With the completion of our mountain house, we now have a fabulous place all our own to visit during the holidays.  With this in mind our family planned some much needed vacation time for the week after Christmas.  Mom, Dad, and I headed up first on the 26th.  The weekend before the NC mountains were hit with a huge snowstorm and we had heard the estimates of 12-24″ of snow, but didn’t know exactly how much our area had gotten.  That is until my dad called up the neighbors and found out they had gotten 16″ of snow!  Of course this necessitated asking one of our neighbors to plow the driveway so we could make our way up to the house, it also allowed for Santa to bring a family sled for Christmas, since we were pretty sure most of the snow would still be there when we arrived, and we’re all really kids at heart.  On top of the big snowfall our area of the mountains also got hit with an ice storm on Christmas Eve/Christmas Morning, and we weren’t sure what we would find as a result of that.  We left home a little later than we normally would, to make sure any ice on the roads would be melted.  Heading west we were curious as to when we might see snow on the sides of the highway, and during our drive it became obvious which side of the highway got more sun.  On one side the ground was brown and barren and on the other it was still white with snow.  As we approached the Blue Ridge Parkway it was obvious that the ice storm had left behind quite a bit of damage, we thought that the parkway might be okay, but as soon as we went up the exit ramp we realized that the road was blocked by downed trees and branches and we would have to turn around.  Finally we arrived at the house, the driveway nicely plowed, snow glistening with a layer of ice, and no power inside.

Looking up the hill at our little house in the snow

After calling the power company to report the outage and learning that it could be Tuesday before power was restored, we decided to stay for the night and see if the power came back on Sunday.  We took a trip into town for a few supplies, including some additional candles and headlamps,  fortunately the house is mainly heated by a gas wall heater so we knew we could stay warm, but we were without water since the well pump is run on electricity.  After dining on sandwiches by candlelight we settled in to the couch and chairs, each of us covered with an afghan, reading by flashlight and passing the time with Trivial Pursuit questions until a reasonable bed time rolled around (9:00).  The next morning the power still wasn’t on, so we took a walk looking for any downed power lines and then headed into town for a warm breakfast and of course a trip to Lowe’s and Wal-Mart.  We ended up eating breakfast at a little place called the Hillbilly Grill, which had very friendly service and good food, we definitely want to try them again for lunch.  We returned home to find the power still out, but planned on hanging around a little longer so my dad could do some work.  As I was laying on the couch reading I suddenly realized there was another noise in the room, the refrigerator was humming, power had been restored!  We could stay!

Dan, Debi and their dog Jake arrived late Sunday night to complete our family vacation.  We began the week with some sledding runs down the hill in front of the house.  Dad and I had done a little sledding Sunday, after discovering that the drainage ditch next to the driveway would make a great sled run (although a little dangerous due to the chunks of ice covered snow from plowing).  On Monday though, we braved the big hill, each taking a couple of runs down the ice covered slope, flying along and for many of us ending with a few bumps, bruises and cuts.  It was worth it, but sledding is a little more dangerous when you’re an adult!  With Dan’s arrival we were also treated to some gourmet dinners courtesy of Julia Child’s French Chef Cookbook, he even made her famous boeuf bourguignon.  We also took some time to explore our woods in the snow, which made me wish we had snowshoes.  It was neat to see all the animal tracks left in the snow.  We were able to easily identify deer tracks, and possibly coyote or even bobcat tracks.  Of course our loud crunching through the snow probably scared anything that was in the woods away, but maybe someday we’ll see something other than deer on the property.

Mom & Dad ready for a winter walk

Dan giving Debi a little push down the hill

Me on one of the sledding runs

With the cold weather outside and early darkness, we were also able to enjoy our new family toy, a Wii game system!  Everyone got in on the action, with hotly contested games of bowling, tennis and a few boxing matches taking place.  We had to coach mom and dad on how to operate it and play the games, but they quickly caught on.  Even Jake wanted to play as he tried to attack the remotes anytime someone used one!  We all had a blast and look forward to many more chances to play and laugh together.

