We Love Visitors!

I know that I should be posting more frequent and shorter blogs...but that didn't happen this month!

One of the great things about moving to Ely has been having so many of our friends travel to visit us! The last week in January we enjoyed 5 days with our exchange student Laia Bolea, her mom, her cousin and aunt, and two more friends. They were a delightful group to host! We found them a cabin nearby at Timber Trail Lodge, and that worked perfectly as our house is a little small for 6 more people to stay in. We did a whirlwind of activities including hiking, shopping, dancing, ice skating, and of course eating great food and enjoying amazing Spanish wine brought by our lovely guests! It was a wonderful visit, and there were many tears at the end of their stay. We now have started the "Spainish trip" fund...someday!

 Laia got to meet her baby sister Fiona for the first time. Fifi shared her Spanish counting - toddler style...uno, dos, cuatro, seis!

 Raif and Mark took the ladies on a hike to the Hegman Lake pictographs in the middle of a snowy/windy day. They turned back before they got to the pictographs, but it was an experience to remember!

One of the evenings they made paella at their cabin and invited us and our neighbors Sharee and Steve for a feast! It was a night filled with laughter and wonderful company.

The shop is now entering the final stages of construction. Roof is on, windows are in, insulation is installed with drywall up. The most exciting part might be the lighting. Next to come is the floor and then possibly the wooden shingles on the outside walls. However, Mark scored a huge load of logs to saw for the house project, so that may come before the outer walls of the shop are finished. Those type of decisions depend on the weather mostly. We set a goal of March for completing the shop, and it will be very close. It is a very beautiful shop, and will be a great space for creative ventures. When the electrical inspector came, he asked to see where the kitchen would be. He assumed it was a house, and was impressed when Mark told him it was a shop. 

 As you can see, the snow has stuck with us this winter! The pink door is a yet to be finished barn door on tracks, insulated with foam. The builder has been building muscles as well as his shop.

 The addition of windows and lighting have made such a different to the feel of the building. Mark is currently in the process of choosing paint colors for the walls, and leaning towards just a cream color to set off the yellow tones of the wood.

 Where the plywood is will soon be wooden shingles, adding texture to the exterior.

 The most recent project has been to carve the date in the frame of the building.

One more product of long winter nights has been Mark's participation in Craft Night at the Ely Folk School. These once a week gatherings of open crafting gave him the opportunity to work on Fiona's mukluks, which turned out to be the cutest little boots! She loves them!! Stitched by hand, made from a custom pattern and crafted from Mark's brain tanned leather, they are very special indeed.

Fiona is getting ready for March with her hat choice obviously! Nice colors, Fifi!

We also had a visit from our close friends Mike Racette and Patty Wright from Spring Hill Farm. They of course brought us delicious winter veggies, and we took them on a short hike to see Kawishiwi Falls in the snow. It was a great way to reconnect, and share the beauty of the northwoods. We hope it becomes a new tradition for them!

In other news, the house design is close to finished. That saga has not made the blog due to the contentious nature of the subject, but after many months of sketching and disagreeing, we are finally moving forward with a design that we both like. High five for us! We are using a free version of a program called SketchUp which I learned a tiny bit about from my students in PF. I learned enough to create a basic 3D view of the house, and create a floor plan. My skills are limited, and the resulting files are not the prettiest but it is so helpful to see the vision in 3D. It takes a good imagination to see what this might look like finished but Mark and I agree that the materials make the difference. There are still majors things to be decided like the porch and deck, as well as infinite small decisions like door hardware and floor coverings...all to come. Below you see two options: one with a full screened porch and 4/12 roof pitch, and one with a smaller porch and 6/12 roof pitch. Both views are from the street.

This process is a challenge, but the end product will be worth the effort!