Trip to Amish Country

We had a super day Saturday, driving up to Amish country in Northern Indiana. Instead of going to a major store, we looked for small roadside signs and followed a long farm lane 'til we came to a workshop behind a barn. Ervin Bontrager and his 12 sons (90 grandchildren) made the above laptop computer desk and chair, which we purchased for the upstairs. It's solid oak of course.

We intend to take a similar excursion next Saturday, looking for someone to build Susan a sewing desk. It is super fun talking to the people who actually make the furniture. We also bought a wonderful hall tree as well as a rack to hang coats or towels on. After we left Mr. Bontrager, we went to an Amish bakery and ate superior Cinnamon rolls. Then we went to a major store and priced the same items we had just purchased at about forty percent more than what we paid without the middleman. Pretty cool.

Below is a picture we took today of our campsite at Lukens Lake where we'll live May 6 - June 17. We are hoping we don't have to pay extra for the truckload of scrap metal that seems to share the site! Oh well.

April 8 Update

This has been a crazy busy week at Cattail, with everything finally happening at once and hordes of workers and subcontractors at the site. Among the seemingly hundreds of decisions we’ve made in the past five days are these:

Landscaping (see pictures - grass got literally planted today, amazing); we interviewed the landscaper, inspected his work, and are contracting this out ourselves

Steps to the creek (see picture)

Stones by easement (see picture)

Drainage for the drives

Split-rail locust fence along the front

Electrical and water to the camper

Cabinet fittings

Desk for my office

Built-in bookshelves around fireplace

Rollout bed and window seat and cabinet and shelves for the bonus room

Handrails for the balcony/upstairs hall

Ramp for the sideporch and entry to laundry room

Tile for the baths (we interviewed the tiler, inspected his work, and our contracting this out ourselves)

Dozens of little electrical and lighting decisions

Moving the powerpole and burying the lines to the house

Built-in wiring for the TV, dvr, iPod, etc. hookups behind the fireplace

More Amish furniture for the upstairs (one more bed, one dresser, and two rocking chairs) – that entailed a trip to Hickory.

Location and hookup for gas grill

We also visited our banker and our attorney, and we hiked to a nearby mine up the Bolens Creek road to pick up a few pretty rocks for the fireplace.

And we also found a designer (the woman who has helped us with our cabinets) to help us pick out the paint colors for each room (that will be a walk-through when we come back in a few weeks).

I’m sure I’m leaving something out, but it is been both exhilarating and tiring. Not to mention we have gone on long walks every day with the doggies.

The other pictures here show the color of the roofing (sans copper metal over the dormers and porches) and if you look carefully in the chimney picture and the dormer picture you can see the “battens” going up over the “boards” that comprise the “board and batten siding.”

Tired as we are, we are already looking forward to our next trip, in about three weeks!

New Porch

These pics show what the crew did today. The porch roof is on. Everything in this picture that is now cinder bock will be covered with stone, plus a ton of fill dirt will cut down the overall height you see here.

The picture with the jeep shows 20 feet of azaleas and day lilly bulbs that I dug up and temporarily transplanted so that the fill process, after the septic is in, won't destroy all the planting that were along the road.

Locust Posts

It all started with this pile of locust logs, cut in Yancey County.

The above picture shows several pieces of unstained cedar, from the Tennessee border. The real gnarly piece on the bottom is our fireplace mantel.

These two pieces are locust, from Yancey county. When stained, they will frame the fireplace.

These two locust posts, from Yancey County, are now stained and will support the bonus room.

Ron Chandler makes all this - he is the former principal of Pensacola Elementary School.

Here is another picture of the fireplace, which Tony worked on today. It will be all stone, all the way to the cathedral ceiling. Picture the above locust logs and cedar mantel framing the opening.

This picture is from the kitchen - the two posts you see here will be replaced by the stained locust poles you see in the above picture with Randy and Ron. They are on either side of the split level bar/counter which separates the kitchen from the Great Room.

March Update - Downstairs

This is the fireplace - notice how high the cathedral ceiling is. The fireplace and chimney will be faced with stone, and there will be a 55" TV above the mantel. The fireplace itself will be framed by stained locust posts, which are "themed" throughout the house (see "Upstairs" update as well as description below for more details).

This is the master bed room - very high ("tray") ceiling.

Great room looking towards the kitchen and the bonus room (upstairs). There will be two stained locust poles supporting the beam you see that goes from left to right. The window in the center of the picture is over the kitchen sink, and the window to the left is in the laundry room.

The workers completed the framing for the roof over the front porch today.

View of deck up the stream.

This is a little hard to explain, but there have to be two very sturdy beams supporting the upstairs hallway and bonus room. Rather than using steel beams, we are using actual locust trees (stripped of bark and stained). Randy and Ediwin picked out four nice ones, and the other two will be split and used for the fireplace and also for two exposed corners at the end of the downstairs hall. This will tie the great room together and give the house more of a mountain cabin look rather than a country home look.

March 3 Progress Report - Upstairs

This is a bit hard to describe, but it shows a small part of an upstairs guest room - this room is shaped like a Z with a straight bar connecting the top and bottom; interesting and full of usable space. The dormers create cool ceiling lines.

This is the upstairs hall facing toward the bathroom - look high on the right and you will see a special shelf for pottery, pictures or Christmas decorations - it can be lighted.

This is the upstairs hall looking towards the bonus room and down into the kitchen.



Looking down the hall to the upstairs bathroom and towards the fireplace in the great room; the railing will be made of stained locust beams and wrought iron.
This is the storage area above the master bedroom, accessed off the larger of the two upstairs guest rooms. It will be drywalled, and there there will be shelves and hanging rods in here.




This is the storage area above the kitchen, accessed from the bonus room. On the right you can see the framing for the recessed book shelf.

Bonus room - a custom bilt king size bed disguised as a window seat will be folded together under the windows.
This shows the stairs going up into the bonus room - all the sloped ceilings up here will be stained tongue and grove.

February Progress Report

Randy sent us pictures last week. Here is how the cabin looked as of Feb. 20:

We believe they are working on the front porch this week and installing the windows. The board and batten siding may also be going on, while other crews are inside doing the electrical and plumbing. Progress seems good, despite awful weather. We are hoping to get in by mid-June; terrible weather also in North Manchester has delayed Susan's retirement by a whole week, so the real goal is to get in by the end of June so that we can celebrate the 4th of July with the kids and grand kids.

Worth is going down next week to finalize networking issues and appliances, so he will update the blog again then. Bet we'll see some cool changes!!

Then we will go down in April and pick out the hot tub!!