Welcome to Domek Lesny!



This blog is dedicated to our house in the north woods of Wisconsin.  We took ownership of the house after Joe's father died in March of 2006.  It needed a lot of TLC as the work was beyond Joe's father in the later years.  This blog is the tale of our clean-up, restoration and decoration efforts.  We decided to name the property Domek Lesny as it means forest cottage in Polish.

In the three years after my Fathers death a lot of work has gone in the house. The 1st floor or "road" level of the house has been totally remodeled or redecorated. The last 2 year with the help of Susan, Larry, Pam and Lou we started to basement or "Lake Level" of the house. And early in 2009 the basement was finally finished. This year, 2009, it is all outside work. The house has been repainted. New gutters, a new sidewalk, retaining wall, and drive way repairs are underway.

Joe Wardzala

        

During the last trip I did not take any photos of the new bathroom door. So here it is. Sorry about the reflections. And trust me, everything is done!

I was up this last weekend and noticed we have a bumper crop of Chipmunks and Black Squirrels. The Chipmunks are very helpful, they have been picking up the Maple tree seeds. I also noticed the house now has gutters, I did change the "Welcome to Domek Lesny" photo. And the repair of the blacktop driveway has started, just needs sealing and that will be done. Still not done is any of the concrete work, I am hoping that will be this week.

And I went fishing Sunday morning. I caught a fish! It was a small size small mouth bass. It was not a nice enough bass to keep, so I had to let the bass go. Maybe in a few weeks I will catch a nice large bass, so I can hang my bass on the wall.

Joe

        

I had several technical malfunctions this weekend so sorry this week I have no photos of the house. I just have this really cute photo of Riley. He like showing his profile!



We went up Thursday night so we could be there for the Glass guy to installed the Shower door and glass on Friday morning. Trust me it looks very nice. Thanks to HT Glass and Mirror for their very nice work.

I have decided it is a really a pain to head north via I94. Because of construction it adds an hour and half to the trip. So on the way back we took I90 instead, a lot less traffic and construction that way. So we might have to continue going that way until I94 is done. So this my mean we might stopped by Pam and Lou (only if they have Bugles).

It was a quiet weekend. I finished up cleaning up the all the dead Pine trees on the road side of the land. I still have the lakeside to do. I did cut down my Mothers favorite tree down. There was a Mountain Ash by the front door. it was looking pretty bad. My Dad had it held together with duct tape. I did not like because I could not see down the driveway from the front door. Now I can see everything! Some day I will catch the person throwing the Bud Light Tall Boy cans on my property! (geez when did I become my father?)

Susan went to Rhinelander to take a scrapbooking class on Saturday. I stayed home and cleaned out the woods and made sure the cats did not get into a fight. Nikki and Riley are starting to tolerate each other.

The Lake has a web site now. www.upperkaubashinepoa.com I willl put a link on the quick links.

That is it for now. Next time I will have photos of the house and the completed work.

Joe

        

We headed up for Memorial Day weekend. Traffic was bad, took us a while to get out of Illinois. We had 2 cats with us. Riley cried for about 4 hours straight. But did settle down. We stopped at Arby's on the way up, I won't mention the name of the town but it is famous for it's overalls. The Arby's was out of Beef, My Gosh how can Arby's run out of beef! And I wanted a Jamocha shake! Anyway Culvers got our business. Arby's get your act together!

We spent the weekend trying to get Nikki used to Riley. We are almost there. But Nikki has a really loud scream when Riley gets near her. We had to warn the neighbors.

Sunday while mowing the lawn and clean up the yard, I spotted this little fellow.



Riley the Cat is bigger than the fawn. I think it was born just that morning. His mother was no where to be found, but I did see her later.

And we did finally see the house repainted. Look below at the before and after photos.



The photo on the right or bottom is the after. And belive it or not that is the original color of the house (red cedar). The color was matched using a piece of siding stored away in the garage that had the original stain.

And yes everything is turning green up there.

Joe

        

I had to head up this weekend because at the end of the last trip I noticed I had to replace some of the siding. I wanted to get that done before the re-staining of the houses is done. I was in luck the staining did not start. I thought it would be an all day job to replace the siding. It was not too bad, it only took an house or so. So with the extra time I finished up the work in the basement. I had to install the wood mouldings.



As you can see the stair stringers are now an off white (ivory). And I have a crown molding along the wall beneath the stairs. And I trimmed out the area where the drywall meets the stairs. I decided to leave the bottom of the stairs exposed.I also touched up the paint and put back of the switch and outlet plates.

