Hi readers - Hubby, here.

Hello Project Shannon readers! Today I finally get a post of my own (it's only been a year and a half). After clearing it with the wife, I touched base with Riley to glean the best methods for commandeering the computer and creating a successful guest post . . .

The house projects have certainly been in overdrive now that we’re in the home stretch before the lil’ bundle’s arrival, so it’s ironic that the Hubby’s first post is on a topic that doesn’t involve our humble abode – it revolves around a “guy’s weekend.” Granted, this “guy’s weekend” was actually a basket of DIY projects. Although they were all on Cape Cod – a quick trip from our home. 

Since the early sixties, my great aunt and uncle have owned a modest cottage in Wellfleet, MA, situated above the dunes of the National Seashore. Since then, generations of nieces, nephews, cousins, and close friends have grown up experiencing memorable summers playing in the expanses of sand, by the crash of the Atlantic surf, and tooling around on their boat - all due to the generosity of Uncle Gerry and Aunt Helen. But, as you might expect, all those years of memories and seaside weather have started to take its toll on the “Wee Packum Inn,” and it was time for several of us to start returning the favor.

So a few weeks back, at an hour only the newspaper man would typically see, I left Project Shannon HQ for a weekend of manual labor. My dad arrived with a trailer full of tools, ladders and scaffolding in tow . . . essential ingredients for a “guy’s weekend.”

Nor’easters batter the Cape so frequently during winter that it’s always interesting to see how much erosion has taken place each year. 

I've seen the beach completely in tact from the previous summer, and I have seen 20 feet of sand eaten by the Atlantic. So before heading to the WPI, my dad and I took a slight detour to check out a longstanding, nearby public beach that had been losing its battle with Mother Nature.

Although we didn't stay long, based on what we viewed, the beach may have officially lost the fight to Mother Nature this year. Beachgoers will start arriving in just a couple weeks, so hopefully the town will make hay and restore some of the misplaced sand.

But enough meandering. So what’s the real goal of this “guy’s weekend”?  It was to assist my 84 year-old great uncle with the following punch list: 1) Install new windows across the ocean-facing side of the cottage; 2) install a new bathroom toilet; 3) install a new ceiling fan in living room; 4) take apart and discard the ancient baby crib to create more room in the sleeping loft; 5) clean the buoys that hang above the fireplace mantle, and last but not least; 6) install and poly a new tongue-and-groove wood ceiling.  Just another relaxing weekend on the Cape...

Thankfully, the crew we recruited were not your average set of DIY-ers. With the list in hand, my Dad (taught me everything I know about power tools), his cousin Keith (a house framer), Uncle Carl, Uncle Gerry (a retired home builder), and this Hubby (well, you've seen my "work") - we all got to work!

Thankfully, Unbelievably, Carl and Gerry had already finished item one, installing new windows, by the time we arrived.  So we tackled the next largest project: the ceiling.  We had quite the system in place:  my Dad manned the saw outside. Carl managed the list of cuts and ran boards from scaffolding to saw, and back to scaffolding. I worked with Keith on the scaffolding and together we took care of all the measuring and installation of the pine boards. And Uncle Gerry played the role of supervisor (it is his house after all).   

The initial challenge was measuring and installing the first board – it required a complicated cut to compensate for the unevenness of the wall and keep us square as we worked our way up the ceiling. And as you can see from the photos, the scaffolding was more than necessary.

I had initially guessed the ceiling project would take two full days, but we managed to get the ceiling - and everything else on the list - knocked out in just a day and a half.

With the smell of poly still hanging in the air, we all agreed that in the end it was a job well done. Time to clean up, pull up a chair on the deck and enjoy the stunning view – just another set of memories courtesy of the Wee Packum Inn.