We Built A Wall

Bazinga!

Shout out to the Big Bang Theory fans! :) Love their theme song, so I stole a line.

To be honest, we didn't build the wall ourselves. We hired it out, as we know nothing at all about wall building. In fact, I learned a lot about walls during this process.

When I was in Middle School (back in the dark ages) we had an English teacher that required us to learn poetry. As in memorize it. And it had to be recited out loud in front of the class! I hated the very idea of reciting before the class, so she allowed me to recite privately to her. She was so kindhearted.  I memorized Robert Frost's "Mending Wall." "Something there is that doesn't love a wall..." I suppose walls have lots going against them. Water, gravity, and according to Robert Frost, Elves! But I do love my wall. It is well built and we expect it to last our lifetime. Here's hoping anyway.

When we bought the cabin, we loved it because it's perched on the mountainside overlooking another mountain.

This is a view from the road above the cabin. It appears to be hanging on for dear life to the mountainside!

That poses a problem with erosion, since the driveway and site for the house was carved, quite literally, out of the mountain. It's not attractive, either.

Here is the hillside next to the driveway.

And another view, to show how tall the cliff is. Look how it towers above the car! It was quite the eyesore, to say the least.

Knowing nothing about building walls, we knew we had to hire it out. The builder that we hired to complete the cabin had built the neighbor's retention wall, and so we knew he would do a beautiful job. It was his last job for us, and he did it so fast that we didn't even have time to snap a few "during" photos!

I learned a few things about wall building that was really interesting. In a nerdy sort of way. First, you have to lay out the line for where the wall will go. Then dig out the foundation (at least 1/10th the height of the wall), and line with gravel, then the first row of timbers. Then you have to stake them into the ground with rebar. And as you build up, there has to be some stabilizing timbers that go into the dirt to hold the wall in place. They are called, "dead men." Fascinating! It's also important to have weep holes for the water to come through so that the force of the water does not push out the wall over time. It's actually pretty complicated. So best left to the experts!

Here it is in all it's glory! Our builder said he felt like he had built the Ark. This thing is huge!

You can see the weep holes here, and also the 'dead men.'

So much better, don't you think? We did add some gravel to the driveway and it finished it off nicely. Maybe someday we will have the whole thing paved. But not anytime soon!

Here is the side of the yard, showing how he stair-stepped the wall to match the slope of the land.

Couldn't resist a pic of a lovely sunrise! This is from the deck on the back of the cabin.

Look what's blooming all over North Georgia! Thistles are so pretty, but viciously prickly. But I do love them anyway, being of Scottish heritage! Thistles are the national flower of Scotland after all.

So how do you like our wall? Doesn't it look better than the big, huge, monstrous, clay cliff that we had to look at every. single. day? I have to admit that I love it. :)

The End of Summer

Summer here in the mountains is quickly saying good bye! The temps are cooling, the days are getting shorter, and the lush green of summertime is now taking on a golden hue. I'm so excited about the change in seasons! Although I love each season, autumn in the mountains is a glorious thing to behold. It's like living in a rainbow.

Early morning rain just after a summer sunrise.

Watercolor sky

Field of fall wildflowers

The hummers will soon be migrating to warmer climates for the winter. I'll miss their antics around the flowers and feeder!

Unusual cloud formation over the mountain.

Orange zinnia I planted from seed this spring. I have enjoyed them so, and plan on collecting some of the seeds to plant next spring.

Here is a current pic of our cabin. It looks so different than the pic in the header. There is new life, and color, and so much joy in the last year!

Good bye, Summer. See you next year!

Green

There has been an unusual amount of rain this year. Like way, way more than usual. We have been in a drought situation here for several years, and we are definitely no longer in a drought! That means green. Lots and lots of green. It's quite beautiful and fresh looking. This is the road to our cabin with all the lovely shades of the color of summertime. It reminds me of all I have heard of Ireland with the 40 shades of green. Yes, it's on my bucket list to go there. :)

Doublehead Gap Road

All this green reminds me of the symbolism of water in the Bible. Jesus is called the Living Water, and the Bible is often referred to as water. After a long drought, it sure brings home the symbolism. Without water, everything dries up and eventually dies! With water, there is growth, newness, freshness, vibrancy, and eventually fruit of all that growth.

