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Intro

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My parents bought this place in 1979. A small fishing cabin, short on charm but big on family fun. view from the lake view from the lake view from the road - it looks like all car port from here! We spent countless weekends and summers out here as kids - swimming, catching frogs, playing Olympics, learning to water ski, playing baseball, fishing, playing excessively loud games of PIT... So many memories. This is my favorite random porch picture because it shows exactly what I remember about the cabin - family, fun, laughter, and love. That's me in the middle with the blonde braids, holding my baby cousin, Leigh. In the 80s, my grandpa put on a second story so we had even more space for family fun... But after we all grew up, the house just kind of sat there, and accumulated stuff. I'm not kidding. See photographic evidence below. Every time a relative passed away, the stuff no one wanted to get rid of went here. It basically...
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The Plans

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February 2018 We decided to keep the upstairs pretty much as-is. All we changed was the closets in the master and adding more windows in the master to have a better view of the lake.  The main changes happen in the downstairs. First, we took out the existing kitchen and bathroom. Then we combined bedroom #1 and #2 into a master, adding a new bathroom in there. Then we put on a single-story addition with a kitchen and mud room. We also added a new "front door" on the side of the house for fire escape safety and more windows facing the lake downstairs. BEFORE  The existing downstairs. AFTER:  The new downstairs with the addition. NEXT: Step 1: Cleaning Out
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Step 1: Cleaning Out

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March 2018 My husband, my parents, and I - and the kids, too - spent almost a month cleaning out the house before any of the renovations even started. We found all kinds of family memorabilia, lots of trash (over 20 van loads to the dump!), and many interesting random things, including a cow head skeleton that, strangely, the guy who cut down the trees asked if he could have. Ooohhh-kay. We donated a lot of furniture, stored even more, and threw out pounds and pounds of trash. DOWNSTAIRS BEDROOM #1 This room will be combined with Bedroom #2 to become the new Downstairs Master Bedroom/Bath.  This was the hardest room to get the furniture out of because it was packed in there so tight. Our construction crew had to disassemble the bunkbeds to even fit them out through the door. Bet you can't even see that there are bunkbeds in there! In this room was: a set of bunkbeds with built in dresser, a vanity, a wardrobe, another dresser, and an entire four pie...
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Step 2: Exterior Demo

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April 2018 After cleaning the place out, the guys came and cut down trees around the house, some of which were just too close to the house, some of which were in the way of the addition. They also took out a concrete walkway from the old kitchen door that went down towards the lake and a concrete pad on the other side that used to have a shed on top of it. They also demo-ed the carport, which had been sagging for years and the screened porch, which they tested for asbestos, just in case. Thankfully, not a problem! TREES ON ADDITION SIDE BEFORE: AFTER: BEFORE: AFTER: TREES ON NEW "FRONT DOOR" SIDE BEFORE: AFTER:  CARPORT BEFORE:  AFTER:  MORE AFTER: EVEN MORE AFTER:  SCREENED PORCH BEFORE: AFTER:  MORE AFTER: the guys let my boys help a little with the porch demo: EVEN MORE AFTER: NEXT: Step 3: Interior Demo Downstair...
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Step 3: Interior Demo: Downstairs

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May 2018 To give you a clear picture, we'll start with pictures of each space before we cleaned it out, all the way to each space demoed.  BEDROOM #1 This room will be combined with Bedroom #2 to make a master bed/bath. BEFORE:    AFTER: MORE AFTER:  BEDROOM #2 This room will be combined with Bedroom #1 to make a master bed/bath. BEFORE:  AFTER: Below is the view from bedroom #1 looking through the wall into bedroom #2 and bedroom #3 (which will be the office) is beyond that. The wall between Bedroom #1 and #2 came down so we could combine them to make the master bed/bath: BEDROOM #3 This room will become the office.  BEFORE:  AFTER: MORE AFTER: This is standing in Bedroom #3 (the new office), looking through to Bedroom #2 and #1 (the new downstairs master bed/bath).  MAIN ROOM: Originall...
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