Summer 2023 was tough. On top of our family dog passing away of old age, the island was a gravesite of the remnants of memories and what used to make up the old cabin. After the flames were put out and the ground temperature was cooled by the long winter, the land was littered with metal, glass, nails, melted batteries, and whatever else wasn't completely incinerated.
It's truly astounding how a fire can take so much matter and negate it to carbon ash. What you see in this image is the majority of what was left of the cabin, which actually made for a lighter transport compared to moving all the materials for the new build over. The main items were the propane tanks, metal furniture, coils from old bed mattresses, metal roofing from the tool shed, and bathroom remnants such as porcelain sinks and metal pipes. We found a local scrap metal person who we paid ~$250 to haul all of this scrap away. There must've been some copper in there or some value, but we ended up paying him closer to $500 because of the sheer amount of labor it took and to show gratitude for his help in getting this junk out of there.
Finding any manual labor to pay to do this work was INSANELY expensive, even for Northern Maine. Our quote to clear all this debris from the island was ~$5-10k and we were able to accomplish the task in a weekend. The journey to find a contractor to help the rebuild began. We went down a list of referred builders, some were booked out 2-3 years in advance, others didn't want to handle the task of building on an island and floating all their material over, and others simply never got back to us!
We were left scrambling for a builder for about a year. During this process, we got into contact with Harold, a super generous Greenville native, who offered to build us a 1-room lofted cabin in the meantime. He built the cabin with his own two hands, lugging all the material across in his aluminum fishing boat! This cabin proved crucial to the rebuild. My brother Adam, cousin Trevor, and I stayed in the 200 square foot cabin during the two and half weeks of the framing project.
One of the more challenging parts of the rebuild was the lack of access to heavy machinery. Especially when it came to the roof trusses, two-story deck beams in the front, and the walls, we had to use pure man strength. The only piece of equipment we invested in was a mini excavator to help build the holes for where the new foundation would go. Floating that over was a nerve-wracking and tedious process, requiring balance and a very calm day on the pond. We used 4x4 beams to drive the excavator onto the floating dock, with the claw being used for additional support. One wrong move and the excavator was sinking to the bottom of the pond.
Of course at the time of the rebuild we didn't even use it because a tube that carried hydraulic fluid had been broken off, probably by me playing around with the excavator. It did come in handy for two tasks that would've been back-breaking; bringing down the chimney and towing up the concrete slabs which were used as the foundation blocks. We dug those to bedrock which was about 4 feet deep, and then flattened the site as well, burying and tilling the ash and dirt.
A lot of this was spontaneous ingenuity. As Harold said to me after we built the main cabin, "Mind over matter. If you don't mind it, it doesn't matter." Apparently it's an old Mark Twain quote, but I credit it to Harold because he put me onto it!
Harold and my father both grew up spending summers on the pond. My dad traveled up from Durham, New Hampshire, where his father was a Political Science professor at the University of New Hampshire. My grandfather had written a collection of books, one about the history of the pond, which I guess I'll have to release the next chapters through this rebuild series. I know Grandpa D is still in the loop because on the mantle of the only thing left of the house, the fireplace, his urn and ashes were still in the same place. Three generations of friendship and neighborly-help makes for a tight-knit community in Rural Maine. Harold's brother, David, also came in clutch and helped us with the Electrical, which I'll highlight later.
From May to July of 2023, Harold was able to complete the cabin, which we've named after him as "Harold's Cabin". It has a loft above that has two twin beds and a futon on the first floor. We have since installed a hot water heater for an outdoor shower and indoor & outdoor sink, as well as propane tanks for a small furnace and hot water tank. There's also a camping stove that we use sometimes for cooking.
So we're now able to comfortably stay on the island again! A huge step on the path to rebuilding. At this point in the story, we're still left without a contractor for the main house. Fortunately, my mom is from the midwest and comes from a family full of builders. My grandfather on my mom's side is a lifetime architect and has three sons who have all taken up some level of craftsmanship in building. My uncle Josh is a skilled framer who generously agreed to take two weeks out of his busy schedule to drive out and lead the project. We marked the dates on our calendar, ordered the materials, and the countdown began...
