Well, I’ve had some fun shopping this week for tools to go in the craft room!

 

My first purchase was a die cut system.

I picked the newest release of the Big Shot!!

 

It came with five different font sets, and I picked up a couple more to go with it.

 

The great thing about the Big Shot is you can use pretty much any other dies on the market with it!! Gotta love the versatility of that!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know a lot of you like to sew on your layouts and cards. Now you won’t have to lug along your machine for the weekend!

 

 

 

This Singer is a nice basic sewing machine that will be great for adding that special touch to your paper crafts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The latest Becky Higgins sketch book will be available for you to get some inspiration from.

 

 

 

This is a compilation of all the sketches in Becky’s Books I and II plus those in Creating Keepsakes magazine, but with all new layout examples. I love how it is organized by number of photos!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Cherish book from CTMH is another wonderful idea book with detailed layout recipies included.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to the scrapbooking items, there is also an ironing board and

 

 

Shark steam iron for the quilters!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More tools are on the way!

I just placed the order for one of the hotest new scrapbook idea books out right now.

 

 

 

Becky Fleck’s Page Maps are so wonderful for helping you get your mojo moving and getting pages finished!! We will have this new book in our idea library as well!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s a quick look at some of the things we have been getting to stock the craft room. More will be on the way!!

 

Stay tuned for an announcement on our Open House!

 

 

 

 

 I have some new pictures for you all. Dale was up at the retreat last Sunday and took these for me. 

 

The drywall should be all hung this week and the mudding and taping will start next. Now it’s so much easier to see how the rooms really shape up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have to finialize our plans for the mantle soon. We are thinking of using a nice chunky pine beam and a granite surround and hearth. The flat panel TV will be above the fireplace also.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really liked the angle of this picture. Of course, today there is another 6 or so inches of snow!! Nice!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another nice view!! Dale did good with the camera I think!

 

We are going to have our work ahead of us to get the landscaping done too. I believe we are doing that ourselves.

 

Anyone know what plants the deer won’t eat???

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The retreat is taking on a new look! Cedar siding has been going up and I love it. 

 

 Very "Up North" looking don’t you think?

 

 

Here is another angle.

 

 

You can see the last two windows are in also. We had been waiting for some nailing flanges for those.

 

This is how the Greatroom currently looks. Drywall will start going up later this week. That whole process takes about 3 weeks from start to finish. Then we can look forward to the finish carpentry work. (the fun stuff!!)

 

This last picture is of the craft room. Still lots of work to be done, but it’s nice to see how everything is laid out now.

Behind the scenes we have been ordering many of the furnishings and tools for the craft room. A little more exciting than working on the electrical stuff!

If you have any questions about us please feel free to send me an email! info@talloaksretreat.com

 

 

 

So have you  noticed the additions to the site?

We now have an Availability Calendar to help you in making your reservations!

Yes!! I did say reservations!!  Whoo Hoo!  I’m so glad to be able to say that already!

 

There is also a more detailed description of what the retreat will have in our Accomodations page and the Rates/Policies information has been expanded.

 

To begin making a reservation, you just need to fill out a quick online form found in our Reservations tab. The information will be emailed to us and we will contact you to get everything set up! It’s that simple!

 

We are still scheduled to finish the retreat in May, but just to be sure everything we want is complete and ready for you, we will take reservations starting with June and any time after that.

 

I have begun buying the tools and supplies for the craft room and as soon as they are here I will add that information to the Accomodations page as well.

 

The work has been continuing, and I’ll have more pictures for you after Easter. All the interior rough in is done and the insulation work will be finished this week, with drywall starting next week. Also, the siding is going up, I can’t wait to see what it looks like!

 

Last week while Dale was there working on the electrical stuff, he saw 6 deer walk right by the Frech doors on the lower level! How cool!!

 

Finally, did you know that you can leave me comment here on the blog? Yep!! You just have to register, it’s fast and painless. We have that extra step to keep spam out. I hope to hear from you soon!!

 

 

Boy, I sure am tired of winter! The temps can start rising and the snow can melt at any time now. I don’t really mind winter so much, but this year we were blessed with so much more snow than in past years. I’m ready to see green grass and spring flowers!

I don’t have any new pictures to show you today, so instead I though I would tell you a bit more about deciding to build the retreat. Just in case you were wondering!

It all started last fall. A couple of friends and I went for a weekend stay at a retreat. There were a total of 18 of us! Some of them I had known before going, others I met for the first time once I was there. This was the first time I had ever gone to a crop anywhere. I had no idea what to pack, so I brought it all!! LOL Well, almost all of it.

It’s hard to describe how much fun I had! There was always someone laughing and sharing stories. Someone showing their latest creation. Others were learning new techniques or trying out a tool they hadn’t seen before. Even though I didn’t know everyone before I went, it was easy to connect because we all shared the same passion for crafting.