Jake & Dad ready for the great outdoors

Eventually we did all have to come home, the “kids” left first on Wednesday, while mom & dad left on Saturday.  It has been extremely cold and snowing some more since we left so the snow should hang around for quite a while now, maybe more sledding will even take place 

Sunrise over the mountains

For most families, the day before Thanksgiving is spent traveling to see each other, shopping for last-minute groceries, or maybe even cooking some things for the next day.  For our family this year was a little different.  We spent the day before Thanksgiving packing up items that had filled my parents’ garage and other areas of their house into a U-Haul destined for Ashe County and our finally completed garattage!  It was truly a family effort as mom, my sister-in-law and I carefully wrapped and packed breakables into boxes, while my dad and brother carefully loaded everything into the truck, making sure that it would all fit perfectly and survive the 3 hour drive.

Dan and the very carefully packed truck

Thanksgiving morning arrived and rather than sitting at home watching the Macy’s parade, we gathered to head west and move everything in to the garattage.  We made our own little convoy with a U-haul truck and 2 SUVs loaded with stuff for both the weekend and that would stay at the garattage permanently.  Even Jake, my brother & sister-in-law’s dog came along on the trip.  Shortly after 1:00 we arrived, found the key to the front door and made our way inside to check out the finished work.  After a quick tour we began unloading furniture and boxes.  We realized then that we hadn’t thought to bring a broom or mop and the concrete floor was pretty dirty, and of course we didn’t want to lay our nice clean area rugs on a dirty floor, so mom and I went off to Wal-Mart to retrieve needed supplies, while the others stayed behind to continue unloading what they could.  We felt a little guilty going to Wal-Mart on Thanksgiving, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.  After picking up a broom, mop, and some other items we thought of as we walked around (like trash cans), we stopped by the storage space to pick up 2 area rugs and a chair and headed back to the property.  By the time we got back progress had been made, there were beds set up in each room, the stove and refrigerator were in place, now all that was needed was to clean the floor and arrange everything else.  After a long afternoon of work (and an additional trip to Wal-Mart by my dad & brother) things were pretty well set up so we gathered around the table for nice hot bowls of chili, then relaxed for the rest of the evening, calling it an early night since we were all exhausted from working all day.

Dad & mom negotiate the temporary walkway

Dad found a unique way to carry a chair upstairs (with some guidance from Debi)

Friday morning arrived cold and windy, most of us were up early, those that woke around 4 (not to go shopping) were treated to some snow flurries, which didn’t last long and didn’t stick around.  The workday began outside cleaning up the last of the trash piles to make use of the U-Haul to take everything to the Convenience Center.  After filling up many, many trash bags, everything was loaded into the truck, and everyone except me went to drop it off and return the truck.  I stayed inside where it was nice & warm to put the remaining kitchen stuff away and organize the shelves that will serve as our pantry.  I wasn’t alone though, as Jake was there to keep me company.  Soon everyone returned and we had company, our builder George and his wife Carole stopped by to do a walk through and also brought us a very nice wreath for the front door.  Then my mom’s friend Ann stopped by as our first official non-family, non-builder visitor.  Later in the afternoon we took some time to relax and headed over to Boone for some shopping & dinner.  We paid a visit to a (very crowded) Mast General Store mostly we just wandered around, but I did score a nice pair of black corduroy pants on sale  .  Soon it was dinner time, at least we thought it was dinner time.  When we returned to the car one of the tires looked kind of flat, so we took a detour to a gas station for some air, and my brother discovered something had cut the tire, so at 5:30 on a Friday night we went in search of a tire store, finding one that was still open, and they very graciously fixed the tire before they closed at 6.  Finally it was time to eat and our destination was the well-known Dan’l Boone Inn.  We joined the line of people huddled inside the small enclosed porch and anxiously awaited the feast of country cookin’ that awaited.  There are no choices about what you order, except dessert.  It was a great dinner and we all left stuffed full of biscuits, country ham, fried chicken, veggies and dessert.  We did discover though that if you don’t want to wait in line getting there later is better, something to remember for the next time.

Enjoying a little breakfast around the table

Saturday became Thanksgiving day this year.  We brought the turkey and all the fixins with us, well except for those things that mom realized she had forgotten once she started baking her cherry pie, like wooden spoons, rubber spatulas, a can opener, you know nothing really important    Our small kitchen area served us well and the majority of the day was spent preparing our first feast in the garattage.  We even toasted to the new house at dinner, then enjoyed one last night all together.

A view from the living area towards the dining & kitchen areas (even Jake got in a picture)

Our kitchen "nook", small space but great meals were made!

On Sunday it was time for the “kids” to leave, I had to be back at work Monday morning, so we loaded up the car and headed off.  Mom & dad stayed behind until Monday afternoon, finishing up a few tasks and enjoying more of the peace and quiet of the mountains (it was probably a lot quieter without us and a dog there!)  Now we have many more mountain weekends to look forward too with both family and friends!  Look for more pictures of the finished interior in future posts, too.