I am officially calling the basement done! I know the shower doors still need to go in the bathroom, but a contractor is doing that so it does not count.

What is next? Well the outside. Believe it or not that will be done in 2 weeks. The housed is being restained/painted. New sidewalks and retaining walls are going in. The driveway is being repaired. Depending up on contractors we might have a new front deck this summer.

I guess it time to add a 3rd story so I have some work to do.

Joe

It took 3 years but the inside of the house is entirely remodeled or redecorated.

        

Hi. I am Riley. I am 2 year old Maine Coon. On April 28th I adopted two new Humans, Susan and Joe. This last weekend Joe brought me to see my vacation home. I have a lot of work to do on the place. There are Chipmunks every where!. While Joe was painting the stringers for the basement stairs from that ugly brown to an Ivory color when a chipmunk tried to walk across my deck, luckily I was there to chase it away!

A couple of guys came and washed the house, garage and boathouse to get it ready to be re-stained. Joe took this photo of the boathouse. He said it does not look too bad for 38 years old. Joe said he finally had to throw out the piece of plywood that has been leaning against the door for all of those 38 years.



Susan brought her Friend Amy to go to a Scrapbooking convention. I love the scrapbook too! I helped Amy and Susan by laying on the paper I liked and chewing on ribbons and enything else I could sink my teeth into. Susan and Amy showed Joe everything the made and bought at the convention, he was not interested but I was!

I had a really good time this weekend. Too bad Joe had to take me back to Illinois. The have Cats in that house! I am not a cat! I am a Maine Coon.

Later, Riley

        

We just got back from our Spring 2009 Vacation. The first few days were spent out in Nebraska with Susan's Grandmother Elly. She is 98 and still going strong.

We headed to Domek Lesny on Tuesday. The Lake still had ice but that did not stop me from putting in 3/4ths of the boat dock.



I was not too worried about the ice. it was more like a giant 7-11 Slurpee! Except without the flavoring.

It was a perfect week to be up there. It was in the 60s and sometimes lower 70s. And for the first time in my life I saw the ice go out on the lake. We had geese and ducks returning to the area. We did spring cleaning. I spent most of the time cleaning up the dead pine trees and I have the cuts to prove it. And I had to clean up a dead deer that looks like it died on out beach last fall, yuk!

We visited with the neighbors. Went to town a few times. And yes we did go to the Oneida County Landfill, the highlight of any trip. I cleaned out the garage, my Dad did have a lot of stuff. And I still have 2 garages to clean out.

I started to line up contractors for this years work; A painter to stain and paint the exterior, they should be done by Mid-May. I have a shower door lined up, should be installed in May as well. And a concrete person to replace the falling retaining wall (so far only 1 takers on my when the wall will fall pool), and the sidewall and driveway apron and the Chimney cap.

Other work is to find someone to reseal the driveway and fix the cracks. This years should be pretty be pretty easy on me.

We did go to one of our favorite local Brew Pubs for dinner. We did have wait in line. While waiting a bunch of guys came in, perhaps in their 30s or maybe 40s. They kept calling each other "Dude". In my opinion when you hit they age of 25 you need to stop using the term "Dude".

And you should notice I change a few of the images on the blog.

Joe

        

People who know me, know that I love going to home improvement stores. My favorite used to be Menards. But now it is Home Depot. Home Depot has more of the things I need. Lately I have noticed a big change at Home Depot. I used to be able to walk into Home Depot, grab a cart and wonder the store for hours before having an employee asking me if I needed help. Now they have people lined up at the entry ways asking you if you need help.

During my last trip to the Rhinelander Home Depot (who always have been helpful) I had a list of things to buy. When I walked in the door right away I was asked if they could help me. I said not really I have a list of things I need. She said give me the list. Right away she took me through the store finding everything I need quickly. I was done shopping in a few minutes. Now where is the fun in that! One of the challenges of going to Home Depot is to find things on your own, get frustrated, get mad becuase no one helps you, and then come back a week later to do the same thing over again. I can have people helping me to find things quickly.

Now I thought this might have been just a local things with Home Depot. So last week I went to 3 different home depots. They all have people lined up at the door asking you if you need help. One store was so bad I felt like I was in a scene from the movie "Airplane" where Stricker is trying to get through the Airport where religious zealots coming up to him to talk about their causes, he pushed them to the side or punches them. While walking through Home Depot I felt like screaming "just leave me alone!" or punch a few.