Another view along the same road

The deer are all getting fat from all the lush greenery they are eating! Everything is thriving.

 This was taken one morning just after the sun came up and it had been raining all night. One benefit of all that rain is seeing rainbows!

Rainbow over our cabin. My sister says we should call the cabin "Noah's Ark!"

We have probably seen more rainbows in the last year than in all our lives before put together.  Another connection with the Bible and water is God's promise to Noah.

One last pic for you of all the ferns in the valley...we live on the windward side of the mountain, so we have ferns aplenty!

Have a good weekend.

Rolling Out the Welcome Mat

After about a year and a half of nearly non-stop work on the cabin, we are finally ready to have some company. Other than family! We have furnished all the bedrooms, and have the yard looking decently cleaned up. That's a whole other post. The yard is really a challenge, especially since we are on the side of a mountain, and there is little that can be done to make it look nice. We are going for the natural, we- live-in-the-mountains-look. And hopefully not too much upkeep. No hedge trimming, etc. We did plant some roses, but the deer ate them, so it's just as well. The tomatoes we planted are doing nicely, though, and maybe the deer will leave those for us. They are welcome to the roses.

Cute little spotted fawn!

Anyway, back to the company. I have been a part of a Bible Study for about 10 years with some very lovely ladies. They are coming up for a few days next week, and we are going to eat out, hike up to the waterfalls, and just generally enjoy. Sunday and Monday nights are the annual Perseid Meteor Shower, so I am praying that there will be clear skies. Last year, it was spectacular. You could actually see the tails the meteors left all across the sky! We can't see that much here in suburbia. Too many lights.

Several years ago, I went to a family reunion for my McCay side of the family. My great-grandfather ran an old country store until he passed away in 1956, and it is sitting abandoned on the property that he and his second wife owned.  My cousin took me to see the old store, and we went inside and looked around. It's rather small, but had some interesting things inside.

My Great-Grandfather's Store in the 1950s. You can see his name on the sign.
Robertstown, Georgia

The store as it stands today. The weeds have all grown up around it, but it is still plumb and square!

After Grandpa's death, it was used as storage. There was an old iron bed leaning up against the wall. There were several boxes of old pickle jars. There were wooden shelves with boxes of junk, and even some family papers. We found my Grandpa's original marriage certificate to his second wife in them. We also found some pieces of chain that were hand forged, and looked very old. Long story short, I came home with the bed, and some jars, and the pieces of chain. The bed is now in the cabin, all cleaned up and looking good. We had the chains appraised, and they were from a US Civil War soldier's horse. They must have belonged to Edward McCay, my 2X great-grandfather, and father of the man who owned the store. 

Edward McCay with son John A. McCay and wife Polly.

Edward was also owner of the bed (the appraisal said it was from 1881, which was the very year he was married). Edward was the only one of my people who fought for the US (on my Dad's side), and he was in the cavalry, so it had to be his chain. We are so excited to have this small piece of history! 

Close-up of the "US" emblem

Trace chain, used by in 2X Great Grandfather in the Civil War

With Edward's bed all done up, it looks like a real bedroom now instead of a storage room. The bed was in rough shape, and one of the metal pieces had popped off. So I dragged it down to the welder and he did a spot weld for me. Then I cleaned it up and painted it a nice, oil rubbed bronze. It was actually very close to the original color.

The bed in original condition.

Original color

After the repair and paint, all I needed was a mattress and some pillows. The fabric is from the little fabric shop where I buy everything. Fabric World. You rock.

The bed, all ready for company!

You can see the oil rubbed bronze color in this shot. Very close to the original color.

The little welcome pillow is made from a 50 cent remnant. Gotta love the price, right? And the welcome monogram was done as a gift from my daughter in law's mama. She's a sweetie.

So officially the welcome mat is out!

Or maybe I should say the welcome pillow is out.

