It’s heeere!

The weeHouse has arrived. And about all I can say is, “Far out.”

Chris takes in the view.

In the end, there were 14 of us (and a dog) either watching or working. That doesn't count  brief visits from the power company, a Polk County Sheriff’s deputy and a guy who works at Lamperts lumberyard, which is providing most of our building materials.

It was a glorious day, by northland standards. Blue skies, clear roads and an iPhone temperature reading of 27-degrees (though some of us put it closer to 22 with wind chill).

My timeline is a bit fuzzy, but it’s fair to say it was a dawn-to-dusk operation. It went something like this:

DAWN

The journey began in the wee hours of the morning, around 6:45 a.m., when the crane and trucks showed up in Siren, Wis.

Scott and Sam of Alchemy Architects, the St. Paul-firm that designed and markets the weeHouse, got there a little before 8 a.m. By the time Chris and I arrived around 8:30 a.m., the weeHouse was on the truck and nearly ready to roll.

9:45 a.m.

You never pay attention to how many sagging wires are strung across the road until you’re driving ahead of a flatbed truck carrying a weeHouse. We had some heart-stopping moments as truck driver Tim McCormick weaved his wide load under electrical wires along Wisconsin Highway 35.

Tim later said he’d hauled a lot of things in his day -- chicken coops and the like -- but never anything like this. He brought along his wife, Rosie, and their big, white, furry dog, “Bear.”

11 a.m.

Wouldn’t you know it. We made it 30 miles from Siren, but were stopped in our tracks by the power lines on the road turning into Loveless. I put in an emergency call to the power company to see if they could raise the wires and then wrap the lines in front of my lot. (In winter, no one wants to cut power, even for a few hours. Wrapping the lines apparently offers some protection against electrocution.)

Once again, Loveless’ good fortune pulled us through. A Northwestern Electric crew was just minutes away. To the rescue. 

11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Over the next two hours, the four-member crane crew set up outriggers and distributed enough weight (17,000 pounds) so that it could reach over the giant spruce trees and put the weeHouse on the foundation.

There was another moment of panic when Wayne, the crane driver, measured the distance from the road to the spot where the weeHouse would go. He understood it would be 85 feet out. But actually, the crane needed to extend 105 feet -- technically beyond its reach.

“I’m not feeling good,” said Wayne, a guy with a robust figure and fiery red beard, as he held a spool of measuring tape. “There’s not a fish at the end of this line.”

Fortunately, the weeHouse was lighter than expected. Plopping it on target was doable given the amount of manpower on hand.

1:30 p.m.

 The operation began with the crane dropping a pallet of cedar decking near the road.

And then, the mighty wee flew through the air.

3:30 to 5 p.m.

Alchemy Architects buttoned the weeHouse down to the foundation, put in supporting posts,  leveled out the sliding doors and put up with my occasional angst-riddled processing of the whole mind-blowing event.




Me and the Alchemy crew: Scott, Geoff, Jaclyn, Sam. This is wee No. 27.

 For the past six months, Loveless has been nothing but a slab. The building site is higher on the hill than the former place, and, with two stories, is much taller. The place felt anything BUT wee. It seemed shockingly huge. I despaired that I’d become one of those people who came to rural America and overbuilt.

Calm eventually prevailed. When I stood inside the cozy weeHouse and looked out across Loveless Lake, it was like being in a treehouse. The view was stunning. And I could start to visualize the place when it becomes more than just a shell of foundation walls.




View from the future bedroom, which will have sliding glass doors with a lake view

  
Later, Chris and I drove around to the other side of the lake to see if it stuck out. The weeHouse blended into the hill so much that we had trouble spotting it.

Until we saw William’s red canoe.

Delayed

Wet weather last week delayed some work on the foundation, so the weeHouse is now on track to arrive on Thursday. Sounds like waterproofing is done, drain tiles are in. Septic is supposed to go in tomorrow.

Photos, courtesy, Jesse "The Builder" Smith. Chris and I haven't been up there since the day before Thanksgiving.

I know this is a wee project, but seeing that worker in the lower right of the shot, everything looks pretty massive to me.

That tree the excavator seems to be hugging is the one that grew right next to the former cabin, and took the brunt of the loft-to-nowhere crash when we knocked the place down this spring. We didn't have to cut it down afterall ... though I'm a bit worried about that root system. Any comforting words from my master gardener friends?



Wonderwall

Jesse "The Builder" Smith e-mailed these latest photos. Pretty stunning, considering what I'm used to seeing at Loveless. The weeHouse is supposed to arrive on flatbed truck from Siren on Friday, weather willing.

Commencement

The excavation trucks arrived last week, perfectly timed with the Beaujolais Nouveau. 

Au revoir le concrete slab!

Jesse "The Builder" Smith reports that the new foundation will get poured next week and then they'll start work damp proofing, back filling and installing drain tiles. Septic and well pumps come next.

The long-awaited arrival of the weeHouse is scheduled for Dec. 16. I haven't seen it since my parents were here the first week of October, when only the bamboo floors and walls were in place.

