Fall 2008 - Almost the day of the closing, work started on renovating the property. Fall 2008 - Almost the day of the closing, work started on renovating the property. The previous owners had started refurbishing the cabins, and had updated cabin 7 with a second story loft, siding, and roof. Unfortunately, the shingles were coming off, and water damage had started to occur, so we quickly replaced the roof with a new steel roof that is just beautiful, and will last longer than we will! Check it out! Good job finding the left over nails Matt!





There was also time to get a little cleanup work done on the yard before winter set in, and take down some of the trees that were a little shaky (don’t worry, we left plenty to keep our title of Pines of Paradise intact!)





We are especially excited about renovating the owner’s cabin into a family lodge with professional grade kitchen, open seating and group dining area, and other amenities we know are so nice to have when you’re in charge of cooking a meal for 50-60 people. The lodge will not be rented out individually like the cabins, and will only be made available to our guests who rent the entire property for their own family vacation. We were able to start on this project in the fall, but finishing it will have to wait for the spring.





Spring is here, and the renovation projects are in full swing now that the snow has melted. First on the list was to get the first batch of log siding and interior boards ready. This is a completely "home-made" process, cutting logs out of our property in Gaylord, milling them into boards and then rounding into half-log siding. It is much less expensive this way, but it does take a "little" elbow grease. The results though will be stunning and will make the effort worthwhile.





Next on our list was to clean up the yard in the commons area. Check out the massive amount of grass, pine cones, and leaves! The results look great!






May 14th-17th we had a crew go up to put a steel roof on the game room/office building. Brothers Lee, Tom, Dorland, friends Paul and Steve and son Steve pitched in to add this new steel roof. Sisters Eloise amd Eileen, daughter Holly and grandkids Matt, Sarah, Corey, Carissa, Brooke, and Nathan were alson on hand during the weskend to help with varius jobs and cleaning. More to come next weekend.







Memorial Day weekend was quite a work event, with family far and wide pitching in! We are so blessed to have a family that is willing to give so much of their time and resources to help make this resort a special place. There was much progress done this weekend. Julie used the power washer to strip the deck down to new wood, clean a picnic table and make the propane tanks like new again. Steve, Holly, Carissa, Brooke, and Nathan all pitched in to get the deck stained. Dorland and Lee hand sorted and separated all of the lumber and shingles from the roofing job. Cousins Martin and Mark came up and completed about 2/3rd of a massive brick BBQ grill. The Shuffleboard court was power washed and painted green. Thanks to Eloise cleaning the bedrooms and bathrooms before the weekend, Eloise, Helen, Holly and Eileen were able to get the kitchen and living rooms of cabins 5,6,7,1 and 2 done. Every dish, light fixture, inside and outside of cupboards, walls, ceilings and furniture got washed, vacuuming and ones that were done prior to yesterday had floors mopped and waxed. Oh did they smell good when we finished! Linda and Tam got started painting the ceiling in cabin 4. They could not believe how much better it looked. CR got the inside bedroom wall in cabin 7 done with the pine boards, and Holly varnished them. Tom and CR also put in most of the dock in, although there is still more sections to add. Amy did a fantastic job hand painting the Pines of Paradise sign too. The stone and brick that were in a piled by the dumpster were separated and disposed of. The leaves and branches that were there also got taken care of, with the mounds of dirt spread out and the remaining dock pieces taken down to the water. Overall, a very productive weekend, thanks everybody!
















Work continues with the building of a play structure (nice work Dorland and Tammy) and the installation of a boat lift.





The June 6-7 weekend was another great family work event. Jenny and Matt couldn't make it, but did manage to make a great baby Barrett Hoover on June 4th to contribute to the family list! Recently retired brother Gerald up from Huntington for a couple days to work on the exterior and sign lights, and a return visit from Martin and Mark to finish off the brick bbq grill. Dorland and Eloise continued to make progress on the playscapes. One for toddlers and one for older kids. Linda and Tammy were back at the painting projects, and Tom was doing more wall repairs, brush cleanup on the slope to the lake, and setting bolts in the concrete forms that will hold our bouncing park turtle, and putting in bon fire pits. Steve helped with the brick and concrete work, hole digging, and brush clearing, and took a second run at getting the cable and internet connection installed (Charter Cable is now 0-2, let’s hope the third time is a charm Monday.)












It's June 25th, and the progress page has been quite for a couple weeks, but progress hasn't stopped. It is hard to imagine,but the work has intensified to the point nobdy has time to take pictures or send emails of progress. I good portion of the family has been at the cabins this past week for "work week", and to give you an idea of the scope, here is the to-do list. Of course the list is not being maintained very well either given people are busy doing the work, and no dobt not everything will get done this week, but it is an impressive array of improvements. Julie and I will be driving up tomorrow with trailer in tow full of house goods. Our "official" vacation runs from Saturday until July 4th, but as someone pointed out, it may be hard to tell the difference between work week and play week. I promise to get updated photos as soon as possible.



Smith Family Vacation Week has ended, marking our 16th annual family vacation. This year was of course a little different, with an almost indistinguishable combination of workweek and vacation week. Both were really workweeks, but the progress is really starting to show now. There have been some unbelievable projects accomplished, including earlier to get the place cleaned up. There are new fences and steps going down to the lake, an entrance sign, awesome log siding on the front to the office/game room area, a new sink, counter, and backsplash in cabin #4, steps to the storage loft and an awesome landing enclosure in #7. All of the cabins are now in "ready to rent condition", an amazing journey over the past several months. I am still waiting for our family photographers to share some pictures of the progress, but here are a few of cabin #7, now dubbed our "Presidential Suite".












Thanks for taking the time to read this, and we hope to see you soon!

Love and wishes,

The CR Smith Family