally see the bells. We arranged a time and met with Joe and Julie, who gave us an extensive tour of the church!

My great-grandparents and grandparents were married here, and my mom was baptized here.

The climb to the bells themselves was an adventure! The church had recently been sandblasted, so there was sand everywhere. Bat guano and pigeon poop too! Rickety stairs led us to the top.

The bells themselves were massive! All of them have an 1883 date on them, except for Anton, the 5000 pound bell. It was cast in Baltimore in 1885 to replace the 4000 pound bell that was dropped. It is named for Anton Pulte, who made the largest donation for the bells. Many of you will recognize the Pulte name, as they are one of America’s largest home builders. This was where they went to church back then. It turns out there was a push to get the bells installed for Christmas in 1883, as the bishop was coming to bless them. The bell was dropped on Christmas Eve. The entire set is still mounted on the hardwood beams my great-grandfather’s crew installed.

©️2023 Julie Parthum

They even got permission for us to ring them!

Julie then stayed behind and sent us to the street to listen to her ring them, so we could hear them better. With seven bells, she had to be running around the room like a crazy woman! To hear these bells ring was a gift.

Our last piece of news for the summer is that we have decided to spend the winter in Michigan! We want to enjoy our home in addition to getting in some snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. Those of you who have been to our place may be wondering about the combination of our steep driveway and snow.

We purchased a back blade from a 1953 Ford Jubilee tractor. A little John Deere green and we are ready to go! That and the front bucket on the tractor should take care of any snow we have.

That’s about it for now. Until next time, safe and happy travels to all!

Fulltime RVing, Leelanau

3190 Days

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July 11, 2023 – Leelanau County, MI – Written by Jim

It is said that an individual or couple who takes up full time RVing sticks with it an average of five years. Some people make it a year or two, while others stay on the road indefinitely. Our full time journey clocked in at 3190 days…very close to 9 years.

That began on August 11, 2014 in our RV space next to our house in Wyoming, Michigan. It was the day we moved our pillows to the RV and slept there. I won’t say it was the first time we slept there, as we had been RVing in some fashion for most of our married lives. That day was when the RV became our primary residence.

Fast forward to May 6, 2023. With our cabin finished and ready to move in, we finally were able to move our pillows out of the RV and sleep in our new home for the first time.

Our primary residence is now firmly anchored in Leelanau County, Michigan. Our RVing journeys are far from over, so we will continue to bring you our discoveries as we uncover them.

With that said, our first order of business in our new home was to move in! You may recall that a snowstorm in October delayed our departure to Florida, and we were able to order a few pieces of furniture that we needed. The local furniture store was kind enough to hold it for us as it trickled in, and it was all waiting for us when we arrived. But before we had that delivered…

…we hosted a family get-together! Diana’s sister and her family stopped by, as they were in Traverse City for the weekend. It was great to see them!

Our other project was to empty our storage room in Grand Rapids and bring all of our belongings to one location for the first time in years! After picking up the boxes we shipped to my sister from Florida (after downsizing RV’s on the road), we proceeded to dig in.

Diana said, “This is either like Christmas or kind of like a flea market”. Honestly, we are extremely happy we had that room. Even our king Select Comfort bed survived. We had stored that in shrink bags. After our second trip with our 16 foot utility trailer, I told Diana that I thought we could get it all in one last load if we drove both vehicles.

Here we are, packed up. Did we get it all in???

We did!!! What a great feeling.

This summer will be spent slowly unpacking, as we want to enjoy our place and kick back a little. We have been in construction mode for three plus years now. Time to stop and smell the roses …

….and savor the sunsets.

Until next time, safe and happy travels to all!