In the spirit of the season, I've decided not to go up to Siren, Wis., where it's sitting now, to  take a peek at the finished house. Like other kids across the globe, I'll hold my breath a few more weeks and see what Santa's Elves have created when the weeHouse shows up under the spruce trees at Loveless.

Coffee tables and chandeliers




"We made all the wheels out of old coffee tables and chandeliers."

 
Chris has decided we'll turn three hulking pieces of the former dock -- two of which are down at lakeside -- into small places of rest and meditation. For now, we're using chairs we inherited from the previous homestead. Post-construction, I'll bring up an Adirondack I rescued from a neighbor's trash bin for a more comfortable settee.

Call before you dig

"The train is picking up speed," says Loveless builder Jesse Smith, of J&A Custom Homes.

For starters, we've got a well! They didn't have to drill as deep as I'd budgeted for, so we're pushing off with money in the jar.

Jesse had the land marked for underground cable, even though there has been no power or other signs of life at the place in years. I found the flags and orange paint trails mildly amusing for some reason.

We learned recently that one of the garbage burning pits actually is an old cesspool (and you thought the term was reserved for politics). So we added that to the chore list for Dennis, the excavator, to deal with when he starts pushing dirt around.

For a little extra dough, Dennis is going to recycle the foundation and all of the Loveless concrete.

Chris makes use of the concrete slab to build a final, humongo fire.



Meanwhile, the earth keeps coughing up more trophies, including these unmatched babes.

This mask was discovered on a separate lakefront sortie from the snorkel and inner tube.

More reminders that kids once splashed along the shores of Loveless Lake ... and soon, we will too.

The vision

We've hired a builder, pulled permits, lined up subcontractors and found a crane operator. And on Monday,  we finally got plans! Per usual, I'm pushing deadline. (This time, dear editors, it is not my fault. Really!) If Old Man Winter cooperates, we've got until the end of November to get the concrete walls poured on the walkout basment so we can welcome the weeHouse to its new home.

Here's the basic idea. If only the slope down to Loveless Lake were this gentle....

Year in review

A year ago this week, I signed the title to the property at Loveless Lake.  We pulled out truckloads of stuff from the cabin, carted off lawnmowers, weed eaters, furnaces, even a snow mobile engine. We recycled or reused as much as we could -- from the moss-covered shingles to the plastic bottle tops.

It’s impossible to account for all the hours of work. But it looks like we (well, Chris mostly) got it down to the slab in 33 visits, four trips to the Polk County recycling center (cash out: tires, mattresses, a fridge; cash back: aluminum cans), two trips to the Shakopee landfill (cash out: recycle shingles). And no dumpster. 

With notable assists from:

Mike the Master of the Come-Along: Who hauled three truckloads of scrap metal to the recycler and brought the place to the ground with a chain and his come-along.

Demolition Dave: Who helped send the kitchen crashing to the ground and found someone interested in restoring the pontoon to its former glory.

Youth of America: Chris’ sons, who showed up during searing 90+ degree temps to load shingles into the truck for us to recycle.

Neighbor Doug: Who was the first "outsider" to visit Loveless. On a cold winter day, he helped haul several foul mattresses up to the truck and to the Polk County Recycling Center, and then did a lap around Loveless on cross country skis.

As Frank might say, we did it our way.

Day One: Champagne on the deck. 



The footpath we cut through the brush and trees.




The (former) cabin captured in the cross hairs.





Down she goes.



The current scene.

Bringin' the ’rents 2 Loveless

My parents came up from Florida last week for their first visit to Minnesota in more than six years. We gave them the royal tour over to Wisconsin in Chris’ new-to-him minivan.

The weeHouse re-do is coming along nicely! Beautiful bamboo floor and walls are in, and the countertop and Ikea cabinets are ready to go.

Still a few things in need of repair from the storm damage.

Chris found some fire pit pokers my folks could use as walking sticks.



 We didn’t attempt Stairmaster Hill, with its lack of handrails and straight-down trajectory. Instead, we headed to the boat launch where they could take in the southerly view of all 140-acres of Loveless Lake.

My Mom was smitten with the weeHouse.

As for the Loveless property? “It’s got potential!” said my Dad.

Chipper hits the drink

We’ve picked up enough of the glass, nails and assorted rubble that we finally were able to introduce Chipper to his newest playground. For the past year, I’ve been slinking out the door, guilt-ridden, as I ditched the poor pooch to head off to Loveless.

It was his first time around a fishing rod, and he was slightly obsessed with trying to retrieve that mysterious thing Chris kept casting out into the lake.

 

I was overjoyed to see him paddling along, doing his funny Lab snort and scaring off all the fish.

Dumpster Diving

With all that waterlogged bamboo getting pulled from the weeHouse, Chris and I headed up to the wee’s current resting spot in Siren, Wis., to do a little scavenging. We’re thinking of using the "reclaimed" bamboo as a floor/wall of a future outhouse or storage shed. That'd class the place up, don't you think?

The flooring is a lovely blonde, horizontal cut. Oooh la la.