Friday, December 21, 2007

Floor Show

We are now proud owners of a floor. For the first time we were able to walk out on what will be the main floor of the house and get a feel for what it will be like and check out the view.




This last picture was taken from what will be the screened porch. The porch is where the open floor boards are.

Monday, December 17, 2007

I'd walk a million miles...

I almost forgot! Last Sunday (the 9th) was Robert's birthday. He's 69! He was 56 when we got married. I guess I never thought he would be 69. Nancy tells me I didn't think that one through too well. Instead of going out to dinner and spending a fortune (retiree budget) I made his favorite dinner Saturday night. Pot roast. Then we did what any 69-year-old would do on his birthday. We listened to Al Jolson records. We REALLY did. There's nothing like spending a Saturday night listening to "Mammy." Sunday, we met Miss Bobbie and her NEW BEAU for lunch at the Grovewood Cafe. Robert behaved (sorta) and didn't throw out any "Oakleyisms" to him like, "You better not get my sister-in-law pregnant./What's the matter, you sterile?"
Oh, and the new beau was very nice.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Construction Dec. 14

We went to the house yesterday and part of the floor is in. We couldn't walk out on it yet. There is a ditch/moat around the house that they'll fill in next week so to get there you have to walk on a rickety plank. Neither one of us wanted to try it. We are anxious to walk out and see what the view will be like standing in the living room. The last picture was taken looking out from Robert's media room.



Waiting for Santa

Harvey is pouting because I made him wear jingle bells around his neck.
After I put the skirt around the tree he left me a present on it. A big pile of puke! Don't worry, I cleaned it up.

Construction Dec. 11

After the Choose & Cut we stopped for lunch in Marion. We were looking for a greasy spoon but couldn't believe we couldn't find one in a small southern town. We ended up at a chocolatier that seemed to be the only place in town that served lunch. The decor was very "interesting." It was a mixture of French cafe, 50's diner and small-town southern restaurant. The old tin ceiling was painted pink, there were pictures of Marilyn Monroe and Rock 'n Roll posters along with red-checkered table cloths and family photos on the piano. All this decorated for Christmas complete with a spinning Christmas tree. The cook came out and took our order because the waitress was busy with the other customer. It took a long time for us to pay our bill because they couldn't process our Visa card because one of the employees was on the phone so they couldn't call it in. As we were leaving I spotted an autographed picture of Goober hanging on the wall.
From there we went to check on our house. They were working on the framing for the main floor. Soon we will have a floor to walk on!

Choose & Cut


Tuesday we decided to get a Christmas tree. We drove about an hour or so northeast of Asheville to Linville Falls. That's where most of the Christmas tree farms are except they don't call them Christmas tree farms here, they're known as a "Choose & Cut." Very simple. You choose and a Mexican cuts it down for you. All they have here are Frasier Firs. Aka the Cadillac of Christmas trees. The Frasier Fir trees only grow at high elevations so if you bought a Frasier Fir it probably came from North Carolina. Only they chose AND cut and YOU paid top dollar. Not trying to rub it in or anything but it was really strange going to cut down a Christmas tree and we had the air conditioning on in the car and we were sweatting as we walked around to choose so they could cut. It was over 70 degrees! Last time I went to a Christmas tree farm I nearly froze to death and had to carry Erin around (she was a bit smaller then) and I vowed I would never do it again. Come to think of it, a Mexican guy cut that tree for me, too...



Construction Dec. 8


Saturday we went out to check on the house and ran into Tom Lawton, the architect. He's not sure if there will be room for a circle at the top of the driveway for a turn-around so is re-thinking it. I told him I don't care just as long as I don't have to back down the driveway.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Asheville Cats

Today the boys helped me put fresh sheets on the bed. It's one of their favorite things to do.


Weather

After visiting the property Tuesday I did a little shopping in Black Mountain. It was chilly, but sunny. I was wearing a vest and no coat. Wednesday I went shopping in downtown Asheville and it was really warm. About 60. People were walking around without coats. Later that day it clouded up and the wind picked up and it rained a bit. This morning I woke up to find heavy frost or snow on my car and on the deck. Today it only went up to about 40 but it was sunny all day.


Construction Update Dec. 4


Tuesday, I went with Ginger, one of the architects, to look at some custom kitchen cabinets in a B&B in Black Mountain that the architect had designed. After that we went out to the house site so she could see the progress. The lower level is almost finished being framed in and the storage shed on the back of the carport is framed in.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Sunday Walk


Today, once again, the weather was gorgeous. Every day this week it's been in the high-50's to 60 degrees and sunny. At night it goes down near freezing. It's supposed to cool off a little this week so thought we should take advantage of it. We decided to go for a walk so we went to the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Folk Art Center is a place where tourists pay big bucks to purchase local craft items. It's only a few miles from our house and we went there because we heard there are hiking trails there. The Mountains-to-Sea Trail passes right by the Art Center. It is a trail that - guess what? Goes from the mountains to the sea following the Parkway. We walked for about an hour. We couldn't believe it was December and we were outside without a coat. After our walk we drove up the Parkway a bit then got off on a side road and drove around the mountains in an area we hadn't been yet.

Oops! I Lied!

Here are pictures of Day 3 of the Walls. I couldn't help myself. They got so much more finished in one day. All the rooms on the lower level are framed in and most of the exterior walls are in. You can see on the back exterior wall where the windows and doors are. There will be 3 sets of atrium doors across the back.
We were on our way to Black Mountain to join in some holiday festivities. There was a Santa Clause Parade at 4:00 so we decided to skip that and visit our walls instead. After the parade the townspeople were gathering in town on Lake Tomahawk where there were supposed to be luminaries circling the lake. By the time we got there it was dark but you could barely see the luminaries. They weren't very luminous. Robert looked into one of the paper bags and it was a fake luminarie! Instead of a candle there was a little blinking lightbulb in each bag. Then we saw a long line of people and figured there must be something good but they were just waiting for hotdogs. There was a sorry-looking Santa with a few kids lined up to see him. Robert had the brilliant idea of going into town to have a glass of wine instead. We ended up at the Cellar Door (the best place in town) and had a few very good glasses of wine then went home. Maybe next year we'll catch the parade.



Friday, November 30, 2007

Walls, Day 2

They work fast! It already looks a lot different than yesterday. I won't put pictures up everyday. I'll try to stagger them.



It's starting to feel more like a house, now that we can look out the "windows" to the view. This is just the lower level. 'Can't wait to see the view once we have an upper level. The room with the red stepladder in the corner is Erin/Bobbie/guest bedroom.

We's Got Walls!

The walls have started to go up! These were taken Wednesday, November 28.




Linville Falls, Again



I think the fog added something to the view from above.

Linville Falls Revisited

Last time I went to Linville Falls I successfully completed a difficult hike down into the gorge with Bill & Kent (one to push - one to pull) to view the falls from below. This time we opted to take the high road and view the falls from above.




It was quite a different perspective looking down into the gorge.