Hiking on the property above ours, it was a little chilly, can you tell?

With the lyrics to the Tom Petty song in my mind, I think I’ve found the best description of where we’re at with the garattage.  There has been progress since the last post and I have pictures to show what all has been done, but now it’s just a matter of a few finishing details, approval from the bank, and we’re free to move in!

Last weekend we had some out of town visitors who had originally planned their trip thinking they would be spending the weekend in our cozy garattage, but alas it was not to be.  Since we weren’t able to stay in our own place, Mom set about finding us another suitable place.  She found the Carolina Mountain Properties website and located a cabin not too far from our property.  It was quite an adventure driving to the cabin, we’ll just say that there were curvy, narrow, steep gravel roads that had to be driven to arrive at a very nice cabin overlooking the New River.  The weather for the weekend didn’t exactly cooperate with our plans so rather than working on the property as dad would normally have us do, we had the chance to to some shopping and eating    We paid a visit to Greenhouse Crafts & Gifts in Glendale Springs which always has some really cool stuff, and I think almost everyone walked away with a purchase.  Then it was on to some antique stores to look for bargains and unique items.  We stopped in to Fleetwood Antiques in Fleetwood and Antiques on Main in West Jefferson.  Mom found an extra dining room chair for the bargain price of $10 (which she negotiated for) and we all browsed through many items that we could’ve taken home, but resisted for the time being at least.  Of course we also managed to do our fair share of eating as well, visiting two of our favorite local spots:  the Blue Ridge Bakery Cafe in Glendale Springs and Brick Stone Pizza in West Jefferson.  We all appreciated our extra hour of sleep Saturday night since we were up early to bid farewell to our visitors returning to Michigan via Cincinnati.  It was a rainy, cold morning so we departed earlier than usual since there wasn’t much else to do.

A few weeks ago, Mom, Dad & Dan took a day trip up to check on the progress.  That’s when the latest batch of pictures were taken.  Here’s what has happened since the last post:  the kitchen shelves and microwave have been installed

Kitchen Shelves & Microwave (and mom too!)

the outside has been painted

The Garattage is Painted!

the inside has been painted

View of the Wall Color and Light Fixture in the Dining area

the oak floor upstairs has been finished, the bathroom counter has been installed

A look at the Bathroom Counter

light fixtures have been installed, and there is now working electricity, heat and plumbing.  Wow, that’s actually a lot of stuff, now that’ I’ve typed it all out.  I have now seen all of these changes in person and let me tell you how great it all looks and how excited we all are at the prospect of finally spending time in our very own garattage.  One thing that I must correct is the description of the floor color.  After further inspection we have reached the conclusion that it is not “fire engine red” but rather a “brick red”.

Hopefully my next post will share the details of moving all the furniture in and setting everything up!  In between now and then we will keep ourselves occupied with furniture painting, small woodworking projects, and shopping for odds and ends.

Mom & Dan outside the front door

The last time I left you we had visited the property over Labor Day weekend and I haven’t posted anything because nothing had changed since then.  Well, this past weekend while mom was out of town and I was occupied with the U2 concert, dad took the opportunity to drive up and check things out.

Three things have changed since the last post, and while they may seem like small changes overall they have had a big impact.  First, outside:  the piles of construction debris are gone!  As you will remember from previous posts this was our biggest job of late and I’m glad to say that it has been completed.  As you can see in the picture below the piles of wood, drywall, metal, etc are gone.

Trash piles are gone!

The second and third changes are on the inside:  the cabinets have arrived and been installed and the floor has been painted.  Now work can advance closer to the finish line!  Here’s a look at the kitchen before and with the cabinets installed:

Kitchenette area before cabinets

Kitchen with cabinets (appliances to follow soon)

Lastly, the concrete floor that was plain and boring grey is now bright & shiny red.  Dad took some rugs that we had purchased up to the garattage to see how they would look, and I think it’s going to be really nice.  I look forward to seeing it in person!

A good look at the "fire engine red" floor (and part of a rug)

Oh and also a little grass update, the seed that we spread over labor day has taken hold and you can see it filling in some on the hill at the back of the garattage.

