Archive for February, 2007

Inside cabin walls

Published by Debbie February 28th, 2007 in Cabin style. 3 Comments

I wonder what you thought I meant by this post title? Did you think I was talking about what goes on inside our house? Did you think I was talking about the cabin infrastructure? Or maybe you imagined a completely wood paneled interior? Yes in a way to all of those, but I was talking about what do to coat the occaisional sheetrock walls that some cabins have.

We have lived here over three years and one of the projects that weighed on my mind was what to do with those walls. Our cabin is mostly tongue and groove pickled pine but there were a few importantly placed walls that are sheetrock. I had paint chips taped on one of them for about two years before I decided. I chose a shade of Ralph Lauren’s River Rock textured paint that mimics the pickled stain color with a sub-tone that picks up the grey mountainstone of the fireplace. The final decision was somewhat impulsive in that I decided on Christmas Eve that I wanted to get it done before New Year’s Eve since I thought we would probably have company……Okay, then…Home Depot here we come. 

There is a short video presentation at the paint display. We watched it. We brought home the in-store brochure and the custom rollers. I even looked up the RLhome website and watched the video again.We took all the books, pictures and tschotskes off the 16′ wall of bookcases (had to paint behind there). We just jumped right in on Tuesday after Christmas. I had done faux finishes before and we have both painted plenty. But, we just didn’t get it. After the first wall had it’s first coat, I was looking for the 800-number on the brochure.  We realized the instructions we had just didn’t cover it…literally. Our walls looked like somebody and taken cream and grey paints and rubbed steel wool on them and then let their cat wipe it off.

Well after the call with RLHome, we realized our whole week between holidays just got booked. We squeezed in a trip to Atlanta to the Louvre at the High with friends, an after- Christmas dessert party at another friends’ home and more painting.

Now to say I’m a perfectionist doesn’t really describe my motivation to get this done right. Since we had some of the silver down off the shelves, I also wanted to get it polished. I needed to re-arrange the family pictures. Our family and subsequent collection of photos has grown so much, it was beginning to look like we worshipped our ancestors and our descendants. And I had to make peace with the souvenirs and the like that cluttered the landscape and put them to rest. I intended to pull all-nighters if that is what it took. I almost forgot to mention that I had fabric for the kitchen curtains for a year and it was collecting dust. Once I set the deadline, it was set in stone…no pun intended.

So we rolled and re-rolled and edged and complained and griped and rolled some more. Some of the walls took 3 coats to get it right, but it looks great now. The books are straightened up, the knick-knacks are dusted and/or put away. Most of the pictures of the darling offspring are relegated up  to the office in the loft. The touch of red in the kitchen adds a special punch.  It was definitely worth it, and, if you have any walls in your cabin that need a special rustic contemporary touch, call Ralph. He can get it done.

Update: Here is a picture. I took more than one but for some reason they aren’t formatting. If you like, I can email them if you are interested.We still have to do the wall going up the stairwell….
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Log cabin or log sided?

Published by Debbie February 22nd, 2007 in Cabin style. 4 Comments

Though not an expert on this topic, I would like to clarify one of the main questions people have on the construction of cabins. I will link to other websites that give a more thorough explanation at the end.

There are so many things you need to know especially if you are building your own house or having it custom built. Please educate yourself. There are lots of good books and websites on this subject and even more decisions for you to make.

My immediate concern here is to help you identify visually which of these houses you are looking at when you see a log house. In the Blue Ridge area, many, if not most, of the houses you are seeing are log-sided. This means that the construction process is basically the same as for any frame house….that is, the house is framed with 2 x4’s (generally) and the outside is finished with siding that is milled to look like logs. In Fannin County, the most popular finish for the interior walls is tongue and groove pine paneling. This adds to the cost of the house but gives a similar appearance to that of a full-log home.log_siding.jpg Log Siding

A full-log home is built by one of various methods of stacking the logs on top of each other. Sometimes the logs sometimes have a layer of “chinking” between them that looks like a white stripe running between each log(sometimes this is ‘faux’). The logs may have different profiles as some logs are natural-shaped while others are planed or hand-hewn. If you will study the corners of these homes, you will notice that most(but not all) have the logs clearly intersecting each other.
log-home-construction.jpg Stacking logs

You may have to walk right up to some homes to discern whether the construction is log or log-siding. With the introduction of ‘faux’ chinking and ‘faux’ corners (yep), builders are much more closely able to replicate the appearance of a full log home building using standard construction.

Here is one website you will definitely want to visit….The Log Homes Council…and here is a Wikipedia entry on log homes…..

Let me know if you want more posts on this or similar subjects!

Snow visitors allowed!

Published by Tim February 18th, 2007 in Family. 1 Comment

Debbie and I were treated to a very pleasant surprise yesterday. Our daughter- in- law  called and said she would bring the baby to  visit and spend the night since Brandon had to work.
We were overjoyed about the idea. When Sandy and Ava arrived it begin to snow. We had already called the other kids to meet us in town for dinner. As we left the house and had to go over Deep Gap, we found it was already snowed over and frozen.
 I called the kids from the car and told them the bad news…. but, if you know Tara, you know they were not deterred by a couple inches of snow…… they were able to get behind a salt truck and follow it to our house.  Debbie and I made the quickest pot of chili and pan of cornbread ever. Tara, Tiffany, and Jamie were not able to stay long after dinner. Their house is on the other side of the county, way, way back in the sticks.
It has been fun having Ava here. She is such a happy baby. We don’t get to see her often but when we do it is great. For some reason, she starts to cry when I hold her.. go figure with my good looks and all. But last night she let me feed her and she went to sleep in my arms. And, yes, Debbie does spoil her………. but not me.

