Ice Fishing House
There are only a few glorious weeks of good ice where we bundle up and travel into the magical no-man’s land that is a frozen lake. Drop a line down a hole and sit around with your palls in the frozen tundra. Ahh January in Minnesota: it’s officially ice fishing season.
Call us crazy, but yes, ice fishing is a favorite pass time. It’s just what we do in the north. Joe and the neighbors have been dreaming of these days since the very first leaves started to fall. And now it has arrived. Here is the neighbors’ “ice shack” that they’ve been remodeling all fall and winter.
Ice Shack Plans
And because Joe can never do anything ordinary, he took the initiative to render up some SketchUp drawings of the fish house. Essentially, all the neighbors and friends pitched in to fix it up and get it ready for action, but Joe was pretty consumed with taking this from ordinary to next-level.
Plans to build swanky benches and drill strategically-placed ice holes.
You can also see here in Exhibit B, they would like to create a table of sorts.
I have not the slightest clue what this one means.
Kitchenette
A big drawback from our neighbor’s perspective was having the kitchen take up too much room. Before it was large and there wasn’t much free counter space.
So one of their first tasks was to rip out the old kitchenetee and make a simple countertop. This will make room for more seating and more fishing holes, but still have enough counterspace under the TV for a pizza maker and some kitchen essentials.
Joe and I actually got this flooring for free at a garage sale. It was just a small amount of perfectly good hardwood floor boards that Joe was able to put to use here as a kitchen countertop.
After a bunch of measurements and cuts, he used a nail gun to secure the pieces to the 2×4 and faced the front with another board to finish it off. Not too bad, huh?
You can see it in action already, just on land. We were able to use our old kitchen bar stools as well. A bit richety, but they work just fine in the ice shack. Joe just sawed the legs down and voila. Perfect fit.
Floor
They also gutted the floor. Before, there was extremely thick wood flooring that weighed the entire house down.
They decided to start from scratch and map out a new layout, since the old subfloor was rotting.
Measuring out where the new holes are going.
Doing some serious engineering.
Once they had the frame, they plopped down a treated plywood subfloor and marine carpeting. They cut around the holes and used these Catch Covers and inserts
Benches
Next up, seating
Using regular 2×4’s, they put together enough bench seating for 8-10 people comfortably.
They built the tops of the benches with hinges so this whole thing is a storage unit. If you can see, Joe faced everything with a tongue-and-groove wood.
My favorite part of this project is that they tried using existing materials as often as possible. And how they all worked together as a team on this hobby to enjoy and share together. (Even if it was a lot of late nights and drinks later…) We’re putting together part two to show you how it all turned out!
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