Some grass grew from all our seed spreading efforts

There’s not going to be much construction talk in this entry, because nothing has changed since last week and the last entry.  We are in what the airline industry would call a “holding pattern” right now, waiting on the kitchen and bathroom cabinets to be manufactured and installed.  This fact didn’t deter mom, dad & I from heading up to the mountains for the Labor Day weekend though(our 3rd year straight we determined).  Since the house isn’t able to be occupied yet (no permanent electricity, water, or locks on the doors) we had to find somewhere else to stay.  After doing some searching mom came across a place called The Cottage at Darnell Ridge, dad contacted the owners, found out it was available, and we were on our way.  We weren’t sure exactly where it was located or how far it would be from our property, but were pleasantly surprised to find it only 10 minutes down the Blue Ridge Parkway from the house.  It was a great location, and the house was perfect.  Our hosts for the weekend even called to check and make sure we could get cell service (something that can be spotty in the mountains) stopped by to say hello, and let us stay a little longer to clean up after working on our property Monday.  We will definitely stay there again as long as it’s available!

Cottage at Darnell Ridge

We arrived in Ashe around noon on Saturday, this time instead of heading straight for the property though, we went into town.  We were trying to rent a trailer for the weekend to haul trash to the dump, but when we arrived at the local U-Haul rental place they appeared to be on vacation, as no one was around.  Since we were already in town and we were hungry, we decided to grab some lunch before heading to the property.  On our way though, we took a stroll through the Farmer’s Market, buying some locally made Raspberry-Peach Jam and Goat Cheese, both of which were quite yummy.  For lunch we decided to visit Matthew’s, a place we’ve been to many times and enjoy for a nice sit down lunch.  after lunch we wandered down to the new location of the Chamber of Commerce to pick up some information on the area to keep in our garattage once it’s finished, then stopped by Decadence Bakery for a little after lunch treat.  It was mid-afternoon by now and we decided to head for a brief stop at the property and then on to our cottage for the weekend.  Once we made it to our accommodations, mom and I were ready for a rest while dad headed back over to the property to do some work mowing part of the meadow.  After relaxing on the front porch for a while, mom and I took a walk around the area and discovered a very steep hill that helped us work off our lunch.

Once dad returned it was dinner time and time for an adventure.  I was put in charge of dinner for Saturday night, and suggested several options, one of which was to pay a visit to Mountain Music Jamboree, a place that we have passed numerous times and always said “We should go there sometime”  Well this was the time, so we went, and it was definitely a good time.  They offer a buffet dinner (good ol’ southern food: fried chicken, biscuits, mashed taters, cobbler, etc) and musical entertainment.  The building looks like a big barn on the inside with a large dance floor and tables along the sides.  After eating the band began to play, a mix of country and southern rock music, and the dancing began.  There was mostly line dancing, which was fun to watch, and a few songs that were good to swing dance to as well.  We definitely enjoyed ourselves and may pay another visit in the future, especially when we have company at the garattage 

On Sunday morning it was up early to head to church in Jefferson, then the obligatory visit to Wal-Mart and Lowe’s for a few things before heading back to the cottage.  We had been invited to a cookout at our builder’s property, On the Windfall, where we stayed last labor Day, and had to make some things to take with us.  I was in charge of making a dessert, so I decided on S’mores cookies, which my friend Susan had sent me the recipe for from a blog that she read.  Mom was going to make some kind of side dish, and I found a recipe for a Pasta Salad with Lemon Pesto Dressing, which sounded delicious and allowed us to use the goat cheese we bought at the farmer’s market (not called for in the ingredient list, but a suggestion from someone else in the reviews of the recipe).  Both of our choices were big hits and recipes we’ll definitely make again!  On our way to the cookout we stopped in the town of Lansing to do some shopping at a few shops that had recently opened.  Little did we know that once we were at the cookout we would meet the shop owners for 3 of the 4 places we visited.  Once again we enjoyed the beautiful pond side cookout at On the Windfall, the food was delicious and many of the same people we met last year were there again.  It was really neat to get to know the people who own the businesses in Lansing and hear their stories of how they came to Ashe County and how much they enjoy living and working there.

