THIS WISCONSIN LIFE: Spring Cleaning. And another bathroom.

Well, we only have one bathroom, and it's frozen most of the year, so it's not like we're goin' gonzo here. And we've been busy, which is why we haven't been bloggin'. So here is a brief photo-filled explanation of what-the-hell has been going on up here in the North Country.

First: This happened a little while ago, but Jake made this double-scarfed beam for the aft-end of our house. You may also observe from this photo the roughed-in skylights. Or maybe you can't.

Okay, so here is another view of the double-scarfed beam and where the skylights will go. That was a big step. Jake also paneled a 1" air-gap up there... so all we need to do is insulate, put on a new roof, and tounge-n-groove that shit and she'll be ready to go! sounds easy, right?
... Next:

Sometime within the last month we went to a bonfire at the Dugger's place. For those of you who have the pleasure of knowing the Dugger family, we feel your pain. That's me about to fall in the fire pit.

Moving on:

Tim, Heidi and Justin arrived like locusts. So we explored the potential of owning a duck-suit and how it might fullfill something missing in our collective lives... we also started to work on the hand-made tiles which we will be using solely throughout the house.

It was fun.

Then the real work began.

With Tim supervising, Justin and I ripped up the old flooring. Then the most unfortunate thing happened:

Yes, that is Justin holding my skewered Croc. These safety shoes are bullshit! No photos of the gore, sorry folks.
Then:

Master-Plumber-Tim guided us as we cut open the sewer pipe in the basement to add in a new drain and clean-out (cuz the other one is seized closed!)

It was cold in the basement. And noisy. (yikes)
Below: Jake is "making it happening"

And so after a half-day or so, we were able to move to the main floor.

After another day or so we did this:

And the drains made their way to the top floor! So we did too:
Here are the drains & Air vents... sort of wonky but totally functional. Tim & I only screwed up a few times.

Oh, oops! well, you can't really see the toilet, bidet, sink & Shower drains in this photo but you'll see them in a minute. Next we worked outside 'cuz our neighbor with a tractor-collecting "problem" offered to till up the yard for the start of our garden:

Jake collected a bunch of huge driftwood pieces (off-cuts from the lumber mills which surrounded the bay in days-of-yore) to surround our raised beds. We didn't really get too far on the project. But it was a nice day and we needed to get out of the basement. Justin & I spent most of the day excavating materials from our yard. Notice the piles and piles of pavers and bricks we have stacked in the background. All from our yard! It's like playing real-life Catan! We will use these bricks and what-nots between the beds. Oh! And here are our seedlings:

Kind of feebs for April 27th, but not bad considering our house averages about 54 deg.
...To continue the rambling story... we went back inside and did some more plumbing, got all the drains in and started to frame out the room:

The sink will be mounted on the chimney. Bidet to the right of the chimney, then the Toilet, Shower on the other plywood square. The sub floor of this dump is trashed (did she just call their home a "dump?" ...Yes.) The roof burned at some time so the sub-floor is mostly charred and ripply, etc. So we needed a few solid spots - no one wants to get sea-sick on the throne! We're keeping the window in the shower, and add a few more windows in the bathroom, pocket door, shelves, hand-blown glass sink...
Here is where Jake lost the wrench in the wall: