Welcome to the Ermatinger Cottage on Round Lake, Mason County.
To reach Mark Ermatinger text or call 616-836-5536 mark@industrialcontrol.com or Sue Ermatinger at 616-566-2172 or sueermatinger@gmail.com
The above shows the breaker box. When arriving, turn on the 30 amp water heater breaker and the water breakers. Please turn these off when leaving.
Our new electric minisplit heater/cooler is our primary heating source. In the cold months, we leave it running on “Min.Heat” which holds the temp at 50 degrees. Always press this button when your done with your stay. Press the +/- to adjust temp. It takes a bit to start heating and to maintain a steady temp. When in doubt press the orange START/STOP to stop the unit and then again to start it, then adjust the temp.
LP Gas fireplace: Look for a pilot light in the middle of the logs, if the pilot is off, push and turn the knob in the bottom front of the stove to pilot. While holding this black knob down, press the black-red striker button on the left until the pilot lights up. Release the button and watch for the pilot to stay on, then you can turn the thermostat to 68 (near the bathroom wall). The stove should light and burn. The controls on the top of the stove back are to override the thermostat and control the size of the flame. ** Make sure you do not leave this override on, but it is nice to turn the toggle switch on to force the fire to warm up quickly. The gas valve (on the floor, red) should be in-line to allow gas to flow to the cottage, always leave it in this position. To set the thermostat, touch any button to light up the screen, then make sure you see the HOLD print on the screen. In the winter we use the minisplit to heat the cottage and the heater as a backup. You can crank up the temp with the arrows when you get here to help get it warm faster, but then run the hold temp down to 40 and on hold. Make sure the pilot light is running before ending your stay and that it’s on HOLD and at 40 degrees.
The garage door has a deadbolt on the left side of the door from the inside of the garage. Do not turn the garage door handle to lock the door or open it. Just pull the deadbolt back and leave it that way until you leave and lock the deadbolt from the inside and lock the side door. Check sides to insure rods are set in lock position holes. Lock the side door deadbolt and lock the door knob and insure lights are off inside and outside of the barn.
Keys are in the Masterlock Box on the side of the cottage. Slide the black cover down and set code to 6116 while looking straight at it at eye level so numbers line up with the horizontal line marks. Make sure to return keys and scramble the code and lift the block cover while leaving
There is NO grill here, only a pellet Smoker that can high up to 500 degrees. I always pull it up on the left side of the garage so its lever and cord is plugged in. *** DO NOT RUN INSIDE OF GARAGE in case of grease fire.
TURNING ON SMOKER: Press power button (turns blue) and turn knob to first setting “SMOKE”, open the top and wait for pellets to catch on fire. You will see a lot of white smoke and once it lights, the fan kicks on and white smoke is done (takes 2-3 minutes. Now turn the temp up and close the lid. The temp dial in center is reflecting a lower value compared to the actual digital reading on the display, but the real temp is more like the temp dial. To sear you food, I recommend pulling your meat aside and turn up the grill to 400 degrees and slide the center metal plate to the right exposing the fire pit below the grates. There is a small metal tab on this center pate that allows you to push it right or left using the large screw driver I have on the right tray. Always side this back to the left when done searing.
TURNING OFF SMOKER: After cooking, turn temp knob all the way left until the display turns off. The smoker will continue to run the fans down to cool it off and after 5 minutes they will turn off. There is a light switch near the garage deadbolt to turn on the flood light for smoking at night.
WIFI & INTERNET - The Password to both the ERMATGINER2 or ERMATINGER5 wifi is “haveaniceday”. The photo on the left shows the 5G repeater that extends the wifi signal to the dock by the lake, so I would use that network. The Cable Modem is in the bedroom under the table stand and is the black flat device. The Black taller device is the wifi. The white device is the wireless Arlo camera system. If you lose internet, unplug the modem and wifi tower, wait 2 minutes and plug everything in again and wait 5 minutes and retry your connection.
TV & ANTENNA - Our antenna system is powered and you can turn it at the controller box in the ceiling right now. Have someone watch the direction outside as you hold the rotor button. Note that some channels have static with outside or kitchen LED lights are on. We have Roku so you have a lot of channels if you press the left side of the purple arrow button to get the menu. Press the purple center button to select. Press the home button to return to the main page where you can select the antenna or select an application like FOX17 in Grand Rapids. We do have VIDGO streaming internet TV with more channels. Sound on the right side of the clicker along with the mute. The Sound Bar will turn on and off automatically so don’t make any changes there.
LIGHTS & FANS - The light switches on the LEFT in the main living room by the slider door control the can led lights in the ceiling. The switches on the RIGHT control the fan and floodlight. The one closes to the slider door is the floodlight. To force it on indefinitely turn the switch on and then off and then on again. The white ceiling fan wireless control has the on button, and three-dotted buttons, 1 dot being the slowest speed and the 3 dots, fastest. There is a wall fan for the winter months to force air from the kitchen area to the main room. * Make sure to turn this off before leaving.
Below are images from the first 4 years we owned the cottage…