We are speding Easter in Nebraska with Susan's grand mother. We flew in to Omaha and rented a car. While driving to Grandma's I heard the person on the radio talk about how when you walk into any store now a days sales people are lined up to help you. I guess it's the economy driving this change.

I can't wait until the economy gets better so I can get bad customer service again.

Joe

        

This last weekend was the official opening of Domek Lesny. I have to say it was the smoothest opening ever. No Broken pipes, I had heat, water, telephone and the most important one of all Television. We did have a few minor issues.

I did finally put in the vanity in the downstairs bathroom. I had to move the drain or waste line up about 6 inches. Which did require a trip to home depot. Below is an image of the bathroom. I do have to finish up some drywall touch up. And then we do have to get a shower door and glass.


And the house does have a new look. Friday I had both fireplaces cleaned out. Thanks to Bessemer Chimney Services for their work. We have new dampers that sit at top of the chimney. Below is the latest photo of the house. Can you spot the change?



Note. The Chimney is too big for the house. It coould have been 20 inches narrower. It has an extra flue, which we think was for the furnace.

And I starting a pool. Resorts up here have pools going on when the ice is going to go out on the lakes. Please note it almost always April 14th or 15th. Last year it was May 2nd. My pool is......



When is my retaining wall going to fall over? Send me 5 bucks with your guess, and the person who guesses the closest without going over wins the pool. I iwll post the entries on the blog.

Joe

        

Max “The Cat”

 

Today we lost a long time friend and companion. Max “the Cat”. He was 18 years old. To remember Max I would like to share some one my favorite stories about Max. And the above is my favorite photo of Max.

 

Max came into our lives in May 1996. At that time we had only 1 cat, Cio Cio San. And we were not really looking for another cat. But one day at work we had a student who sent an e-mail to everyone at work. That student was selling, a computer, a car and a cat. I asked Susan if she was interested, and to my surprise she said yes we could take a look. Little did she know I meant the computer.

 

When we took a look we immediately fell in love with him. He was big and very playful. He loved playing with a rope, which we still have. It was amazing how fast he could move around. So we took him home. His original name was Ares, but he did not look like an Ares the Greek God of War. Max was more of a gentle giant.

 

On the way home he cried all the way. I felt really bad and thought I made a mistake taking him. We arrived home and all he did was hide under the bed in our guest room. And the next day Susan had to go into the Hospital for tests (not related to getting Max). So I was home alone with him. I remember I was trying everything to get him to come out. Finally I pulled out a hair brush and he came out and let me brush him a little. Then a little more, and more and more. Well 2 hours later I was still brushing him.

 

Susan called me from the Hospital and asked how he was doing. I told her he made me brush him. I remember Susan saying how can a cat make you brush him? I said wait and see. Turns out he loved being brushed!

 

Max is named after my Parents dog that was named after a Cat named Max. And he loved the name Max.

 

A year later we decided to adopt another Cat. Well that turned out to be 2 kittens, Maggie and Pete.

 

Max loved Maggie like a little sister. He watched out for her. He chased Pete away when he got to rough with her. He protected her. One day we bought a small kitchen appliance. And we put the box the on the floor. Well Maggie loved the box. She would sleep in the box, chew on the box and play all around the box. We called it Maggie’s box. And we could never through it away.

 

Once day Maggie was playing in her box and while she was not paying attention, Max stepped into the box and laid down. When Maggie saw that and if she could have talked she would have said “What are you doing in my Box!”. She swatted at him to get him to leave her box. Maggie finally had to whack Max in the butt to make him move. One thing about Max you could tell he was playful when he got all fluffed up! And was very fluffed up that day.

 

5 years ago Max became diabetic. He required daily insulin shots. When first got the prescription for Max they made it out to Max “the Cat” Wardzala. We went to the local Pharmacy to get it filled. We waited for the prescription to be filled and they would call on the intercom when it was ready. When it was ready they announced “Prescription for Max “THE Cat”. I told Susan it sound like a Mafia hit man name. Max never considered himself a cat. Being a Maine Coon mix, you never call them cats. You call them Maine Coons.

 

Max had a  way of giving hugs. He would head butt you with his forehead. Susan would stop whatever she was doing when Max came by and gave her a head butt. Recently, when Max was really sick we had to rush him to the emergency room. He was in insulin shock. They had to keep him over night. When we picked him up the next day he could not stand up. But when he we were about to leave he stood up, turned around and gave his nurse a head butt. It was his way of saying thank you.

We say farewell to Max and he joins his sisters; Cio Cio San and Maggie. We will miss you.

 

Joe