Leelanau, Michigan

A Huge Sense of Accomplishment

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Leelanau Peninsula – October 16, 2022, Written by Jim

In the middle of August of 2019, we set foot on what was to become our property on Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula. Having visited this area throughout our marriage and, more recently, having worked and volunteered here, we knew where this is where we wanted to be. Our friends Lane and Patti even predicted it in 2016: “Go have fun and see the country. You’ll be back”. They were right. Diana and I sat in a couple of lawn chairs in the clearing…approximately where our living room now is…and listened in silence. Save the rare vehicle on the road far below, we heard goats, sheep, Guinea fowl, cows, birds and the wind in the towering maple trees. Neither of us said a word for what seemed like an hour. Finally, I looked at Diana and said “What are your thoughts?” Her reply? “It sings to me”. That sealed it. I told her that I had one house left in me, as far as my ability to build a retirement home for us on this little slice of paradise.

And so it began.

Once we signed the papers, we located a John Deere tractor to help with our upcoming projects. Our friends Rod and Mary used theirs extensively to build their place, and Rod assured me it was the most valued tool in his arsenal. That turned out to be a spot-on recommendation. We also bought a shed to temporarily store it in, as we were about to fly off to Britain and Ireland for a month! When we got back, we returned to a blaze of autumn maple leaves. We spent some time planning, then headed off to Florida.

And then came Covid-19.

Would we be able to pull a construction project off in the middle of a pandemic? Well, we had secured our subcontractors ahead of time, as they were the ones Rod and Mary had used and had good luck with. All of them were on board and ready to go, as soon as the restrictions were lifted in Michigan. The county was being strict on outsiders, in regards to quarantining, so we opted to boondock on our land with our fifth wheel. That first year…2020…we put in all the utilities and built our barn.

With that done, we spent our Florida winter planning the cabin. We still had all of our original subcontractors onboard, along with a few new ones. We were ready to hit the ground running when we arrived in the spring of 2021. We broke ground in May and had the exterior enclosed and sided, and the interior drywalled and painted by October.

We still had decks to complete outside and pretty much everything else inside. 2022 was going to be “all Diana and Jim”, save the shower door installers. We spent the next winter in Florida planning. I continued our Excel construction timeline that I had created the year before, which ended up keeping us focused this year.

Our last few posts have detailed our progress this year, all working towards the goal of our certificate of occupancy. When we last wrote, we were just finishing the flooring and trim painting. Once that was done, there were a few interior details to finish, and then the entry deck. Lane came over and helped me hang the barn doors leading to our den.

Quick! Close the barn doors before the horses get out!!!

I also finished the shelving in the den closet:

It was right about this time that we had long awaited visitors!

Eric and Laurel from Raven and Chickadee stopped by to finally meet us in person! Fellow full time RVers turning part timers, these two have long been on our radar. We were sooooo fortunate to finally be able to meet up! I highly recommend checking out their blog from the link above, as they are super folks. We gave them a tour of our place then we headed off to HopLot…our favorite local beer garden.

With the inside of the cabin complete, we had one final piece of the puzzle to complete: the entry deck. Mind you, it was late September in northern Michigan, and the weather was not going to be conducive for outdoor construction for much longer.

I popped off the temporary deck boards and went at it.

On went the decking, fascia and posts…

…followed by railing and cement board base for the column masonry.

I followed that up with the stone veneer. It was about then that the weather turned on us. We had FOUR solid days of cold rain. I still needed to grout the stone, finish the stairs, wrap the posts and establish a landing below the stairs…all required for occupancy. I had a medical appointment in Detroit that I was going to do a one day down-and-back and I said “time out”. We needed a break. So we made a trip of it and saw our new great nephew!

Oh, yeah….it doesn’t get much better than that! Say hello to Drew!

His Grandpa Doug sure thinks he’s the bee’s knees!

Once we got back from the Motor City, we were fresh and ready to go!

In my hand, I hold the last screw…the Golden Spike on our personal transcontinental railroad!

A few days later, we were ready for our inspection! He showed up and gave it a good once over. He walked out on the big deck and said “This is the best room in the house!”, all the while tugging on the rock-solid railing to see if it moved. It did not budge. He signed off on the final inspection and our three year journey was complete!

A huge sense of accomplishment!

We, of course, still have a lot to do next year. Landscaping, moving our stuff up from our storage room in Grand Rapids and many other little odds and ends. All of it can be done at our pace, with plenty of play time interspersed between our chores. Time to enjoy the fruits of our labor!

