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

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Starting to look for a lock

Sorry for the delay in posting yesterday. I'm been running with lots to do.

Monday, the garage door was installed. On recommendation from the supplier, they suggested we use an insulated metal door without windows. We thought about a wooden door but the recommendation was for more insulation value and durability over the long haul. Wood is NOT maintenance free and will be an ongoing chore...hence the metal door.

Roofers getting ready to start
Almost shingled to the top
Yesterday, about 10am, two trucks with a slew of roofers pulled up ready to tackle our roof with shingles. They got all the staging in place, air nailers at the ready when their gas powered compressor would not fire. No problem...they had to use hand nails the install the shingles.

Takes longer but gets the job done.


Got a shot, through the skylight opening from inside, of one of the roofers waiting for shingles.

I give these guys a lot of respect. There's no way you're going to get 'z' on any roof with the pitch greater than level. These guys move around like it's nothing. I'd be on my back on the ground looking up and wondering what happened!

Another big event started yesterday and will continue today...setting the windows and exterior doors.

Our doors have lived for a few weeks in the workshop and now they are being installed. James is making sure all is level before Tim (on outside) nails the window fins in final position. Tim uses lots of caulk with silicone to seal the window fins to the exterior wall facing.

You can see the fins (white band around window). The opening is caulked first, window installed, fins set, nailed and then a final bead of caulk to seal the deal. The concrete block is the basement and will get rock installed in the spring.

This is another shot of the windows on the opposite side of the cabin. The window to the left is in the living room. The smaller on on the right is in the guest bedroom above the bed location.


Today, Wednesday, I'm heading to Boone to pick up the locust posts for the porch. The guys will be setting the two sliding doors, the rest of the windows and the exterior door from the kitchen to the porch walkway. I suspect I'll be back in time for some of the heavy lifting.

More coming,
z

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