Making a Summer Home - Part 1

As you may remember, Mike and I purchased a place near Dent, MN last fall.  And within just a few days, we were in the motorhome and headed south.  All winter long we thought about the place off and on.  Mike was a regular at Harbor Freight and we now have most of the tools we will need.  I frequently stopped in the bedding sections of most stores, checking and rechecking colors and styles and "stuff".

We both got really good practice painting the House in Mexico.  And our MN friend, Sharon, taught me a bit about how to use a roller and that Behr paint was the best to use to cover "flaws". We decided on colors for each room and then redecided and decided again.  We bought a few Mexican bricks when Tud and Diane were with us and carefully packed them in the car for the trip to Minnesota.   I spent a few hours one day designing one wall after I got a good deal on some picture frames.  Once everything had found a space in the car, the boat, or the motorhome, we were ready to head for Minnesota.

We stopped for a wonderful 24 hours getting to know the Watertown, SD family again. And to meet our newest great grand baby, Joey. (I'll have pics as soon as I locate my camera...) On Saturday we arrived at our lakeshore place with samples of paint in hand.  It was a beautiful spring day in Minnesota.  The weather was warming and the sun was shining.  As is typical of MN, that all became history within twenty-four hours.  As I am writing this, we have just been through a three day stretch when the temps did not reach freezing.  The furnace is getting a workout.  Today it snowed!

We have been busy these last four days.  Since this is a manufactured home, it has those strips on the wall  and we both thought it would be nice to have them gone.  Mike learned the materials to use and quickly moved in to change the look... Well, after removing the first strip and filling in the space and sanding it and filling it in again and sanding again, we decided that we kinda liked the strips.  Okay, well if not like, at least we can live with them and we will!  Those who visit the us and stay in the guestroom will have one wall that is "unstripped".

 

 

I was quick to put colors on the wall and see if I liked our choices.  As you can see, we are influenced by the southwest and fall in Minnesota.

 

 

One of our major tasks was to fill the 247 holes in the walls - well, I really did not stop to count them, but I am absolutely sure there were close to that many.  Can you think of any reason why one person would have this many nails in the wall this close together????

 

 

As the snow began to fly, we were busy cutting out carpet and pulling it up.  The garbage people said that it should be in three foot strips and tried and then they would pick it up and feed it to their machine. 

So, we pulled and bundled and pulled some more - oh yea, and then we did the padding.

I gotta tell you that was just plain gross!  If anyone says sand and dirt does not stay in a carpet, I will have to question them.  Look at the crap that was under the pad.  Like I said - GROSS!

Now it is all neatly wrapped, and piled on the deck.  On Monday, we will take it to the road to be picked up by garbage people.

The nail holes are filled - some are still in need of sanding.  The floor is bare and the flooring guy is coming tomorrow to give us an estimate.  The paint is bought and waiting patiently for us to get busy.

Oh, did I tell you that Mike ripped out the mirrors and big old tub from the master bath. It currently sits by the road with a FREE sign on it.  I ripped out the small vanity mirrors and they are there too.  Tomorrow, Mike is taking out the shower stall. 

Yes, we have been busy.  I invite you to follow our progress...

 

We wish each of our family members and all of our friends a

Blessed Easter.