December 2011

In December the rain and snow just stopped.  The temperature rose and like stated before we had NO SNOW for the semi annual Tahoe Christmas. It was our first Christmas at the Lodge so snow would have been great.  But we all managed to have fun, making holiday decorations, cutting down the Christmas tree in our woods, hiking, sledding on very slim snow down the hill, playing games, cooking, singing and eating.  And since there was no snow, we were able to play basketball at our one room schoolhouse and have a bonfire on Christmas night.

Our Fireplace (primary source of heat for main floor) with kids stockings hung.

Four of the Five aunts and grandma at the Lodge. 

Opening gifts!

August - November 2011

Pattie, Melanie, Rylie, Noah, Brandon, Alayna, Jim, Carol and Katie spent a weekend at the Lodge and attended the Grass Valley Nevada County Fair – a really fun small town event.  The kids tried gold panning.  Jim got to ride on the flying helicopters with Brandon.  And Noah and Brandon rode the motocross motorcycle ride. We had a great time.

Jim had a mini – Cal Berkeley reunion (35^th anniversary of our graduation) at the Lodge with long time friends. Visits to the local waterfall, swimming and kayaking at nearby lake, bottles of wine and stories & laughter made a great weekend.

Carol’s best friend Karen and hubby Larry came up for a day trip to the Lodge toward the end of summer. Carol, Katie, Karen and Larry went on an explore on some dirt roads to Big Valley Flat (about 12 miles past North Fork) and got to see the Royal Gorge from about 7000 feet. It was awesome.

Jim installed more windows (to get ready for the Christmas Holiday).  To date, he has replaced 15 single pane/cracked/rotted windows with double pane windows.  Of course, with each window replacement, there is a need to remove the old wallboard (which seems to be made out of a lightweight fiberboard with little or no insulation behind it), reframe the walls with new 2 by 4s, add insulation, re-wire and re-drywall.  The main floor windows are all in now which makes the lodge a lot warmer and less creaky. 

 

In September we got our first 2011/12 snow so we thought we might have an early winter. 

Soon after, Jim got busy building a snow diverter for our electrical mast on the outside of the Lodge and repaired some of the loose metal roof covering.  He also cut down and cut up 6 LARGE dead cedar trees that Carol then split for our three cords of winter firewood..

In November – more snow at the Lodge.  We had enough snow at Thanksgiving for Jeremy and Brandon to get in some pre-season sledding.  We were all psyched about how much snow we could expect for Christmas Holiday.  

July 2011

The Family Reunion was held the third weekend of July. Lucky for us, most of the snow had finally melted and we were able to visit Lake Valley Lake, Sugar Pine Point on Lake Tahoe, North Fork of the North Fork Falls, and take a wonderful hike at the Old Summit Train Tunnels.  Family attended from Washington, Southern California,  and Texas.  We had a big bonfire one night, feasted on cabbrito and venison, AND we had our second reunion engagement announced (this time - Uncle Bucky).

April - June 2011

In April, May and June it snowed and snowed and snowed.  We were beginning to wonder if we would still have snow for the reunion (July).

Jim and Carol were busy working on the kitchen cabinets, adding slate to the entry way  and adding tile and fixtures to the upstairs bathrooms (in preparation for the big family reunion in July).  We managed to get 5 1/2 bathrooms up and running (minus one shower that was just not completed in time).  Everyone overlooked the rough edges (no trim, unfinished stuff).

March 2011

Dave and Matt came down to work on plumbing and wiring in March.  The lodge was still looking like a giant marshmallow and there were concerns about getting out of the lodge once everyone arrived.  It snowed and snowed and snowed.

The boys managed to install a new panel for the circuits (at least I think this is when it occurred), install sub-floor in both upper back baths (and hardibacker), plumb both upstairs bathrooms, add drain venting and sewage for all the back bathrooms (both upstairs and down), add 220 heaters in two upstairs baths, add ceiling fans with vents in two downstairs baths.  This was a major feat.  We had folks working simultaneously on the main floor, the lower floor, the attic and the basement.   Dave even gave Carol a lesson in flux and solder for copper pipes. We were all so busy, we did not have time to take that many pictures of the work that was going on.  It was monumental.

January - February 2011

Did we mention that 2011 had a lot of snow? For most of the winter the lodge looked like a marshmallow.

The big push started to get the lodge ready for the Family Reunion (planned for July 2011).  It started in the kitchen.  Jim and Jose tore down all the walls and the ceiling to put in new windows, insulation and drywall.

 Carol started taking down walls and ceilings in the upstairs back 2 bathrooms.  We call these rooms bathrooms in jest since - one had an unplumbed claw foot tub, and unplumbed sink and no toilet and the other had no toilet, no sink and a seriously scary 1930's tub.

October through December 2010

James (Brando) and his daughter Maria came for a visit in October. 

Jim has season tickets to Cal Football, so much of the fall was split between the games and work at the lodge and of course, watching the Giants take the World Series.  While at the lodge, Jim and Carol built the mudroom and stone hearth for our new cast iron stove fireplace. 