Afterwards, Patti and Lane had us over for dinner to celebrate 🙂

Two wonderful friends right there! Yep, guys…we came back!

With that, let us formally introduce you to our home:

MapleVistas!

We will continue to travel and blog in our shoulder seasons, so we hope you follow along on exploRVistas with us. Until next time, safe and happy travels to all!

Leelanau, Michigan

Accidental Accidents and Accidentals on Purpose

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September 8, 2022 – Leelanau County, MI – Written by Jim

Sorry if that title is so confusing. There’s a lot to unpack here.

Back when we put up the barn, I had three levels of scaffolding erected while I was siding the back of it. Our friend George visited during that phase and looked me square in the eyes and said, “Be very careful. If you get hurt, this all comes to a grinding halt.” Rarely a day has gone by where I haven’t thought of him saying that. And I have heeded those words.

Most accidents are a result of being tired. I had been pushing hard to get our flooring done, all the while multitasking and putting baseboards in the closets as I went. It was nearing the end of the day and I was really dragging, so I decided to wind up the air hose and put it in the barn for the night. I laid it over the compressor and turned to walk out the door and hooked my foot around a loop in the hose. I was so focused on the concrete I was about to meet up with that I didn’t notice that I had attempted to grab the upper part of Diana’s china hutch that was standing by itself near me. BAM. I hit the ground hard on my left hip. To add insult to injury, the hutch came down on my shoulder and head a split second later. Thank goodness the glass doors and shelf did not break.

At first, I thought I broke my hip. It took me a bit to get myself up and realize that I was probably just going to be really sore. I decided to take it easy the next day and see what the following day brought. I did a little work that day before stepping wrong and pain shot up my leg. Now I was really sure something bad was going on in there! Off to the med center for X-rays. Luckily, I didn’t have anything broken, but I had pulled some muscles and bruised the heck out of my hip. I took the next three days off.

Once I got back to work, I somehow managed to get the flooring done!

With that behind me, I started installing and spray painting the doors.

Once the pre-hung doors were installed, I took the doors off the hinges and painted them in the spray booth I had set up in the barn. Between the 6 doors and the 30 bifold panels, the sprayer got a workout!

I even managed to NOT trip over the air hose! As those were drying each day, we installed the closet shelving and any other baseboard or door trim we could. As of now, we just have to trim out the closet door openings and any adjoining baseboard, plus a few other minor odds and ends. We are getting close to having the inside of the cabin done. After that, we only need to do the entryway deck and we will be finished.

One other thing that I want to mention: the reason this project has moved along as well as it has and stayed on track is because of Diana keeping the wheels on our train! Not only has she helped with the project itself, she has done nearly everything we both normally do on a daily basis. I’m a lucky guy, indeed!

Our other new addition:

Asphalt! We have had several heavy rains that washed out the steep portion of our gravel driveway, so we decided to pave it to the top of the hill. I’ve been adding the white drain stone along the sides to help with drainage and to add support if a wheel goes off the edge.

So you might be wondering what the “Accidentals on purpose” was all about. Many of you know that we follow the band The Accidentals, as many folks from around here do. We jumped at the chance to see them when they played locally at Fountain Point Resort along with Kaboom Collective, a student orchestra based near Cleveland, Ohio. It was our 40th anniversary gift to each other.

Kaboom had ‘reimagined’ many of the bands older favorites. Sav and Katie had met in orchestra class in high school, so hearing their songs performed by an orchestra blew them away.

Katie shredded her electric guitar and belted out Melissa Etheridge’s “I’m the Only One” at one point, which was totally unexpected. We loved every minute of the show!

So the next time we write, we should be wrapping up our building project. I will be sure to keep an eye out for my nemesis, the air hose. Be sure to stay tuned for that post. Until then, safe and happy travels to all!

Friends, Leelanau, Michigan

August Cabin Update

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August 2, 2022 – Leelanau County, MI – Written by Jim

It’s been over a month since we last wrote; it’s time for an update! You may recall that Jodee and Bill had come for a visit on their tour of Michigan. At the time, we were in the process of finishing the large deck. Their fluffy dog Tessa took one look at our project and had her say:

“All this work makes me dog tired!”

