HLC 2008 Spring Cleaning at Old Michigan City, Indiana

HLC Spring Cleaning at Old Michigan City, Indiana

Date: Saturday April 26th, 2008

Starting Time: 8:00AM
Breakfast at Dino’s
402 W US Highway 20
Michigan City, IN 46360

All day cleaning and planting at the lighthouse.. There will be giveaways as always. Bring old clothes including long sleeves, gloves and hat. We may have some scraping and painting to do also..

Paul L Brady

The Bradys arrived in Michigan City for tomorrow's Spring cleaning at the Old Michigan City Lighthouse. We ran into the Coles staying at the same Comfort Inn when we checked in and went over on some of the plans for tomorrow's work day..

I will post some images in this thread tomorrow night..

7th Annual Spring Cleaning at Old Michigan City Lighthouse!!


That's Charles Berry (who has posted later in the thread) in the hat on the left and Kat on the right side of the table (Dave refers to Kat later in the thread) as we gather for our traditional breakfast before going to the lighthouse..


I am first posting images of the new floors and the freshly painted walls and ceilings in the Old Michigan City Lighthouse..


Cindy Cole helped me take up the old runners (soon to be replaced with carpet matching the carpet in the lower level office area) to show off the new hardwood floors..


The floors needed to be replaced after the old steam heat registers were taken out and all of the demage was discovered. They were replaced with the same exact type wood that was originally used.. Doyne Cole's company did the work and he can provide better information if needed later in the thread..


All of the Museum items were removed and stored while the floors were redone and while a professional painter did all of the walls and ceilings in the whole house. All of the heating and air conditioning ducts and vents were also replaced. The house has be saved from the inside out while maintaining as much of the original wooodwork as possible..


The basement kitchen type area has also been redone totally..


So has Jackie's (the director) office been re-done completely..

The money to be able to do all of the flooring, walls, heating, air conditioning and other major repairs came from a bequest from a gentleman who was born and raised in Michigan City and made his fortune in music in Hollywood.. He left the Historical Society the funds with no strings attached.. It has saved the old lighthouse for many generations to come!!


Heather and Harold start unloading the mulch and delivering around the grounds for others to use..

Mary starts on what seems to be her personal area by now after all of these years..


Kat works on the entrance area by the anchors..


Kay and MargaretAnn start down the fence weeding and mulching the Day Lilies and the blooming daffodils..


More of the crew heading to different areas.


Shellie is hard at work on her personal area..


Some of the great Harbour Lights Club 2008 "Goodie Pack" for a drawing later in the day.. I supplemented it with a Point Arena that I got through the Trading Post for just this purpose, rewarding club members hard work..


Doyne is finishing up some trim around the fireplace..


The Old Lighthouse Museum is getting spruced up both inside and out just in time for it's 150th anniversary coming up on August 9, 2008.. There will be a Garden Party at the lighthouse with local dignitaries as well as our Club members plus a special feature of entertainment by folk singer, Lee Murdock.. More later on the event plans but everybody is invited to join in the celebration..

The guys are figuring a plan of attack to scrape off the peeling paint from the walls in a utility part of the basement that has been a catch all for years..


Now that the trailer is emptied of mulch bags, Harold is organizing the trash being hauled out of the above mentioned room, which Doyne will dispose of in his businesses' dumpster.


A masked Larry is one of many who took turns in preparing the room to be freshly painted.


Masked Dave H works on his wall to ready it for re-painting..


This view of the lighthouse is from the nicely done city park next to it.. The park dept. out sources the landscaping care of the park and they have come over to help do the landscaping on the lighthouse grounds during the Summer months starting last year and it help us keep the weeds down..


Harold, Cindy and MargaretAnn are gathering up and hauling off more trash to the trailer from the basement..


Weeding and re-mulching are done along the fence and it really looks nice..


Image for Mombo!!

The trailer is fully packed for hauling away..


The weeds and other trash are bagged and waiting for trash pick up this week..


Spring has sprung...


The crew sits down for a well deserved break and a late lunch of pizza..


Dave chose to stand close to the supply of pizza after Doyne swooped in and grabbed a piece that Dave had been eyeing..


This is the image of Kat that Dave refers to later in the thread showing the dust from scraping the walls..

Gee it seems so strange to see people wareing long sleves, sweat shirts and coats this time of year!

Here we are wareing shorts and tank tops. The temp has been runing in the high 70's and 80's.

Great pictures! Everyone hard at work! Looks like a job well done!

Great to see all our friends working so hard on those projects. What are you guys plugging into the brick basement that needs masks? So kind of waterproofing/waterstop? If so what is it, and does it work?
Bob

It had been very warm for the past week or so, well above the norms and into the high 70s or low 80s. However, it got cooler this past weekend and will stay there for most of the week. Didn't do anything with new plants and such becuase it was supposed to get down as low as freezing in the next several nights.

Also wore long sleeves inside because we were scaping loose paint to get that room ready to paint. A very confined space and we were generating lots of dust and such - look at Kat's jeans and you will understand. And, she wasn't in there as long as Susan, Larry and I so she may have been the cleanest of the group......

I am wondering if we have pretty much gotten those walls down to the original whitewash that would have been used when that area was originally constructed. Where we are working is the basement under the 1904 addition when they expanded the keeper's quarters after the light was moved to the pier in 1903.

Looks like everyone's having a lot of fun, except maybe the basement repairs.

Great pictures.
That is a nice lighthouse.I got to visit it some day.
Looking at the pictures of the landscape, makes me miss the north.

Great photos!
Looks like alot of work was accomplished!!!

Paul; Thanks for your great photos, of our work crew and breakfast. MargaretAnn and I had a great day, with our Hoosier lighters. Keep up the great pictures and all the best. Wacko Charlie

The new floors looks great. So does Jackie's office in the basement. I sure wish I could have been there to help last weekend. I won't recognize the place next time I make it to the lighthouse. You all did a great job.

Thanks for the photo diary, Paul.

Thanks for the pictures and a very special thank you for naming all the people!
It is real nice to see them all and being able to put faces to the names on the CF postings.

Looks like y'all had a great time doing all the work. Fantastic !!!

Your club is so great to perform all the work you do each and every year. You are also fortunate to have the resident photographer there to record your efforts.

Great job with the pics, Paul!

Bob

Looks great ! When many of us were there a couple of years ago on our bus trip to the Harbour Lights Reunion on Mackinaw Island, this lighthouse was one of the gems of the trip. It is great to many volunteers working on the project.

Bob Taylor