Closing the year, we were able to finally get the cast iron fireplace installed so that it was toasty warm for our visit from Carol, Cassandra and her children, Denise and Matt (Guida Gunns) and the boys, Bill and Mary and baby Lou, Mom, Pattie with grandkids Rylie and Noah , Jeremy and Brandon.  Everyone helped us celebrate the new year under the amazing Sierra stars  (though some of us did not make it to midnight). We received a boatload of snow for sledding.  Jim and the guys built a mega sled hill that goes down two stone staircases into the backyard. We have dreams of adding some tunnels and a tow rope next year.

September 2010

Jim’s brother Ralph and nephew Adam came up to the lodge in September to conduct a survey.  Turns out, 3 acres is a lot of land. Thanks to Ralph and Adam for uncovering our ownership of the road that leads to the side of our property  (and the associated land where most of the school’s portable building is encroaching).  Jim and I will be talking with the school board as soon as the survey is filed.

 

August 2010

Jeremy and Brandon were able to come up to the lodge for a few stays over the summer and we were able to tour some of the lake region’s wonderful sights.  Pattie and her grandkids also sneaked in some visits as well as Denise and Devin and Ann and Jeff.  Jim found time to add a fold down ladder to the attic for easier access and Carol patched stone work on the lodge entry and fence pillars.

For Carol and her mom, much of the summer was spent working on floors and walls, clearing land, cleaning grounds and building small retaining walls at the lodge.  The grounds are covered with Sweet Peas, Daffodils and Holly Hocks for much of the summer. S Plus our spring creek was flowing into July due to the late melt. Jim managed to put in 3 new windows, add a new porch cover over the side door/electrical panel and fix the roof in his spare time (HA, HA).

July 2010

July was nothing short of amazing. Denise, Matt (Guida Gunns) and the boys, Dave and Pat, Tina and Joel and their family all joined us up at the lodge.  Matt, Dave and Jim worked on adding new electrical panels  Dave continued plumbing by adding our washing machine (no more hauling laundry back and forth!).  We visited the lakes, creeks and river in the region, took a long day trip to the town of Washington and went gold panning with the boys. It was so much fun!

Late July we had a nice weekend gathering at the lodge with our long time friends, Kevin & Kate, Dave Crowe and Jim Dickey.  Kevin , Dave, Jim & Jim go back almost 40 years (yikes) from our freshman dorm days. Taking the wave runners out, kayaking and swimming along with viewing of the stars from the high country augmented with fruit of the vine was really enjoyed.  We hope to make it an annual trip (meteor showers in August?).

April 2010

During our very late spring, Carol was busy acquiring furniture, building supplies, portable heaters, basic household items and moving them up to the lodge.  Jim drove up on weekends to accomplish such tasks as removing the old freestanding fireplace, patching the roof and tearing down a wall to make the kitchen larger.  There were many trips up to the lodge, with truck so full we looked like Tom Joad (Grapes of Wrath) migrating to California.

February & March 2010

February brought Dave (Jims brother) to visit us at the lodge. He and Jim assessed our plumbing and patched some of our burst pipes and we all huddled around the kitchen stove for warmth.

March brought both Dave and Pat to the lodge.  Carol, Katie and Pat painted the living room while Dave and Jim hooked up sinks and did mega plumbing work to bring us to a living state.   Mary Beth brought along her friend Shawn for the visit. He was corralled into being a helper and still calls Dave his favorite Uncle Dave. Without Dave and Pat’s help we would have been unable to continue working on other fixes as soon as we did. 

January 2010

As a great start to 2010, in January, Jim, Katie, Mary Beth and I started cleaning up the lodge at Emigrant Gap.  Jim added a new side door (the original was bashed in and beyond repair).  Carol, Katie and Mary Beth swept, washed and scrubbed everything. Then we  proceeded to tear out carpeting in top floor bedrooms.

Since we had a bad burst in the copper pipes, we were unable to turn on the well.  For cleaning and flushing water we used melted snow.  We brought up potable water from home for cooking and drinking.
Melting started with coleman stove, then was upgraded to old cabin stove once that was cleaned and hooked up to the propane tank.

Things were a bit rustic at first. We used a cooler for our refrigerator, the coleman for cooking and melting.  We had no washer or dryer so we used lots of buckets and rags.  We slept on the sofa bed and blow up mattresses.  And since the ceiling around the free standing fireplace had sagged and the stove pipe collapsed - we could only warm the lodge with portable heaters.

Pretty soon we had two bedrooms set up downstairs - one with a queen mattress the other with a trundle. We had no TV at first - but quickly brought up a TV and VCR.

We quickly realized that we would need to get the pipes fixed so that we could used our hot water heater and toilets (without snow melt flushing).  And that we would need to work on circuits to help avoid popping them when the heater was on.

December 2009

On December 17, 2009, we purchased the Historic Emigrant Gap Hotel Annex AKA the Allen Hotel AKA the Woodmen Lodge AKA the Bright Lodge NKA our family Lodge.

We had the electricity turned on immediately - but  due to a big freeze the first week of December, we were unable to turn on our well (leaks in the copper pipe) or the propane (since it only ran the old kitchen stove and we were unsure if the stove even worked).  

We had already rented our Holiday cabin for 2009 at Alpine Meadows.  I had to return to our hometown to pick up the dog on 12/23.  

Due to bad weather and a late start up the pass, I spent my first night at the lodge on 12/23/2009.   I had a sofabed, a chair, a table, a lamp and Quincy to keep me company.  Oh and I had a portable heater and a down sleeping bag to keep me warm.