Working Trip to Rockaway Beach

Last week we worked at the Whidbey Island family cabin.  This week, cabin work took us to the Oregon coast.

We left the drizzle behind as we headed south and west, and found clearing skies that made for a must stop at our favorite overlook on Neakanie Mountain along the coast highway, a view that's hard to beat. 

Upon arriving at the cabin in Rockaway Beach, we unloaded our gear, did some measuring, and then headed for the builder's supply in Tillamook. 

 Tuesday morning we got busy, setting up shop, and getting started on our projects. 

 The weather was dry and even sunny, so we could easily do our sawing outside in the open. 

First job - build shelves for the upstairs closet.  The upstairs has been recently enlarged from a loft to more sleeping space by raising the roof. (See the original look on the side bar.) We were also required to raise the whole cabin above the flood level. It has been a long and expensive process so we family members pitch in to do as much of the work as possible. 

Closet storage done.

We moved on to the windows. They needed to be finished - wrapped, sills, and trim. 

There was lots of cutting and fitting and trips up and down two sets of stairs. I was gopher, consultant and keeper of measurements.  I had to keep track of which board of which length should be cut for each window to have the least waste. We had 8', 10', and 12' lumber. 

Tuesday evening Tom hung the new mobile that he had created at home from beach material. He was replacing a previous mobile that was lost during construction. I was the ladder holder and photo documentarion. 

On Wednesday we were back working on the windows. Here's how they look wrapped and framed. 

We got this big one done and three smaller ones before we ran out of materials. 

I spent some time removing blackberries and planting crocosmia bulbs that I had dug from our home garden.

Some day they'll look like this. 

We will be making more changes, including adding a second toilet/water closet, so I cleaned off shelving in that space, cleaned out the shed, and moved the shelving out of the cabin and into the shed. 

It was after three o'clock by the time we ran out of lumber and out of steam.  We got all of the tools packed up and cleaned up everything, and then we had time for a late afternoon walk on the beach. 

We had originally planned to meet my sister in the valley on Thursday, but we cancelled those plans, and were gifted with a slow day for getting back to Seattle.

We went to the Bayfront Bakery in Garibaldi for my apple fritter. 

 We stopped and shopped at the Wheeler Antique Mall. 

And we had lunch at the Wet Dog Brew Pub in Astoria. 

We made it home in time to settle in for some TV watching and some kitty petting. 

It's good to be home.