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I am varnishing the vanity that will hold the sink, and Brian is putting the finishing touches on the shelving unit, which holds up the sink/vanity. To be 100% done, we’ll need to install the sink + toilet, put in the bar for the shower head, hook up lighting and outlets, and prime/paint the walls and ceiling. We won’t have the time or money to tackle the kitchen this season, but we’ll need a place to prepare simple food before the restaurant kitchen is ready. We need to design and build this structure, in addition to resurfacing the stairs, and installing a cable railing around the stairwell so that dogs and humans don’t fall through what is currently a big open hole in the floor.

Glenn will do the complicated carpentry and tile work, Tom Andrews and team are running our plumbing and gas lines as I type this, which leaves Brian and me only a couple of weeks to install our radiant floor heating system and the floors themselves. Tongue and groove boards were a good choice for a cabin look and are practical for our building, which will continue to shift and move slightly, as it has for over 100 years. To get a modern cabin effect, I chose the widest panels I could find in our price range, and had them cut in the nickel gap style for clean, modern lines. First, I hit the knots with a shellac-based primer to prevent them from staining, Next, I do a coat of that same primer for the entire board, and finally, I do a coat of regular water-based primer, which requires a long blast from the Kerosene heater to dry.

Last weekend, Brian and I built the new Nightingale bar out of the wood we reclaimed from the attic floors upstairs. Together, we painstakingly removed the crude iron spikes that passed for nails one hundred years ago, planed, trimmed, and selected the wood for placement, one piece at a time. Brian honed the skill of making perfect 45 degree cuts on a compound miter saw – some cuts took as long as twenty minutes to get right (chalk that up to a blend of inexperience, questionable tools, and a floor that is far from level), while I selected the boards and ensured that we had enough of each width to get us around our turns (math is hard). Now I understand why reclaimed wood costs a fortune to buy.

“Before driving over the Dyers Island Bridge in snow and ice, I roll down the windows and unbuckle my seatbelt. Now, after three weeks of living at Carol and Skip’s place, we’ve gotten plenty of practice negotiating the winding road and treacherous, single-lane bridge in all kinds of weather. The town of Vinalhaven takes no responsibility for snow removal on Dyers – a large sign reminds us of this fact where the plowed asphalt ends, and the dirt bridge begins. I’m happy to brag that they did the entire thing off leash, coming back whenever I called, and I had my hands free to snap a few photos of the lovely island that is our temporary home.