Saturday and Sunday were our days of rest and good times, when Monday morning rolled around it was time to work!  That’s right, here’s where the garbage and grass come in.  You may recall in the last post my dad wrote about the large piles of trash surrounding the garattage and my mom’s trips to the convenience center to dispose of bag after bag.  The job wasn’t finished then so it was up to us to work on it again.  Since we were unable to get a trailer to haul stuff we had to just work on the small pieces that could fit in garbage bags.  Dad started to work on the piles early Monday morning, while I slept in and mom relaxed back at the cottage.  Basically he took the large piles of mixed trash and separated them into wood, drywall, metal, cardboard, and misc. trash, then placed the small items into large trash bags to take to the convenience center.  I took over the job once I got tired of raking the red clay to throw down grass seed (more on that in a bit).  This mostly involved breaking up larger pieces of drywall to easily fit in the bag, and making sure the bag didn’t weigh too much for dad to be able to lift.  In the process I discovered several toad friends that had made their home under the piles.  They didn’t seemed to be bothered by our presence and I’m sure they went on with their lives under new piles once we left.  Two trips to the convenience center and about 12 bags of trash later we were done for the day…but more piles await for the next time.

Drywall Toad

More trash awaits...

Our other task was to try and get some grass growing in the barren red clay around the house.  As you can see from the banner picture the house location is in a meadow and once construction began a large part of that meadow was graded and left without vegetation.  Quite a lot of the soil was also dug out creating a hill along the back side of the garattage, which is now being eroded by rain.  In order to solve this problem dad bought some grass seed (rye & fescue) and a second rake, so that we could work on getting something to grow.  Mom and I started working on raking the hill behind the house, which was quite tough, not only because of standing on a slope, but the ground was also quite hard and rocky, which is why I traded off with dad and took over trash duty    After raking dad made a mix of the grass seeds and set about spreading it along with mom.  We also raked the hill closest to the front door of the garattage and spread seed there as well.  Then it was on to the main hill and spreading as much seed as possible.  As we were getting ready to leave to return home, the sky clouded up and we were hopeful that there might be a little rain to help our efforts and that when we return it will be lush & green instead of barren & red!

Mom & Dad spreading grass seed on the back hill

Looking down the barren hill (who's that guy in red?)

Hopefully the next post will have more construction updates and soon we will be enjoying the view from our own mountain retreat!

(edited by SoccerGirl & ncmountainmama)

Last Friday morning, while the rest of the family was busy working,  Joanne and I headed to Ashe to check on the building progress, since it had been three weeks since we had last been on site.  We have been keeping up with things via e-mail with our builder, but that has to be by e-mail and texting since we don’t get reliable voice cellular service on the property.

Not only were we anxious to see what had been done since our last visit, but the timing was also good because Caroline, our builder’s decorator had called on Thursday to say that she had finally located a remnant piece of granite for the bathroom vanity and we needed to pick the tile to match, something best done in person.

Of course, as always, our first stop in Ashe County was at the house. Since the exterior was done several weeks ago, it looked the same except for the enormous piles of trash, wood and drywall on the ground outside (more about that later).  However, just beyond the 3 exterior doors (that’s right, we have 3 doors to our little garattage) a great amount had changed since our last visit.  Inside all the drywall had been installed and primed, the doors hung, trim and the flooring installed upstairs. In the pictures below you can see the difference a few weeks has made.

Kitchenette before

Kitchenette after

Great Room before

Great Room after

Upstairs Landing before

Upstairs Landing after

Master bedroom before

Master bedroom after

After checking out the changes, we headed into town and met with Caroline to approve the granite (“rosewood”) and the floor tiles, two of the only decisions we had yet to make about the interior of the house.

Then it was back to the house for trash patrol. It is amazing how much waste is generated in building even a small “garattage”. We tackled one of the three waste piles, separating wood, cardboard, sheetrock, paper and other trash into piles. We then generated almost 40 large trash bags of materials, which we hauled to the very appropriately named “Convenience Center” (it’s only a few miles from the house) Friday and Saturday. At the Convenience Center, Joanne made a new friend.  The man who sits in the chair at the hut and watches everyone to make sure all the rules are kept, noticed one bag that was particularly difficult for Joanne to sling up and in to the container.  He told her, he would help and just to honk the horn if there was a heavy bag.  This was great mountain hospitality. The wood and cardboard are stacked on site awaiting transport by Jim & Dan (second choice: Joanne and Sarah) to the county landfill.  Or perhaps we’ll get creative as Debi suggested and find some sort of use for it all, we’re willing to take suggestions…maybe our very own version of Mt. Trashmore?  We did learn from the carpenter that drywall makes great garden fertilizer! Wonder if that is considered organic?

