3/7/11 Monday. Spent the morning talking to Matt in the Home Depot kitchen cabinet department. I learned quite a bit about cabinets and installation options. Since they don't do work in the Lake Wenatchee area, I decided to find a comparable outfit on the other side. I called Marson and Marson and learned that they have a similar service in Leavenworth. I talked with Terry Hagen there about my project and emailed him a dimensioned drawing so he can begin to work something up for me.

3/8-10/11 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 12:50. The driveway had been plowed since last week, but there was about 8 inches of new snow since it had been plowed. I switched to 4WD and was able to drive right in and park without any shoveling. Bert showed up right away and I gave him a lot of hugs and a couple of dog biscuits. Then I post-holed over to the trailer and turned the water valve down to get pressure to the cabin.

I brought 8 big yard bags full of lawn debris with me and I spent an hour or so hauling them over from the truck to the compost pile and dumping them. Then I carried some lumber I had bought up to the cabin and finally, I carried my usual gear up to the cabin.

I split some firewood, built a fire in the stove, and then had some lunch. I called Bill to wish him a happy birthday but he was out partying. I spent the rest of the day installing shims on the undersides of the loft floor joists up against the joist hangers. This completed item number 29 on my list of 44 things to do to get ready for drywall. Ron Scollard had told me that he was worried that the drywall might crack without the shims because of the hangers.

On Wednesday morning I called Bill again. We talked about my project and I got some last-minute advice on installing additional jack studs on two rough door openings. Then I added a jack stud to the SE side of the kitchen/utility door opening, and I added a jack stud to the left side of living room closet door opening to make the rough openings the proper widths. These were items 34 and 35 on my list of 44.

Next, I disassembled the bathroom light switch box, chiseled a half-inch recess in the stud it was attached to, and replaced the box with a handy box without a hanger. This moved the box to the left about an inch. This was item 22 on my list of 44 and was required so that I can fur the wall out 3/4 of an inch from there to the shower stall to provide better backing for the drywall. Ron didn't like the way the shower stall flange stuck out, so I decided to fur the walls out to provide better backing.

After lunch and a nap, I re-installed the trim molding on the long side of the new hearth extension. I still need trim on the short ends, but I'll do that later. Nothing depends on that.

Next, I installed 2x4 backing above the north corner of shower, and I installed 1x2 and 1x4 furring on both sides of shower stall including the wall on left side. I also shimmed the studs above the shower stall to provide ramps for the drywall. This checked off items 20 and 21 on my list of 44.

It snowed pretty much all day and it looked like 3 or 4 inches had accumulated. But unfortunately by about 6:00 it turned to rain which began packing the snow down again and making it soggy. It's starting to look like the scouts won't have very good snow when they get here.

On Thursday morning, it had snowed some more overnight, so maybe there is hope after all. I spent most of the morning repairing a stepladder I had gotten at a garage sale. Then I tried making a template for the drywall around the loft beam above the inner entry doorway. This was item number 7 on my list. Unfortunately, it didn't come out satisfactorily so I will have to do it again.

I left for home at 1:00 feeling pretty good about being ready for the scouts, and for having a systematic plan for getting ready for drywall. Now I need to get a plan together for the cabinets.