After they departed, we finished the deck.

Two decks done, one to go! We are saving our entryway for last. Once we were at this point, we went to our storage room and picked up our deck furniture, our TV and any kitchen boxes we could identify.

It sure is nice to have this furniture back with us!

The next project on the list was the master bathroom. We started this year with painted walls and cement board in the shower area.

We did manage to waterproof the cement board and put down the sheet vinyl flooring this spring, but that was about it.

This was my third tile job in the cabin and easily my most challenging. We were happy with how it came out. A week and a half after I started, the bathroom was nearly complete:

All we need to do is have the shower door installed, put up the towel bars, install the entry and closet doors and the trim. On to the next project: the fireplace!

We started by installing the mantle. We then laid out the stones on a cardboard template:

The handmade tiles are a nod to my grandparent’s home in Detroit, which my grandpa had covered with Pewabic tile. These tiles are made not too far from us in Alden, Michigan by a man who worked for Pewabic. The pink one is a robin, the green one is a maple leaf (both of which we have on our property) and the large blue one in a vineyard with the words “Leelanau Peninsula” on it. Once again, masonry work is something I had never tried, so a lot of YouTube videos were watched, along with some helpful consultations with Jim Nelson…who recently tackled this type of work himself with his wife Barb and friend Kevin.

Less than a week later, it was done. We were glad to see that we measured the TV niche correctly to accept our TV! Time to move on to the next project: flooring.

We are using vinyl plank, which is really nice to work with.

I saw this rolling knee pad being used on HGTV’s Hometown. It sure made this job a lot easier! While I was doing this room…

…Diana was sanding and painting the door trim in the master bedroom. She will be painting the 16 foot baseboard trim next, which she will do in the barn. It’s amazing how much trim goes into a structure of this size!

I am currently halfway through the flooring. I finished the entry closets and the laundry area yesterday.

This is the hatch to our crawl space in the closed position…

…and in the open position. A special thanks to Rod and Mary for the idea of the wall latch to hold the lid up, along with the recommendation of the SmartCore Ultra flooring from Lowe’s. To complete this hatch, we are going to add a grab bar on the left wall, a gas strut on the right and (eventually) a more permanent ladder to the space below. A note on the white baseboard: Our windows were ordered with jambs wide enough for our 2 x 6 walls, but the manufacturer mistakenly made them with jambs for 2 x 4 walls. Rather than send the windows back last year, I had them send me the correct jambs along with compensation for my time installing them. I salvaged the old jambs, turning them into closet baseboard. That kept them out of the landfill and saved us a few bucks in the process!

While it seems like our summer has been all work, we have played a bit too! We’ve had visits from Lane & Patti, John & Julie and our neighbors Gary & Linda, who brought us some cherries from their orchard! We also have made it to Music in the Park in Northport each Friday evening.

This past Friday was The Fabulous Horndogs, a band that got back together after a 12 year hiatus. We knew we were in for a treat when we saw the crowd size. They were indeed fabulous!

Stay tuned as we work to finish up the doors and trim, along with our entry deck. That one involves stone pillars, so my masonry tools aren’t quite done yet. Until next time, safe and happy travels to all!

Fulltime RVing, Leelanau, Michigan

June Cabin Update

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Leelanau County, MI – June 25, 2022 – Written by Jim

What a busy month it has been! When we last wrote, we had just taken a well-deserved day off for Diana’s birthday. We spent that day checking out our favorite Sleeping Bear Dunes spots, followed by a visit to Shady Lane Winery with Lane and Patti!

We followed that up with dinner at Nittolo’s in the town of Lake Leelanau. It was a fun day indeed!

The next day, it was back to work. Diana painted the carsiding that was going around the sides of the island, while I finished the tile.

We are really happy the way it came out! Next up was the top, which we decided to build in place. Our neighbor Jeff helped us bring the L-shaped top in from the barn (thanks Jeff!) and I knew this one was more than we could handle.

Once I cut out and assembled the top pieces, I attached 1/4” x 2” steel to the underside to support the overhang.

I then sandwiched it into the cleating and painted the underside white before Diana and I flipped it over.

Once it was flipped, we screwed it down and spread on the contact adhesive. You can see the laminate all glued up beyond the top.

We then put in the prep sink and we were done!

Time to head outside and work on those two decks! First up was our 12 x 12 deck off the kitchen.

The first project was to spread the gravel under the deck. There is weed block underneath that.

After all the posts were in place, I skirted it with white PVC and put the decking on. I put a single picture frame on this deck on three sides, so as to conceal the edges of the grooved Trex boards. I then stained the posts and built and stained the railing.

A huge thank you to our friends Fred and Bonnie for giving us their leftover railing parts from their deck project last year in New York!

One week after I started, we had a completed deck! Next up was our big 18 x 30 deck on the other side. We are going for the same look, with one difference:

This one is triple picture framed. The reason for that? The boards are running the 18 foot direction, and a 20 foot piece of Trex is over $100 each! A 16 footer is around $40 each. Plus, the picture frame looks kinda cool!

Once I had the main field of 16 foot boards on, I trimmed off the other ends of them, which I left long.

I snapped a chalk line on the path I wanted to cut.

I measured from the edge of the saw to the blade, which was 1-1/4”. I snapped a second chalk line that distance off the other line.

Using one of my aluminum scaffold platforms as a straight edge on that second line, I was able to cut a true line across the entire 30 foot deck.

And just like that, it was done.

Next, I’ll get the posts trimmed to the correct height and stain them. I’ll then put the outer triple picture frame on. After that is the railing and stairs before we can call it complete.

But first we are going to take a few afternoons off, because our friends Jodee and Bill are here for a few days!

We went to Music in the Park in Northport and also to a few spots in Traverse City so far.

No pictures of the four of us yet, but I did manage to get one of Tessa and me!

After the deck gets finished, we concentrate on finishing the inside of the cabin. Stay tuned for that. Until next time, safe and happy travels to all!

Leelanau, Michigan

Back to Work on the Cabin

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May 30, 2022 – Leelanau County, MI – Written by Jim

After a great winter in Florida, we made the trip north to Michigan, arriving in mid-April. Our goal is to get the cabin finished this year so we can get our occupancy permit. We wasted no time in getting started!

First order of business was to get a working bathroom. When we had contractors onsite last year, the terms of our building permit required us to have a porta-potty. Now that we are working by ourselves, there is no need for that…as we have the RV close by. When we left last year, the main bathroom looked like this:

I am fairly proficient in most areas of home construction, but tile work is new to me. Not only was I going to try tackling a tub surround, I was also throwing a niche and a window frame and sill into the mix. Oh, and the tile has a wavy pattern to it.

Before too long, we had a tub surround! Not long after that, we had the flooring, vanity, mirror, toilet and towel bars installed.

We put up a shower curtain for now, as we want to finish the other bathroom before having the shower doors installed. We also put paper on the floor to protect the new flooring while we work in other areas of the house.

In order to get the plumbing running, we had to bring the water softener in from the barn, where it had been installed with the washing machine.

We will scoot that out of the way when we put in the vinyl plank flooring later this summer. Once the softener was moved, we also brought in the washer and dryer.

It’s nice to have those both installed and running! The laundry tub will be installed after the flooring goes in.

While I was doing this, Diana was busy painting trim.

We have 17 windows that require trim, along with 3 outside doors, 6 interior doors and 9 closets…along with all of the baseboard. The window jambs also needed painting, and the entire casing needed to be caulked.

We finished all of the windows! We will get the rest after the flooring is in.

Diana also tackled the mountain of leaves that were dumped on us last fall.

That took a few days, as they were so many! One neat thing about getting here so early was to go to the places we are able to see in the distance and look back at our little slice of Leelanau.

This one is from one mile away.

This one is from 2-1/2 miles away. You can see our place and our neighbors in the distance. The houses in the foreground are on our friends Lane and Patti’s street. Once the leaves popped, we aren’t able to see much of our cabin from these places.

