Tubs, the naked truth and rocks

Kyle and Olesea dropped by to pick up 'Ada' their Roddy after being on vacation for two weeks. We decided that if anyone comes to visit we put them to work. It took four of us to haul our 300 pound cast iron tub from outside up three levels...but we did it! The tub is shown resting, along with the rest of us, in its place in the master bath.

Speaking of baths, we've gotten questions on how we are able to prepare meals, where we get our water from, do we have a 'functioning' toilet and do we take showers? I'll attempt to answer all of these intriguing questions in their order:

1. We have our little camper set up behind the workshop, out of sight, and it serves as our chuck wagon of sorts. We have a small refrigerator the size of a breadbox, a 2 burner gas stove, no oven. Darlene makes some good, good meals in the chuck wagon.
2. Water comes from our across the street neighbor. We load up our five 5 gallon buckets and drinking containers, fill them with water, and then transport them on the back of the truck to the basement. They are used for #3 below, actually #1 and #2.
3. We do have one toilet that is hitched up and functional. It is luxury compared to our old port-a-potty. The water for the toilet is carried up a level from the basement and used as flush water.
4. Do we take showers...you be the judge!

Part of our water ritual is to fill up our shower bag. The bag is then placed on some logs along our driveway, in the sun. Half a day later we have hot water for a shower. If we had lots of clouds, then the water isn't as hot. We hang the bag from the under carriage of the deck and presto...a shower.

You have to keep an ear out for visitors...don't want to scare anyone.

p.s. the black diagonal bar finally came off after two showers :-)

p.p.s. I'm also known as 'the silver haired Chippendale' around these parts.

Recently we struck a deal with some stone masons to install our foundation stone. They've worked for a week and will finish up this coming Monday. All of the rock came from our property or our mountain. Each piece hand picked by Darlene and me. Rock collection started a week before the masons started. We continued to gather rocks while they worked. We count 25 loads of stone. Each load had to be hand carried to a point nearby the work area. Lots of work but well worth the effort.

Our walls actually look like an old hand crafted cabin foundation while most of the cabins on the mountain use flat stones layed flat on the walls with large mortar gaps, a much easier, more conventional, less appealing way to finish the walls.

We have one more stone harvesting trip in preparation for the Monday finish. All in all we saved a good grand doing the grunt work as opposed to buying the stone not to mention the final product is more special being gathered from our own property.

More coming,
D&z

HERcules

Another great day in the mountains. Darlene is adjusting to retirement so much that I had to put her to work gathering rocks.

Rocks you say! Yes, rocks for the basement wall (behind her in the photo). We have 2 masons coming next week to start the walls. We supply the material...which includes the rock. We're harvesting them from the property because we have plenty. We figure collecting for 4 days should do it (finger's crossed).

In other news, I've accepted a position with Ashe High Country Real Estate and started on Monday of this week. I serve as financial officer, marketing and broker. It's an exciting opportunity to, once again, re-invent myself. The firm found me and made an offer. I've been in West Jefferson since August 2011 and have found paradise. It's 'heaven on earth'.

More coming,
z&D

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