New cottage/retirement home near Lake Michigan

[ededic]

May 1, 2016

Need to sell the lawn tractor 1996 JD 345 with MMM, MC319 Collection system and 42" SS Snowblower, 1900 hours purchased new. Did I mention no grass at the new place. While I did enjoy mowing and looking at how beautiful the place looked after it was mowed, I won't miss this chore every 4-6 days.

 

[ededic]

May 1, 2016
House is under contract. 36 hours after listing and 2 days of open house. Seven offers all over asking price with personal hand written letters from each family asking us to choose them.

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Time to move. Whew, this is moving fast.

Got the truck and trailer in loaded every run northbound. This one has the car, or as my wife calls it "That Car". The word "Sell" is normally in there somewhere. It is a 1986 1/2 Pontiac 2+2 Aero Coupe. Richard Petty helped GM push this through as a production vehicle so they could race it on the NASCAR circuit. Petty and others were getting clobbered by the Ford Thunderbird and still wanted to race Pontiac. Needless to say, back in 87 I was a huge NASCAR fan and fell in love with it on the showroom floor. There were only 1200 built and all were the same with a few anomalies for GM Executives. I still have it, it has about 41,000 miles on it and the motor has been fogged for about the past 15 years. It has been on the track at MIS in Jackson prior to three races in parade laps.

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[ededic]

May 1-16, 2016
Lots of moving going on, moving our house from Hudsonville north into a storage unit. We have have been non-stop each day after work loading and driving north, staying overnight and headed back the next day.

May 17, 2016
First Floor walls arrived. We went with SIP or Structural Insulated Panel wall structure for our build. They took our plans and laser cut our wall panels, some over 20 feet in length. They are all numbered and my wife and I will assemble them based on our training from the company and the plans sent along instructing us on the order of operations.

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[Grouse09]

Great thread! Hello from Traverse City! Following your progress. Enjoying it very much.

 

[buickanddeere]

What ever you purchase . Ensure that the property is high and dry with no chance of flooding ever.

 

[ededic]

What ever you purchase . Ensure that the property is high and dry with no chance of flooding ever.

Yes I hear you. We purchased 4 minute walk from Lake Michigan, behind a large dune and on a high rolling hill.

This kind of stuff scares me from being on the water front ...other than the taxes.

Thunderstorm-induced seiche causes Lake Michigan to rise over foot in less than hour
Thunderstorm-induced seiche causes Lake Michigan to rise over foot in less than hour | MLive.com

 

[ededic]

May 21, 2016

Cutting and adding the plates to the concrete footing walls to mount the SIP panel.





Putting up the first assembled SIP Panel, Panel 100, 101, 102, 103. Happens to be the tractor door.





Tractor door up, now on to Woodshop North wall. Lots of swearing going on right about now. Laser cut walls mean no room for loose fittings when putting wall together. Must be tight (1/16 here, 1/32 there adds up at the end of the wall on the corner). Learned another benefit of having 2700lb tie straps from the trailer tool box.

 

[ededic]

May 22, 2016
Preparing more plates to attache more SIP panels.

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May 24, 2016 Finishing up wood shop exterior walls and starting on south wall with big doors on garage. Walls on woodshop are 8' and walls in garage are 10'.

 

[ededic]

May 25, 2016

Need to go back to Hudsonville and mow the grass. 345 is sold and was picked up by new owner. Have to take the 2210 with us to mow. Sure glad I did not sell that 54" MMM for the 2210. Coming in handy now. Will be a paperweight when we get fully up north.





May 28, 2016

South walls with garage doors are up and held in place with stabilizers. They are really tall and not much holding them in place until we get the lower interior walls and floor trusses up.





May 29, last of the first floor exterior walls to go up. This is one of the biggest walls shipped in one piece. We will need more neighbors. Good thing it is close to Memorial Day and there are lots of families up at the cottages around us.



The whole family came to help.



We were very fortunate to have some really great neighbors. Every day more than once somebody would stop at the road, roll down a window and ask what time we needed help today. Awesome, and we could not have done it without them. Some neighbors just showed up almost daily to help and pitched right in. This is why you might see many different people in the pics but some are consistent.

 

[ededic]

May 30, 2016 Securing and water proofing the SIP Panels. Will be a bit before we get to the 2nd floor or the roof.





June 4, 2016

Closing is June 9 on Hudsonville house. Need to take a break from building and MOVE! Getting serious with 28' truck and the moving straps.







June 7, 2016

Need to build second floor in our 12'W x 12'H x 40'L storage unit in order to get all of our stuff in there with the car. Still need to unload this thing tonight.