Cabin Fever # 2

   Some of my friends own cabins by the lake, some take trips this time of the year to one of the coasts, and some live by the river.    For me, I have to get my lake shore fix from working on a cabin at the Okoboji Bible Camp at West Okoboji Lake.     This was the same cabin that I wrote about a couple weeks ago and I am sure that I will be invited to make a few more trips as we move towards the spring.    There is another fellow here who calls me up and asks if I would like to ride along with him to the camp and I seem to jump at the chance to get out of town.    The last time I talked about this project, I was telling how we completely demolished the inside of the cabin by removing all the inside walls and fixtures that were in the cabin.   There is no heat, but it has been a nice winter here in Iowa so it hasn't been bad working on a outside project like this.

    To the left is a picture of the cabin that we are working on.   It is about the size of a small garage.   16' by 24'.    There has been a donor that has given some funds to the camp to be used to remodel this cabin.   The cabin has not been used much in the past few years.    For this trip, the plan was to install some windows that were given to the camp a couple years ago.    They were windows that were installed in a newer home and once installed, the wife did not like them so they were taken out and replaced.  The ones taken out were given to the camp.

The first thing we did was take out the front of the cabin (so far - a continuation of my demolition skills).   The picture to the right shows the cabin with the front windows and door removed.   All the old siding and old studs were removed and tossed.   From this point on we started with some "new" 2x4's and framed in where the new windows would be added and added studs in those areas we planned to close.  

 To the left is the end result.    From the time we drove up to the moment this picture was taken we had put in a total of five hours.     Since we did not put the door back in, the only way out was through a door that was in the back of the cabin.    There is a plan to build a small deck to the right of the cabin with a ramp that will slope up the front to that deck and a new door will be installed on the right side.   This would make the cabin handicap accessable.     That's the plan for now anyway.   It is a work-in-progress thing so there could be other crews that will do additional projects or maybe it will just be us.   We'll have to see.  

 For me, it was a free ride to Okoboji, a free meal, coffee, and something different to work on.  (Plus I was "cat free" for a day.)   On these cold odd days of Winter one likes to think about a summer, a cabin,  and a lake.  (Someday.)