Drywall is up!

View of what will be kitchen and bar. Stairs lead to sleeping loft.

View of dining area of country kitchen. Porch/living room is through opening.

Cats requested (and it was approved!) a 7" window ledge on picture window

for bird watching, catnaps, and sunning themselves.

It was definitely difficult for Kathy to pull herself away from the cottage this past weekend. What a difference drywall makes! And it was all up, waiting to be taped and mudded this week. Ryan followed us into the drive. He was at the cottage to fill up a heater with kerosene. And here's the thing...we were comfortable with no heat on in the main part of the house. There was an electric heater on in the basement, and the kerosene heater (also in the basement) came on once while we were there for only a couple of minutes. So we are extremely pleased with the insulation. Bonnie did a great job researching and selecting the kinds of insulation and the installer. In this case, Mike The Builder, (not to be confused with the even more popular Bob The Builder), actually gave Bonnie a brochure on the blown-in fiberglass insulation and the name of the company in the area (Morsches Builders Mart in Columbia City IN, see previous post) who worked with it.

We meet with Mike this coming Saturday to deliver the paint and a drawing that tells which color goes on which walls. We are discussing which paint to put on the front porch/living room, and there are some other decisions to be made - like about what to put on the loft stairway. And there are items like plumbing fixtures to purchase. Hopefully, this will be the last major shopping trip. We should have just about everything purchased after the sinks, toilets, faucets, etc., have been secured.

Bonnie has purchased the Hydro-Sil heaters for the cottage. She was able to purchase two scratch and dent units for a savings. As warm as the cottage was last weekend, we are now concerned that the gas fireplace we purchased will roast us out even at its lowest setting! Bonnie has talked about putting it in the basement, which will eventually be converted to living space, but Kathy considers it a piece of art and thinks it should still go in the country kitchen. So that is still a debatable issue.

Bonnie also purchased the flooring...the bamboo and cork...which is in stock and just waiting for us to pick it up and haul it to the cottage.

The cats feel that they scored a major coup by getting Bonnie to agree to a 7" window ledge along the picture window. (Kathy will attempt to purchase or have a pad made for it.) Tacumwah, Marquette and Possum are excited about being able to bird watch, catnap and sun themselves on the ledge.

Discussion continues about where the animals should be housed. For now it appears that the dogs will be in the basement. It has plenty of light with 3 windows and double glass doors. We have two older dogs who could have trouble with stairs. Mille, Little Bear and Gizmo can be let out the double doors to potty in the back yard and not have to mess up the front yard (when we have one!) and won't have to go up or down stairs to get out. Of course, Kathy will have to go down two flights of stairs to let Millie out at 5 a.m. as is her habit.

The bird, Gennie, will go on the front porch unless Kathy can convince Bonnie that she would be happier in the basement near the doors with the dogs, with whom she has lived for the past several years.

The cats will have the main floor of the cottage and the loft. All of this will be subject to reassignment as the years go by and the pet dynamics change.