Tuesday Nov. 18 – Sunday Dec. 14, 2025

In our last post we wrote about getting a preview of the coming winter. Since then, we have definitely lived it. A polar vortex descended on the Northeast, dropping the overnight lows into the single digits for three nights and keeping the daytime highs in the upper teens and lower 20’s. Our RV wasn’t made to be used in such cold temperatures and we had problems with frozen plumbing and a malfunctioning refrigerator. In spite of these challenges, we managed to get the siding finished, thanks to Downeast Cabin Builders working almost 7 days a week since Thanksgiving.

On Tuesday Nov. 18, Rob worked alone prepping for installation of the two exterior doors. He painted up some tongue and groove boards to be installed for the front porch soffit and finished up the installation of the trim around the back porch.

On Wednesday Nov. 19, the full crew worked on installing the last two windows that were delivered last week as well as installing the two exterior doors. The bedroom window had an issue with one of the latches, so we need to get Mathew Brothers out here to address it. Both doors had issues that needed fixing as well. The house-garage door had a manufacturing defect that will require a new slab and the front door didn’t come with a metal reinforcing plate at the latch. We’ll have to wait for replacements to completely finish the door installs. It’s definitely getting dark earlier and we took advantage of every minute of daylight.

On Thursday Nov. 20, Rob began installation of the front porch soffit tongue and groove boards and the rest of the crew installed the patio door. We are finally weather tight! The long awaited soffit arrived last week and we began the installation. We need the soffit in place before we can install the frieze boards and corner boards. Once the final trim is in place, we can begin the siding installation.

On Friday November 21, we kept working on the soffit installation. You need at least three people to hold the very floppy soffit boards while nailing them in place over head! Jesse and I tried it with just two and it didn’t quite work.

On Saturday and Sunday November 22 and 23, Rob worked on installing the first corner board and cutting a hole and prepping for installation of the range hood exhaust vent.

On Monday November 24, Rob, Jesse and Cody continued installing soffit. Unfortunately, we had to stop soon after starting because Jesse needed to do a trucking job. Rob continued working alone on the fascia trim for the front porch.

Every piece of 5/4 trim that is installed over the exterior insulation is screwed in with 4″ screws which are counter sunk. Each screw gets a wooden plug which is pounded in, cut off flush and painted with primer. Lots of work. The plugs are all drilled from 1″ trim board.

On Tuesday thru Thursday Nov. 25-27 Rob worked alone installing various trim.

On Friday Nov. 28, the ful crew was back at work after a big Thanksgiving. The front porch fascia trim and roof shingles got installed. The soffit and trim work contined.

Over the weekend Nov.. 29-30, Rob, Jesse, Channon and Cody finished off the soffit and most of the trim and began siding the garage. Thanks for working the weekend guys!

On Monday Dec. 1, Rob, Jesse, Channon and Cody continued with siding and trim and the garage door was installed. We’re very happy with the black garage and front doors!

Tuesday thru Thursday Dec. 2-4 Rob, jesse, Channon and Cody continued grinding away at the siding. Tuesday night we had a surprise accumulation of about 5 inches of snow. Since we weren’t expecting much snow, Rob had left the RV awning out and had forgotten about the screened tent we had set up at the cliff (waiting for leisure time that never seemed to materialize). The awning came dangerously close to collapse, but Rob cleared it off with no problem. The screened tent didn’t fare as well, collapsing under the weight of the heavy wet snow. Rob spent a lot of the day clearing the RV awning, roof and slides of snow and trying to resurrect the screened tent. On Thursday evening we were concerned about the forecast for very cold overnight temperatures and Channon offered to bring by some foam board insulation to put around the RV to try and keep it warm. Thank you Channon and Cody!

On Friday Dec. 5, we woke up to single digit temperatures and a high wind. The RV pipes had frozen overnight. Wayne, Jesse, Channon, Cody and Brandon all pitched in to help us defrost the pipes and set us up for more cold weather to come. We used propane and electric heaters to thaw the pipes.

On Saturday Dec. 6, the full crew continued working on the siding, trying to get it done as fast as possible so we could leave before any further cold weather mishaps. Thank you guys! In the morning we discovered that the RV refrigerator had stopped working because the refrigerant wouldn’t work in temperatures this cold. Ironically, with low teens outside, the refrigerator was slowing warming up inside. Rob set up an electric heater to blow on the refrigerant coils and by evening, the refrigerator started cooling down again.

On Sunday Dec. 7, we woke to more snow and after some clearing took a well deserved day off. Heading into Machias to get some propane and a replacement propane space heater because it had broken.

Monday thru Wednesday Dec. 8-10, Rob, Jesse, Channon and Cody continued grinding away in the cold on the siding, finishing up Wed. afternoon. Thank you guys so much!!! On Wednesday morning we awoke to more snow again. Wednesday night it poured down rain and washed away much of the snow.

On Thursday Dec. 11, we awoke to a virtually snow and ice free driveway. Since the driveway is on a bit of a hill, Rob had been concerned about being able to get the RV up the driveway and out to the road. Good news! While Rob was admiring the clear driveway, he noticed a neighbor driving by on our road at an extremely slow pace. He went to the road to investigate and found that the snow on the road had absorbed last night’s rain and turned to a sheet of ice. Ugh! Wayne, Jesse and Cody came by to escort us out to the main road just in case we had a problem with the ice. Thanks once again guys!! We made it to the main road without incident and began our journey home. Since, all campgrounds in Maine and Massachusetts had long closed for the season, we had to spend the night at the Kennebunk truck stop in southern Maine. It was great to have a place we could safely stop for the night that was roughly half way home. Sleeping at a truck stop surrounded by big rigs running their engines to keep warm was difficult. Plus, our closest neighbor truck had a contractor generator that screamed into the night right outside our bedroom window. When he finally shut down the generator, the idling trucks suddenly seemed so quiet and peaceful!

We got home Friday Dec. 12 in the afternoon. All of us were very happy to get home to a nice warm house! The outside temps remained very cold in NY making it a race to get the RV fully winterized before we ran out of propane and froze everything up again!

Thanks for following along with our first year of the cottage build. We are planning on going back to begin work in May 2026 and will post updates again starting then.

HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY SEASON!!