Next project was finishing the kitchen.

Once I had the base cabinets secured and level, I proceeded to make our countertops. This is something I did frequently during my career.

How’s that for Carrera Marble? A special thank you to my friend Jim (a hardware specialist) for helping us secure the cabinet pulls. They actually mirror the handles on the appliances.

Once that was done, we were able to install the tile backsplash.

I finished grouting that today. The rest of this week will be spent on finishing the kitchen, before moving outside to finish up two of our three decks. We’d like to get those done before it gets too hot.

Stay tuned for our next post to see how far we get. Until then, safe and happy travels to all!

Florida, Kentucky, Leelanau, Tennessee

Buttoning Up the Cabin and Heading South

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Leelanau County, MI to Melbourne Beach, FL – November 9, 2021 – Written by Jim

Our last few weeks in Michigan were exceptionally busy, as we not only were finishing up our 2021 projects on the cabin, but we also had to winterize the place. We were fortunate to have dry weather in the 60’s, but the nights grew steadily colder. We had no intention of repeating our winter of 2014/2015 in our RV in Michigan. See our ‘Cold Weather RVing’ tab above for more on that adventure. Time to pack up and roll south!

We had three major things to complete before the end of this year on the construction project. First was more for our peace of mind than anything; we wanted to finish assembling and installing the kitchen cabinets.

All of the upper cabinets are done, as is the pantry cabinet on the left. The base cabinets are assembled and in place; they just need doors, a rear wall on the island, and countertops. All of that gold you see in the photo is the morning sun streaming through the windows. There’s a lot of solar gain right there!

The second project we needed to get done was to finish encapsulating the crawl space. You may recall the dirt floor we have down there:

We had been running a dehumidifier constantly and the lowest we could get the humidity level was to 65%. Since total encapsulation is required by the building code, we figured we would be better off to get the 12-mil thick floor liner laid down before we left.

What a difference that made. Not only is it bright and clean, but the humidity level dropped to 42%. There is no need to run the dehumidifier anymore.

The last project was actually our last subcontracted job: the gutters.

Michigan Gutter out of Traverse City did the work for us. They were in and out within a few hours. When I commented on the one piece 54 foot length of the gutter on the far side of the house, the one installer told me that he held the company record for length: a one piece gutter that was a whopping 252 feet long! I’ll bet he had a lot of helpers that day. When the crew left, we were officially finished with subcontractors. Everything else from here on out will be completed by the two of us.

After blowing out the water lines and securing the place, we hooked up and headed south! We took a few weeks to get to Melbourne Beach, and managed a few highlights along the way.

One of those was a stop at Col. Harland Sanders’ original Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky. KFC has recently done a total renovation of this location, making it a combination museum/working restaurant. It wasn’t open yet…except for the drive through, but we could see through the windows. They did a nice job.

We even got to see the Colonel himself at Sanders Park in downtown Corbin. 🙂

Another interesting stop we made along the way was at Cumberland Gap National Historic Park. This is one of the few natural gaps in the Appalachian Mountains that has been used for thousand of years by animals and humans seeking passage east and west.

Here’s a panoramic of Diana coming up one side of the gap and going down the other side. There are two tunnels that pass below this area, an auto and a rail passage. Daniel Boone passed through the gap in the 1700’s and the area was heavily fortified during the Civil War. With the ruggedness of the terrain surrounding the trail, we were completely surprised at the fact that a US highway ran through here as recently as 1996. The US Highway Department and the National Park Service did a fantastic job of restoring and reforesting the trail!

The sign at the saddle of the gap reads: Salt seeking buffalo, Moccasin clad warriors, Dreaming Pioneer, Battling Civil War soldiers. Each was here in the Historic Cumberland Gap and now so are you. This is the Historic Cumberland Gap. Across from the sign is an offshoot trail that heads up to Tri-State Peak. We followed that trail to a small gazebo that covers a US Geological Survey marker.

Here’s Diana with her feet in three states simultaneously: Kentucky on the left, Tennessee on the right and Virginia behind her. Surprisingly, there are 62 places in the US where three (and only three) states meet. Of those, 35 are on dry land and 27 are in water.