All this trash made me think of Robert Frost and what his poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening might have said if he saw our property: The trash is messy, dark and deep and I have lots more piles to go before I sleep (See picture below).

Trash Pile #1

Well after so long of planning and waiting, the “garattage” is almost finished. We are now just waiting on the cabinets, plumbing fixtures, bathroom tile and painting. We hope to soon be enjoying the peace and quiet of our mountain property, especially during the beautiful fall season!

P.S. Just for Trina we have had an RV electrical hookup installed. We will probably still let you come inside.  Could you go back to South Bend and get that hot tub though?  We have a hookup for that too 

Another weekend rolled around, which meant another trip to check on the house progress.  We left Raleigh in the late afternoon, under the hot sun and arrived around 7 to the refreshing coolness of the mountains.  It gave us a good taste of many trips to come and the relief that can be found from the summer heat!  The last time I came up, there was only a concrete slab, so it was with great anticipation that I watched out the window as we drove down the road, waiting to get that first glimpse of the house.  The sun wasn’t cooperating however, and my first view was pretty obscured by the sun shining in my eyes.  Once we got closer though, I could see it clearly, rising above a field full of Queen Anne’s Lace, like a scene out of Little House on the Prairie.  We didn’t spend long at the house on Friday, just enough time to look around and then it was off to dinner in town at Brickstone Pizza & Pasta which was quite yummy and definitely a place we will go again.

You’re probably wondering what was new this time around.  The biggest change was on the outside, all of the siding had been put up and the stone work had been finished with a nice copper detail along the separation between the stone and siding.  Inside, all the electrical and plumbing was roughed in.  The siding still has to be painted though, so the outside will be transformed yet again.

House with siding (That's me at the corner of the house)

We returned to the house on Saturday, my dad getting an early start at 7:15, while mom & I took at easy at the home of some friends.  Dad spent the morning mowing the grass around our apple trees until he ran out of gas in the mower.  He came back to pick us up so we could do some measuring inside and take care of a few small things.  When we were there on Friday we noticed that the hill along the driveway, facing the house was showing signs of erosion.  We learned that there was a huge rainstorm up there on Wednesday last week and that was perhaps the culprit.  Always thinking, dad decided to get some rye seed in the hope that it will quickly grow and stabilize the hill so the red clay won’t wash away more.  Apparently he wasn’t the only one with that idea, as we were working to spread seed, we were surprised by a visit from George, our builder.  He mentioned he had come up to do the same thing we were as well as a few other things.   Before George arrived, mom and I spent our time inside the house, measuring the windows for potential window treatments and checking some other measurements for furniture positioning.  We came up with a potential layout for the furniture, and figured that the things we have will fit nicely in the space.  We had hoped that the floor would have been painted, because we’re trying to decide on new fabric for the couch we’re bringing up and want to check it against the floor color.

Dad spreadng rye seed along the hill

While George was there mom and dad had a chance to ask some questions, and also had a few decisions to make.  One was concerning the placement of the wall mounted gas heater.  George was planning on placing it in the corner of the living room, but mom & I had decided the TV should go there, so another location had to be determined.  In the end we chose 2 locations, both more central to the entire downstairs living area, and told George that he could make the final decision since one was farther from the gas tank than the other.

Mom & Dad with George-I think they're standing in holes

We learned that the insulation will go in this week and they will possibly start putting up the drywall, or at least have it in the house to start on next week.  So the next update will be mainly an interior one, as more of the inside work gets under way.

Before we left to drive home on Saturday, we stopped to water the apple trees and I took a walk back in the woods.  It was amazing how much cooler it felt back there!  I also made some neat discoveries of bright orange mushrooms, purple mushrooms, and a cool orange flower.

Mystery bright orange mushrooms

Flower found while walking in the woods

Looking at the front door of the house from the driveway

It was an early morning as I got up at 4:30 AM, picked up my son Dan, and drove to Ashe County to meet George our builder and Craig our electrician at 8:30 AM.  Joánne went to work since someone has to pay for all this.  Dan didn’t want his dad to drive up and back alone, so he came along for the ride on his day off.  While I drove up in 3 hrs, Dan drove home in 2.5 hr.  I guess there must have been a strong easterly tail wind, or just good police driver training.

