This weekend we are back in Central Newfoundland to continue renovation work on Slaney's new backwoods camp. This is my third trip to Terry's new digs and we have a lot of work planned. Terry headed out over the highway early Friday morning to get a headstart lugging in more materials including plywood, light fixtures and new kitchen cabinets.

If you haven't seen the first two articles check them out:

1. Heavy Hauling, New Cabin Work Weekend April 14-16, 2023

2. Back to Slaney's New Camp More Renos April 28-30, 2023  

Stroh left town mid afternoon, while French and I got tied up with work commitments, finally heading west around suppertime.

It was after dark before we arrived in Central, but with everything already strapped aboard the bikes we quickly unloaded and headed in the high ground bike path to camp.

French and I first used this trail last weekend leaving camp after the main trail became too tangly due to spring thaw. It's a longer but easier ride on the narrow high path.

LED light bars and hand/thumb warmers on both our bikes were certainly appreciated on this cold dark run in across country!

Stroh arrived earlier that afternoon and had his famous homemade chilli already started by the time French and got there, a welcome treat after a long day at work, driving and riding! We also got to test out Slaney's new propane stove which will be the new cabin stove for the time being until a range is sourced and installed later down the road.

While French stowed away our gear, Terry and I brought all the new cabinets inside.

With supper simmering on the stove, French and Slaney got to work installing a few more rows of v-groove ceiling boards.

Supper was absolutely amazing, Stroh's homemade chilli never disappoints. There was even enough leftover for lunch the following day.

Breakfast Saturday morning consisted of our Slaney Camp traditional feast of: homemade moose sausages, homemade apple wood smoked bacon, white fish puddings and fried eggs.

Slaney enjoyed a fine feed of traditional homemade Newfoundland toutons heated up in tinfoil on the woodstove.

After Breakfast we all set into our renovation project tasks, Stroh went flat out clearing & burning brush on back of the cabin.

The previous owner fell a lot of it while making the property ready for sale, so this dried out debris needed to be burnt to clean up the area.

Meanwhile, Slaney and I continued installing the ceiling boards as we needed that completed before moving on to the next project in the kitchen.

Meanwhile again, French continued work in the utility room installing sheeting on the remaining unfinished walls.

For lunch we quickly heated up the leftover chilli with some buttered homemade bread for a quick, easy, yet absolutely delicious mid day break!

Attic access hatch installed, French continued on with some electrical rough in then vapour barrier on the ceiling of the utility room.

Ceiling finished! Another big job checked off the list, the final board had to be ripped to fit and ended up being dead square!

Prior to installing kitchen cabinets we screwed off the OSB floor on 6" squares to bond it tight against the 3/4" plywood below. This will make cabinet installation much easier as the floor wont bow, squeak and move.

Figuring out the layout of the new cabinets started by finding the high spot in the floor, which ended up at the front of the cabinet to the far right in this pic. I borrowed the laser level we use for doing tile work and found the floor dropped over 3/4" from the high spot to the window, some creative shimming will be taking place!

Next I dropped the laser line and set it right to the top of the cabinet at the high spot in the floor. I started installation with the corner cabinet, raising it to the laser line which will make the whole cabinet assembly level and true. Nothing worse than stuff rolling right off the counter! I ended up using a long board under the rear of all the cabinets under the window, and made final adjustments with wooden shims.

With all the bottom cabinets permanently installed and screwed off to the wall studs, it was on to the upper cabinets. This time I used two lines on the laser level, one to level the row of cabinets, and the other to set the first upper perfectly inline with the lower cabinet.

Rather than getting someone to hold the cabinet, I stacked up a bunch of stuff to hold it steady, at the perfect height, and for as long as I needed to mark wall stud locations and screw them in place.

The final step was screwing the cabinets to each other all along the inside front of each cabinet.

With the ceiling and cabinets complete, French swapped out the construction light for a beautiful LED fixture.

In celebration of a job well done to date, supper tonight was something special. The side dishes consisted of stir-fry vegetables and white rice, cooked on the propane stove, then kept warm on the woodstove.

Next I prepped the pan over medium heat melting quite a bit of butter, adding minced fresh garlic, salt and black pepper.

The main dish was Mark French's last Atlantic Salmon tagged last season on the Great Northern Peninsula. With only two fish per fisherman allowed to be retained per season, wild Atlantic Salmon is quickly becoming a delicacy.

French steaked up his harvest and I fried it over medium heat turning regularly for an even cook without burning this wonderful treat!

First wild Atlantic Salmon to be cooked up in the new camp!

The seasoned butter worked out perfect and created an absolutely wonderful taste without overpowering the beautiful natural flavour of the salmon. The rest of the evening was rather short, after a long hard day, we all hit the bunk fairly early.

Breakfast Sunday morning was the same, this time with my Jalapeño cheddar moose sausages, and scrambled eggs for a change over fried eggs.

Poor Stroh was not feeling well at all Sunday, he figures he came down with the same thing his daughter had recently and it certainly knocked the crap out of him that morning!

After breakfast we carried on with some smaller projects, starting with the installation a range hood and connecting the ductwork to vent it outside.

By mid afternoon it was time for Stroh, French and I to pack up and head back to the trucks for the journey home.

Slaney gave Stroh a ride out so he made good use of the trip by loading up an old bathtub and the old hutch to carry out and either sell or do a dump run later.

It's amazing to see that after all the warm weather the last few weeks that there is still a significant amount of snow in the woods!

We made it out to the trucks with absolutely no issues, and everything still strapped tight and secure.

The drive back to town under warm sunny skies was absolutely beautiful. I know we had a great winter, but it's awesome to see so much snow on the hills near Holyrood this time of year! A stark contrast to the time last year!

Slaney stayed at the camp one more night and knocked out a few more projects including vapour barrier in the 3rd bedroom.

A huge accomplishment was tidying away all the tools and construction materials, then moving the kitchen table to the kitchen, and putting the couch, table and chair in its proper spot in the living room!

Terry also got the new ceiling fan/light installed and boxed in the range hood ductwork over the upper cabinets.

Its been one heck of a busy few weekends at Terry's camp but the results speak for themselves. The project is ahead of schedule and there is still lots of work to get done. Now the cabin is much more comfortable and easily useable especially with fishing season about to open here in the province.

Cheers, MIKE

Copyright © 2011 Michael Smith