When I got home that Sunday I was so excited about scrapbooking again. I felt re-energized, excited and couldn’t wait to do it again. Unfortunately, the same day I returned home, my DH had to leave on a business trip for a few days. I didn’t really have time to tell him all about it and how excited I was about it before he had to leave.

While he was gone I kept thinking about the retreat I had just been to. I really thought it would be fun to have a retreat of our own! I started looking and thought “Up North” would be a great place for a retreat. It’s a beautiful area and many people already go there for vacations. By the time DH came home from his trip I had a pretty good plan laid out. We looked at a few properties and didn’t find anything that was quite right for what we had in mind. Then we started searching for a wooded lot that would work. We knew right away that the lot on Walck Road was perfect!

Then we had to go through the process of writing a business plan and figuring out how we could make it all work. Thankfully we managed to put it all together and got the business rolling. Then came the offer on the lot, many quotes, choosing a builder, breaking ground, and now dealing with the sub-contractors. There are so many things that had to fall into place to get started and now to be able to finish this spring!

It is my hope, to have groups of crafters come and stay at our retreat and go home feeling as excited as I first did. It will be a place to focus on your projects, a time to re-connect with friends, an event that your group looks forward to every year.

Please keep checking back as our site will continue to change and more details will be available. I will keep posting pictures of the progress as we go. We still plan on opening sometime in May, but it’s hard to give you a definite date right now. If you are interested in more information please send me an email to info@talloaks.com, I’ll do whatever I can to help you. We can take reservations now for dates after Memorial Day!

I hope spring is on it’s way to us all very soon!

We have a well now!! LOL They have also put in the septic system and the electrical work is almost done!! You can see that we also got those shingles up! The siding will be delivered soon. It is cedar and has been at the stainers . Two coats of stain went on all four sides of it, I’m very happy to say we didn’t decide to do that ourselves! Here is the back, all enclosed now. I love that green French door! It will be so nice to sit out there this summer on the patio. Lots of interior rough in work going on right now. The HVAC and plumbers will be there next week.

Then after the inspection the insulation can go in. This is when it seems like everything slows way down. There are so many different contractors to coordinate and then the timing of inspections to plan for. I just want to be on to the finish work so I can show you the beautiful hickory cabinets and granite counters we have picked out! All in good time I guess!

Well… it’s a little further along! The roof is covered but no shingles yet.

The next time I’ll have pictures with the lower level all enclosed!!

Here come the rafters!!

These guys worked so fast, they only needed the crane on site for one day. The pictures I have been sharing were all taken on the same day. I have been spreading them over several posts so when the process slows down later I will still have something to share with you! In real time the retreat is much farther along. (thank goodness!!)

The carpenters looked like acrobats! They would balance on the top of the walls while lowering the trusses into place.

All of them are up now.

It’s so hard to picture what it will look like when all of the drywall is up. I can’t wait to see all of the details we have planned come together!

We are still planning on opening in early May. I hope we can meet all of the deadlines and don’t run into any problems that set us back at all. The weather is mainly what we have to watch. Not so much the cold now, but once it warms up we have to deal with road limits.

Hope you all had a great weekend and I’ll post again this week with more pictures.

So here we are again with some more photos of the progress at the retreat. I hope you enjoy watching the process as much as we do!! We are still battling cold temps here in northern Wisconsin. I have to hand it to the workers though, there’s no way I’d be out there working in Feb!

The walls are going up!

Above is what the lower level looks like. Once they enclose everything they will heat this area and then pour the concrete floor. That far end will be the craft room. We have three large windows and a French door so there will be lots of natural lighting! You will also be able to walk right out onto the patio area to take a break and enjoy the great northwoods views and wildlife. Unloading and loading all of your stuff will be easy too! Just back right up to the patio area and wheel your things into the craft room! You won’t have to haul everything up and down any stairs if you don’t want to!

View of the back of the retreat. This will be where the patio is. The craft room is on the far right of this picture.

This end will have a beautiful cedar deck added in spring. It will be right off of the greatroom. You will be able to come out and eat meals outside or just take a few minutes for yourself and relax. This will be the perfect place to watch some of the wildlife in the area and take a few pictures too! We have seen plenty of deer tracks all winter long and saw a doe earlier this winter. I just hope we can keep them from eating the landscaping!!

I’ve got many more pictures to share with you!

So check back later!

Here are some more pictures of the progress.

This shows where they cut in the driveway to the retreat.

They are clearing some of the trees where the retreat will be built. They did have to take out a lot of trees, but thankfully there are still plenty of trees on the lot.

This shows what it looked like when they had the forms all set and the concrete was poured. We did have to wait a few days for the temps to rise above 10 degrees before they could pour. That nasty cold stretch of below zero days was not fun!!

This is how the form work looked from the backyard. If you look close you will see lots of deer tracks! I couldn’t believe how many! We will be able to watch them from the deck this fall I hope.