We have windows and a back door opening! (you can see Dan standing by the car)

Craig the electrician has worked with George a lot and really knows his
stuff according to Dan (who worked for a year or so as an electrician
assistant on a couple of construction projects.) Most of the decisions
about where to put switches, lights and receptacles were fairly obvious.
The locations of the can lights, hanging light fixture, fan and kitchen
lights in the downstairs required some work to match up with possible
furniture locations (While these are shown on the floor plan, they are only
“suggestions” of our designer, Joánne reminds me regularly). I think the
four guys figured it all out perfectly, but since there were four of us,
there is always someone else to blame if it doesn’t work out 

Looking towards the first floor bedroom and kitchenette (That's George Ford our builder in the jeans)

One of the things we are learning even on this relatively small
conventional construction project, is that you may know on paper where
things go, but on the ground some things need to change. For example, on
paper the pressure tank for the well and hot water heater should fit under
the stairs. But when the pressure tank showed up on site today, it is
bigger than expected. Now the hot water heater has to go somewhere else
(upstairs in the bathroom).

It turned out that the electrician was not the only one working today. By
11 AM, the roofers, stone mason, plumber, and the septic system contractor
were all at work. Full house! All those folks will finish this week and the siding will go on to finish the exterior work.

Roofers and stone mason at work

View of the house as you drive up the road towards the driveway

July 18^th was a day to remember.  As we maneuvered around the curve of the road approaching the property, Jim and I were straining to see if we could see anything that might resemble a house on our property.  Just as we made the last curve of the road, we saw it:  up on the hill was a structure, wrapped in Tyvek.  It had walls and a roof!  As we turned into the driveway and made our way up, we could see that the framers were working on constructing the covered porch on the front of the “garattage.”  After over two years of going up to our property we finally had a structure.  We hopped out of the car and went in through the future garage door site.  The framers were working on the stairs to the upper level bedroom and bathroom.  Seeing it with the walls and some structure, it looked bigger than just looking at the cement pad.

Last week a concrete slab, this week walls and a roof!

We drove up for the day to see the progress and to meet with George, our builder.  We had a few things we wanted to talk about.  Jim had received a call from the electrician, asking about placement of can lights.  His plan is to come up on the 27^th and put the electrical in.  We talked with George and settled on a plan.  The next thing we wanted to talk about was heat.  Jim had talked with his co-worker and thought maybe a gas space heater might be better than the electric.  George explained that it might be a good option since the electricity is known to go out when it is cold.  He has already experienced cracked pipes and cracked toilets.  It seems that every time we talk we have more decisions to make!  Sometimes it is hard to decide, because we know what we would like if it is a real house.  We have to keep in mind what could be re-used in the house (hopefully we can build it) or what is just too much for this structure.  An example is whether or not we put in a heated floor in the bathroom.  This would be nice and it is a small area, but is it really worth the expense?  We opted for a small heater in the wall, which should do the trick.  It is so much easier now picturing where things should go, what type of furniture, beds etc with just the four walls up.  We think it will have a lot of light, which is great.  There are lots of windows and a 10 foot ceiling.  The upstairs bedroom has a great window, with a nice view.  This week will involve roughing in the plumbing, stone on the bottom, framing inside for the downstairs bedroom, windows installed, and maybe the shingles.  Next week, they’ll work on siding and electrical.  I did tell George to go ahead and put the wring in for a hot tub!  It will sit nicely between the garage and the house in a little courtyard!

Looking up towards the house from the front

Inside, first floor

Inside, upstairs

As the first week of construction came to a close, mom, dad and I made a trip up to the property on Saturday July 11th.  After the grading was done last weekend, we got news this week that the concrete slab would be poured by the end of this week, so we planned to go up and check things out.  As you can see from the picture below we now have a concrete slab and expect that framing will begin this week.

Concrete Slab

The drive to the property takes about 3 hours, so we left home about 8:15, but this was not to be our usual drive with one pit stop along the way.  Instead, since more decisions needed to be made regarding kitchen and bath fixtures, mom and dad decided that we would stop in Winston-Salem at the Ferguson Showroom.  You may be wondering why we went to the one in Winston, when the house is in Ashe County and we live in Raleigh.  I was wondering the same thing when my mom told me the plan.  Well, there is a showroom in Raleigh, but their Saturday hours were more limited.  There is also a store in Boone, which is about the same distance from the property as Winston, but their hours were more limited too.  So we ended up in Winston and spent about 2 hours browsing and deciding on a toilet, bathroom faucet, kitchen faucet, kitchen sink, bathroom sink, and shower fixtures.  Again you may be wondering how it could take us 2 hours, but believe me there is more to the whole process then just pointing to something and writing it down.

