The front door is the item of the day

We worked on the front door today. The exterior is finished except for the area below the threshold. That will be filled in with siding material.

The design around the door is made of poplar siding . The graphic at the top depicts the mountain range we see from our viewing porch. KD, the wonder dog, is guarding the entrance. She's all bark and very little bite...mostly lick!







The inside of the door is finished as well. Trim around the door and wall siding are complete. The door handle and lock set are installed too. The bear we blogged about a few days ago can't possibly get in...unless he has a key :^)

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we head to Tennessee to pick up the last of our locust. Four 8' locust post will complete the entrance area.

I'm going to splurge and buy Darlene breakfast in Boone on the way to Rodney's (he's our locust post guru).


We're very excited because we have company this coming weekend...Kyle and Olesea and Ada, the almost wonder dog, will be visiting for a few days. Ada will spend a couple of weeks with us while K&O jet off to Saint Marten for a much needed vacation.

More coming,
z&D

An exciting day on Maple Tree

Last evening, while in our camper, Darlene reached for the inside door handle and we heard a 'ka-boing'. The internal spring sprung! We could get out but the door would not latch when closed... all kinds of critters could potentially join us in bed!!!

Morning came and I was eager to rip open the lock and fix it...turns out it was a broken spring. With a little finesse, the lock was fixed and we're safe again.







Today was 'front door' day. We decided to install our front door. It has relatively easy especially with Darlene's help holding this, getting that, fixing lunch, etc. It is so nice to have a help-mate after all these months.

The door is almost finished. We inserted foam insulation (yellow in photo around the door) that will solidify overnight and tomorrow we'll add the door stop material and the lock and handle. Darlene will stain it once she decides on the stain color.

The most exciting part of the day besides 'doors' happened during our lunch break. We were on the porch and almost finished when I noticed a tan color with a white tail raised behind the workshop (deer). It was moving fast as it headed to the workshop. We looked to the right of the workshop expecting to see the deer continue on its way when much to our surprise...a big black bear lumbered up the mountain. We think it was a boar (male) because it was large and without cubs in tow.

We watched it as it headed up behind the camper (thank goodness the lock was fixed!!!). KD, the wonder dog, was snoozing on the porch and completely missed the whole event.

Needless to say, we both were excited to see a bear on the property. One thing for sure, Darlene will go out to the camper first after dark ;^)

More coming,
z&D

Scrub-a-Dub

We spent time yesterday installing the tile on the guest shower floor. We used 2" square mosaic and will use a pattern of varied sizes for the walls. We're going to give the floor a couple of days to harden before installing the walls.

There are a number of critical elements that have to be in place before the county signs off on the cabin and approves our moving in. One of those requirements is that all sinks and toilets in the living areas have to be functional. The toilet in the guest bathroom is already in place. We are using our basement laundry sink in place of a kitchen sink until we decide on the cabinet layout. Dar's sister and brother-in-law gave us a housewarming gift of our kitchen sink. It will be a farm style sink and will be ordered once we decide on the final kitchen design.

More coming,
z&D

Evening entertainment

Work continues on the mountain...Darlene's been busy looking at various exterior cabin colors. We've chosen a greenish base color and probably a complimentary window and door trim color. We'll post a photo soon.

She's been priming the bathroom and bedroom walls and ceilings in preparation for final color...to be determined.

I've been adding finishing touches to the twig railing. Another 3 hours today and that will be completed. I'll be installing a toilet in the master. Darlene isn't crazy about her Port-a-potty outside. Seems just fine to me! So much for my surprise of a luxury bathroom ;^)

Night sky with cabin illuminated by flashlig

This photo is a 4 minute long exposure taken of our cabin to capture the night sky and stars. The streaks of stars show the rotation of the earth while taking this photograph. Some of the small stationary dots of lights are fire flies.

Having spent 38 years in Raleigh before moving here, I can count on one hand a star filled sky worth noting (city light pollution kills the sky). We've lost count on the number of star displays we've seen at the cabin. We don't have city light pollution and that helps make the sky brilliant.

While our son Cameron was here visiting we lost count on the number of falling stars we saw...God at work!

More coming,
z&D

Moving...again

Darlene has arrived on the scene and we are moving out of our friend's cabin today so we'll have limited access to the internet. We'll post as we can so bare with us.

More coming,
z&D

Flooring almost complete

The pine flooring is just about completely installed. The last area is the master closet. I held back on that area to make sure I had enough flooring to finish the man area of the cabin.

