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

Monday, January 2, 2012

Snow is brewing...

We watch 'Ray's Weather' faithfully and the word is that we'll get between 1" and 3" of snow by tomorrow. Any other time I'd be thrilled but we've got a cabin to finish and snow slows down the process.

I love the phrase "it is what it is" and that's exactly right...it is what it is!

Even though 'it is what it is' the guys worked today. Tim and James were moving forward with adding the stair system from the main level to the loft level.

They are routing out the slot for our stair treads to fit into. Notice the thickness of the piece of timber that Tim (timber sounds like a cold Tim) is routing. It's 4" thick. James is following up with a chisel to clean out the corners so the tread will fit snugly.


They installed the wall pine for the area where the stairs rise to the loft area. This had to be done because the stringer they are working on will rest against that wall and it's easier to install the wall now than after the stringer is installed.



The guys from Yadkin Well Co. came by to finish the geo-thermal connection from the well hole to the cabin. What you're looking at is the piping coming out of the well hole (340' of pipe in the earth in an 800' well hole). This pipe is filled with water and recirculates from the cabin down the hole 340' and back up again and returns to the cabin where it's core temperature (55 degrees year round) is transferred to the hvac system in the cabin.


The pipe from the well hole makes its way through the basement wall and into the mechanical room where it's processed. In conventional hvac systems, in the winter the system is constantly trying to take cold air and make it warm while in the summer it's trying to take hot air and make it cold. With geo-thermal, the system only has to deal with 55 degree input which makes it much more efficient both during the winter and the summer.


On a totally different note, this sink we bought several years ago to one day be used in our cabin. That day is fast approaching. It looks dirty because it's been stored but it's an old farmhouse kitchen sink that will make its way into our kitchen on the mountain.

Darlene asked me to measure it so she can layout the kitchen with the sink in mind.






I wanted to end on a beautiful note...this sunset was shot from the deck of the cabin where I'm staying. It's just around the corner from our cabin. We are so blessed to enjoy God's creation on a daily basis.



More coming,
z
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)