I’ll start with the toilet, now you’d think a toilet would be pretty simple, right, I mean we all know its purpose, so how can it be complicated?  We didn’t think it was that complicated, and prior to our shopping my dad, being the analytical type that he is, researched toilets using Consumer Reports and decided on the model he wanted.  They had it in the showroom, and it looked pretty good, but then another model caught his eye and he thought maybe we should change to it.  Here’s where the complication sets in.  We were looking at Kohler models and apparently there are different flushing technologies, who knew?  There’s the Class 5, which just sucks the water down, or the Ingenium, which swirls the water around the bowl, and the Class 6, which swirls the water around the bowl and sucks it down too.  Of course you also have to decide on a bowl shape, seat height and color.  After much discussion and clarification of the different technologies, we finally decided on a toilet.

That decision finally made we moved on to the bathroom faucet.  If you’ve ever browsed the bathroom fixture aisle at Home Depot or Lowe’s you know they just put all of the faucets on display, you look at them and pick one.  The same was true here, except there was a much larger variety of brands and styles.  Of course the ones on display showed only 1 or 2 finishes, there were more available and we had to decide which would work best for our bathroom.  We debated about oil rubbed bronze, brushed nickel, or chrome, finally settling on chrome.  The debate came about because we’re not sure what the counter top will exactly look like because the decorator mom had met with is looking for a remnant piece of granite and we’re not sure if she found the one my mom really liked or not.   You also have to decide if you want a centerset model or widespread.  After much looking over the different styles we decided on one from Moen.  We also made a simple decision on the bathroom sink, there was only one decision involved there: the color of the sink.  We decided on “Biscuit” which is an off white color.

Now to the kitchen faucet and sink.  Our kitchen is really more of a kitchenette, with just a small amount of counterspace.  We knew though from experiences at our current home what we like and don’t like in a kitchen sink and faucet.  Our requirements were simple: a sink that isn’t too shallow and a faucet with a high arc and sprayer.  Looking at the wall of kitchen faucets it was pretty easy to narrow down our choices, we knew that we only needed the faucet and handle, no separate sprayer or soap dispenser (mom and dad installed one of those and it didn’t work well so we didn’t want to make that mistake again).  So we decided on a Delta and again had to chose the finish.  Since we knew that we would have a stainless steel sink we decided on chrome for the kitchen faucet.  Since we don’t have much counterspace we didn’t want a sink that would take up to much space, so mom specified that it be a single bowl and no more than 24″ or so wide.  We settled on one from Elkay that was 25″ wide and 10″ deep.  However this decision has changed.  After leaving the Ferguson store we discovered that the sink we chose was about 3 times what we wanted to pay.  So, while we were in West Jefferson at the Lowe’s store we saw a much more economical one.  My dad called the Ferguson store on Monday and changed our choice to match our budget!

Finally it was time to sit down with the salesperson, finalize a few things, and type everything up.  Mom and dad were given an allowance from the builder for all of these fixtures, so the goal was to be as cost effective as possible while still choosing things we liked.  When we sat down, a few things changed from our original choices.  First, we found out the toilet we had decided on was being discontinued, so we went back to the original model my dad had read about and decided he wanted.  This also meant that we changed the faucets, because we had picked them to coordinate with the styling of the toilet.  Mom and I quickly picked out another one though.  The builder had already selected the shower enclosure and doors (no bathtub), so we just had to look at those and make sure they were ok.  With everything finalized we left the showroom and finally continued on our journey.  Our thanks to Latonya Peeples at the Ferguson store for all her help.

We have had other decisions to make: what color stone for the bottom of the structure, the color of the epoxy for the floor (we are leaving the concrete in place), and the lighting for outside.  Mom and Dad wondered what it would be like to have to decide everything for the entire house.  Hopefully this experience will help us if we ever build the house!

We finally arrived at the property and I got to see for the first time what had happened since construction began.  Mom and dad got to see the site with the concrete slab poured.  In my head it was bigger than it is in reality, but we all have a better sense now of exactly how large the garattage will be.

View as you would drive up to garattage

We dropped a few things off on the property, mom and I watered our apple orchard (which is doing well), dad sprayed some of the weeds and poison ivy, we went into town to pick up a few items and drop off a check to the electric company, and headed back home.

It was a long day, but very exciting to see progress being made.  Stay tuned for even more updates as framing work gets under way this week!

Me helping out with the grading work