This photo shows a closeup of the butt joints and the old fashioned nails we're using to finish "the look" of an old cabin floor. Each nail has a pre-drilled hole to help minimize wood splitting. The 2.5" nail lying on the surface illustrates the type nail used.

Once the closet is complete, we'll start painting ceilings, walls, etc. Any paint splatter that hits the floor will be removed by sanding in preparation for the floor stain and finish coats.

This week marks a couple of milestones...Darlene is officially retiring from Wake County Public Schools on Tuesday, June 12th. She worked, in a few school systems since her career began in 1970, for a total of 30 years. She'll be moving here on June 13th FULL TIME!!! I hope things don't change...she's been my 'sugar momma' for a long time ;^)

The other milestone is that I'm moving into new digs this week. I've been hard at work preparing a 'nest' for Darlene's arrival. At least we're not homeless...

Before June 12

After June 12 (the camper)

I'm sure glad I'm married to an understanding woman! I suspect we'll be moving into the cabin by no later than August 1...hopefully!

More coming,
z

Embarrassed but still working

I have to apologize for being behind in my posts for this blog but a lot has been going on and I haven't had much time to devote to updates. Hopefully this post will get everyone up to speed.

Several months ago I had a gentleman mill our floor on an antique milling machine in Roaring River, NC. He delivered the floor but it camped out in the basement until recently.

The photo to the right shows it resting in the basement before I spent 3 hours moving it from the basement to the upper levels.










Piece by piece, the floor made the trip to the main level and then a portion to the loft level. Needless to say, I was glad it was over but I knew it doesn't install itself...

On one of Darlene's visits we decided to move out of one of our storage buildings. The photo to the right is the last of 8 loads taken from the Mexican Store in the background. We call it the Mexican Store because that's what it was before we rented the building to store our household goods since last summer. We got the place for a great rental and it served us well.

I think we were both worn out after all the moving of boxes and furniture. Darlene is getting ready to unload the boxes into the basement. Most of the furniture was taken from the Mexican Store to our other storage unit in town. We can store boxes at the cabin easier than furniture. The furniture will make the trip up the mountain when we're ready to place it on the floors.

Other stuff going on has been hanging drywall and mudding...my two most UN-favorite parts of construction. Darlene wanted the opportunity to add some color to some of the rooms so we decided to install wainscoting in the guest bedroom and both of the baths and then hang drywall above the wainscoting. That took about a week. I'm not the fastest mud man plus some rainy weather slowed the drying process. Finally it's all hung and mudded and ready for primer.

Shower

The guest shower floor was completed and I added Durock to the walls of the shower in preparation for installing tile. You're looking at the shower control with a niche to the right.

The tile we picked is on site and ready to install but that task has to get in line with all the other stuff ahead of it.

Loft and entrance into the master suite

I decided to start installing the floors because when we moved all of the flooring material to the main and loft levels it was in the way. This photo shows the installed floor in part of the loft and into the master bedroom. We're using 3 sizes of flooring to create an 'old barn feel'. One row of flooring is 10" wide, the next is 8" wide and the next is 6" wide and then the pattern repeats. I am using steel flat head concrete nails where each board butts up with it's mate to continue a row. The end result is a floor that looks like it came out of an old barn.

Floor in the master

Main level guest bathroom floor

Once the nails are added I use a heavy stick handle with a section of chain attached to scar up the surface. The chain has several heavy nuts and washers attached to give random nicks and marks to make the effect look authentic. Once the floor is stained and finish coated the look should be really neat...

I started installing the main level flooring today and made some good progress.

Today's work

You can see, from the photo on the right, the entrance foyer and the start of the kitchen floor. The stack of flooring in the foreground is part of the material that's been in the way but soon will be flat on the floor.

Knotty pine doors

The knotty pine doors, that were stored in the basement, are starting to make their way to their final resting places. We bought an old door that will be perfect for the front door. It weighs a ton, has some glass in the upper third, and has been sanded by Darlene in preparation for staining and final coats...but, I used the wicked chain to distress both sides and it too will look even older when finished.

Phew...that was a lot of catching up to do. I'll try to be better about updates. The next few weeks are hectic as we're moving Darlene (she's retiring June 12) to the mountains at last. I can't wait. Our separation has been really tough on us both. Finally, I'll have a helper!

More coming (I promise),
z