The last highlight was a return to Savannah, GA and Fort Pulaski National Monument.

The engineering that went into this fort is remarkable, yet it was rendered obsolete by the Union Army’s introduction of the rifled cannon shell. More on that story can be found in our post from our first visit by clicking HERE.

We arrived at our winter home in Melbourne Beach on November 1.

We look forward to a winter full of spectacular sunrises, sunsets and (hopefully) a few rocket launches! Stay tuned for that. Until next time, safe and happy travels to all!

Friends, Leelanau, Michigan

A Friendly Push

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October 8, 2021 – Leelanau County, MI – Written by Jim

“Pushhhhh.”

That was Diana’s dad’s response back in the 1980’s when she asked him how he was able to find the energy to totally renovate a house in the evening, all while working during the day as a superintendent for a commercial construction firm.

At the time, he was overseeing the renovation of the concrete topping at Buick City, working twelve hours a day and being on call the other twelve. That job was a monumental task in its own right, let alone throwing a home remodel into the mix. Diana and I have thought of Bud’s statement many times this summer, as we’ve had to push ourselves a bit to get our cabin building project to where it needed to be by season’s end. As the days slipped by on the calendar, it seemed at times that we had a bit more on our plate than we could chew.

Enter the friendly push.

Every one of our friends who has stopped by this summer has added to our project in some way, whether it be through moral support or by picking up a tool and digging in. These past few weeks have been a flurry of activity, fueled by the “pushhhhh” of our friends.

One of the deadlines we had to meet was finishing up the mechanical work this year. That involved all heating and venting work, including the ductwork from the microwave oven to the outside. In order to complete that, the microwave had to be installed above the range. I called my friend John who was there in a flash to help me with that project. Of course, I failed to get a photo. But…

…John’s wife Julie was able to photobomb her own photo when she shot this image of our friends Cindy and Jessica, who had stopped by to check out our progress. Julie is in the reflection in the door glass. Cindy and Jessica are neighbors in Kalamazoo, and John, Cindy, Diana and I all lived in the same dorm in college.

A week or so later, our friends Jim and Barb went way out of their way to lend a hand with our build. You may recall that we had stopped at their place in South Dakota to help them with their barndominium in 2019. Details of that project can be seen HERE. This trip, the two of them had been fishing and hunting north of Lake Superior and drove several hundred miles out of their way to lend us a hand.

We started out our long weekend by showing them the local sights. From there, we plotted our course to complete some key projects. First up was emptying the contents of our local storage room, as we had stashed many of our supplies there over the summer. We filled our 16 foot cargo trailer twice, so this was no small feat.

Next up was digging a trench across our driveway for a service conduit.

While I had loosened the soil with a metal tube chained to my tractor, Jim did the lion’s share of the digging. No better way to get to know Leelanau than to dig into it’s rocky soil! Once that was complete, Jim helped me add a support beam to the deck in the above photo that has the tools leaning against it.

We finished up by adding some diagonal braces to the main deck, which took out the sway at the outer reaches of it. When we were all done, Jim pulled out his drone and took some aerial photos for us. Here is one that shows our hideaway really well:

That was a huge weekend. We can’t thank them enough for their help!

The next big events to happen were the electrician and the HVAC tradesmen finishing their work.

It’s exciting to have power and heat! Those were followed by the electrical and mechanical final inspections, both of which were approved.

We also had a visit from our friends Becky and Joe!

They were on a journey from their home in Montana to our park in Florida. We hung out at our place for a bit before going to dinner at one of our favorite places, Hop Lot. It was great to see them!

Now we are on a push to finish a few things before we head south for the winter.

We have been able to complete more of the cabinet work this week. This won’t be totally finished before we leave, but it will be closer than this.

We also moved our appliances inside from the barn. We want to test them out and make sure they work while they are in the same year that we purchased them. That refrigerator was a tight fit!

We have a few more things we want to accomplish before we leave for Florida, so be sure to stay tuned for that. Until next time, safe and happy travels to all!