P.S. If you are new to this blog, there is more info on our family on the About page.
P.P.S. Baby pictures….just ask!

Bathroom domain

Published by Tim February 16th, 2007 in Mere observations. 1 Comment

Debbie and myself are very fortunate to have three bathrooms in our house. The bathroom in our room is of course the master bath.
Big long counter space and all the features. Well, the long counter top became very small to me. All I needed was just a little space for my few items. But it begin to get smaller as my items began falling off the edge.
So I came up with the idea of just moving my toiletries downstairs to the middle bathroom. The only thing I left in the master bath was my toothbrush in the holder, just to show that I did exist at one time in that room.
This morning as I was preparing to leave the house I went into my bathroom. When I flipped on the light, I was  shocked, as I begin to hear the sound track from the  ”Jaws” movie in my head. There it were makeup items on my counter and all I could say was (and, here,  borrowing a phrase from “Pirates of the Carribean”), “But, why my room, woman?”…. well we have one more bathroom downstairs and if that does not work out then I guess it is outdoors for me.

Here or there?

Published by Debbie February 13th, 2007 in Mere observations. 2 Comments

chicago-snow.jpg
To our friends in Florida, hang on..winter will soon be over and you can come back up here. But, to our friends in Chicago…what are you waiting for?

Winter gardening

Published by Debbie February 8th, 2007 in Cabin style. 1 Comment

Oxymoron maybe, but I keep looking out the window at my pitiful looking flower bed. It sits right next to the driveway on top of the retaining wall. Its loaded with all kinds of rose bushes….shrub, climbing, groundcover and even David Austin…..Then there are vinca (groundcover also known as periwinkle), irises(even now starting to peek through), azaleas, daylilies, summertime annuals and even a few herbs (parsley, sage, rosemary and chives). Well, right now it looks forlorn. I have a few tasks I could do to improve it but it wouldn’t be all that noticeable to anyone else….spring-fleurs-tiny.jpg This is just a tiny bit of the garden in May…..This image doesn’t begin to showcase all the different hues and varying textures…My roses think they live in Seattle. It is really easy to grow them here. I try to keep it cottage-y looking so is in keeping with the woodsy environment. And if you are daydreaming about this spring’s garden, flowers or vegetables, check out this site, National Gardening Association. You’ll find plenty to keep you (mentally) busy.

Contact

Published by Debbie February 6th, 2007 in Uncategorized. 4 Comments

We’ve added a link to a page where you can send us a note. If you have a question about the area, if you are looking for something around town, have a suggestion  or you would like to say hi!….Also, check out our Sideroads page for some interesting notes!

Downtown Explosion

Published by Tim February 3rd, 2007 in Local culture. 0 Comments

First off let me get a picture for you of downtown Morganton when I was growing up there.
Quite simply, it was nothing fancy…. we had a post office, a feed store, a barber shop (more about this one later), a full service gas station…and I do mean full service. for those who don’t understand what a full service gas station is, well, here it is - you pull up and an attendant puts the gas in your car; then, while this is going on you get your windows washed, tires checked, oil checked…… all this while you sat in the convenience of your automobile.
Well, there were other businesses too. There was a shoe repair shop so you could keep wearing the same pair of shoes forever. There was also another shop which would be close to today’s thrift store, but this stuff was piled up so high you would dig and dig until maybe you found something.
Also we had what would be called “a one- stop store”,  if you needed gas you could get it there or you could get a few groceries as well.
One hot summer day, as our house was only maybe 50 or 60 yards from downtown,  there was a loud explosion that came from down the street. We were all really shocked as this was something that was not common in Morganton. My brother, Larry, and I, of course, wanted to get the first look on this strange happening in town, but our mother had other ideas.

She told us to stay where we were and she would go out later and see what was wrong. …little did we know that when she said she would go out later she really meant later, like 3 or 4 hours.
Can you imagine what goes through a young lad’s mind, and what ideas his big brother is feeding his mind  during this outrageously long period of time??
Well, at last mom returned, she said that Pete, the gas station owner, (that was not his real name, but I will protect the innocent) somehow had gas from his tanks leak into his well in the back of the store. When the well pump came on, it made a spark that caused the explosion.
That made sense to us as it did with everyone else in town. But I would find out the real truth a few weeks later, as my dad let it leak out.
Seems Pete and his friend were in the process of making a little shine. In the back of the store there were fumes, but not gas fumes. There was a spark from the well pump and when it all came together we had an explosion in downtown Morganton.
And if you wonder the outcome of Pete and his friend… well they were ok. They were outside on the bench that everyone in town sat on. So they were not harmed and neither was the store. Since there was not structural damage and no human  damage, a lesson was learned. The moonshine would continue to run in the back of the store.
Old still

Snow day?

Published by Debbie February 1st, 2007 in Mere observations. 0 Comments

        copy-of-snowy-scene-aska-rd.jpg

Eh. Here are shots of the house and of Aska Rd…the snow started turning to rain about 7:30….right before it got light..oh well.

Weather

  • Weather for Blue Ridge, GA
  • Temperature: 31F
  • Forecast: Fair
  • Current Time: 3:29 AM
  • Sunrise: 7:21 AM
  • Sunset: 5:33 PM
  • Visibility: 10.0mi
  • Wind: calmmph
  • Humidity: 74
  • Dewpoint: 25
  • High: 56
  • Low: 27