Building our dream home in the NC mountains

It's almost mid August 2011 and the love of my life and I are getting ready to begin a year long adventure building our dream cabin in the mountains of North Carolina. We're actually in Oregon, as we speak (8/11/11) wrapping up a glorious 10 day vacation with my wife's sister and brother-in-law at their cabin in the mountains.

Why the title "The Maple Tree Adventure"? Our property is on Maple Tree Lane at an elevation of 4200'...sounds like an adventure to us.

We've talked about this for a long time and now that it's a reality, we are excited to start the process. The process should take about 10 months. The build should be completed by next fall 2012.

Our goal is to offer up a blog entry daily. Some posts might include a photo, others may not. The adventure takes my wife and me in different directions for awhile. She teaches school and will finish out her career in June 2012 in Raleigh. I, on the other hand, will head to the mountains to get the cabin rolling in the next week or so (8/16/11).

Keep us in your prayers, leave your comments and plan to visit us next spring 2013.

Kent & Darlene
210 Maple Tree Lane
West Jefferson, NC 28694

(828) 406-4823

Sunday, December 11, 2011

More play than work... for me!

Darlene came for a visit and of course I spent more time playing than working and that's the reason I haven't posted in a few days. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!! We took a quick trip to Mountain City, TN to pick up an electric cement mixer. We have plenty of stone work to do over the next year or so and I'll be darned if I'm going to hand mix mortar when I can flip a switch and save my back.

The deck is proceeding nicely. Tim and James are installing the decking and doing a great job. Tim likes to route the edges and he likes to hand nail the decking for a stronger hold. It really looks good.

We're returning about 15 pieces that aren't up to 'quality standards'. The lumber yard will exchange them, no problem.

Some of the returned boards are to the left of Darlene. She's standing on the porch deck making sure we all do a good job.

We try and sneak stuff by her but 6 times out of 10 she catches us ;^)







Cole and Lloyd were back to back-fill, install gutter drains and in general move a lot of dirt around. They'll be back one more time to smooth out everything and spread out a last layer of gravel on the driveway once the construction traffic dies down.

Tomorrow is another big day. The roofers are scheduled to install the asphalt shingles. We are much drier than a couple of weeks ago but the shingles will seal the deal for the roof. Skylights go in tomorrow too.

Tim tells me he's going to start installing the windows this week. Once the windows and exterior doors are installed then we'll be able to lock up. So far we've had no security issues but I'd rather be safe than sorry. Speaking of safe, we got builder's risk insurance last week. We're covered for fire, wind, etc., etc. so now in the event of a major problem, at least we recoup our investment.

The garage door is scheduled for installation tomorrow as well. That will get us a step closer to looking like a finished cabin.

I'm going to pick up the locust posts early this week for the wrap around porch. We've had to re-think the entrance because of the finished grade. I suspect we'll have some stone steps leading from the parking pad to the main entrance after the dust settles. Might be a year or so but it will be done. In the meantime, if you visit, we might have to walk up through the garage and up the stairs to the main level...but a glass of wine awaits your arrival!


More coming,
z
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