Here is a view of the other side of the room. The little dresser is a flea market find. The rocking chair belonged to my other 2X Great-grandfather. It is from 1906, and needs a little repair. Working on that one for later.

Other side of the room

 The pillow in the rocker says, "My family tree is full of nuts." Truer than you know.

Privacy Please!

Even though the Master Bedroom and Bathroom are officially finished (at least as far as the construction goes!) there is still some fine tuning to be done. Remember those UGLY windows?

The UGLY window

The plastic, textured ones that blocked the view but didn't pass code? We had them replaced with clear glass that was tempered and double paned. Much nicer looking, I must say. But there was a privacy issue. This ain't no peep show, people. You could actually SEE inside the bathroom from the front of the cabin. Yikes. We can't have that, now can we? No indeedy. The first (and temporary) solution was to hang some panels that I bought at a discount outlet.

The temporary, dark, cheap, window panels

They were 50 cents each, and I bought 6 for each window. At 3 windows, that's 18 panels for only 9 smackers. The problem was that 3 were needed for each side of the window, creating space between the panels that you had to arrange carefully every time you closed them to avoid being able to see in. It was annoying. It was also dark. We spent lots of cash to change those textured windows to upgraded clear, double paned, up-to-code ones, and I didn't want to hide them. So, I went to my favorite little fabric shop and found tons of fabric that would be just perfect for only a dollar a yard! I bought 20 yards, which was enough for all the windows and also a matching shower curtain. Score.

New curtains closed

New curtains open!

After sewing the window panels, I hung them on rods and rings. Its so easy now to open and close them, and no worries about anyone seeing in. I haven't made the shower curtain yet, but that will be my next sewing project.

My next project (other than sewing a shower curtain) is to paint a large mirror to hang above the master bathroom vanity. We currently have one up just so that the bathroom is functional, but it's not nearly large enough for two sinks. More on that later!

Gotta go and celebrate my hubby's birthday. It's officially on Monday, but we are celebrating this weekend with our sons and daughters in law. Fun times!

Supermooned

Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day. The humidity was low, and the temperature was not too high. At least for here in the ATL.  So it was perfect for viewing the perigree moon, or supermoon as non-pros like to call it.

My hubby had to work, so I went by myself to the park to do my moon viewing. We have so many trees here in the neighborhood that you can't really see anything unless it's way up high in the center of the sky, so off I went to a more open space. It was surprising to see so many folks there with cameras, waiting for the moon to rise so that they could enjoy it, and capture it with their cameras. Which, by the way, ranged from iPhones to huge, professional things with long lenses. Color me jealous.

Anyway, when I arrived at the park, the moon was already up and it was still daylight.

Supermoon Rising

Moon with a large Georgia Pine

I like this composition. Also played around with the saturation and contrast.

Moon with birds flying

Two for the price of one!

Supermoon Nest

As I walked around the park, the sun set and the moon rose and I was in awe. It was a lovely evening. God's creation is always inspiring to me! When I was a kid, my dad bought us a telescope and taught us about the stars, showed us the constellations, and stayed up with us to watch the Perseid Meteor Shower from our backyard.  I credit him with my love of science. This one's for you, Dad!

Masterful Master

The original owners of the cabin had started a reno, and couldn't finish it. It was really scary to see it in the state that I first saw it in. The master bedroom had the roof, outside walls, and subflooring, and nothing else.

Master Bedroom Before

This is how it looked before anything was done. For some reason, the ceiling was planned so that there would be a flat ceiling, instead of a vault. That was the first thing I wanted to change. The second thing was that the two windows in the corner were textured plexiglass, and hideously ugly. I mean, I'm all for privacy in the bath, but it looked so cheap. And it was dangerous! You could actually put your hand on the plexiglass and move the plastic back and forth because it was so thin. If you fell against the window while getting out of the bath, you would surely go straight through. Not that anyone would see you, except for the deer. It  didn't pass code either, so it had to go. Anyway, we got our contractor to take down the flat ceiling joists and vault the ceiling. He added new insulation (goodbye old, dirty, nasty insulation!), new electrical stuff, plumbing, heating and air outlets, and of course all the finishes.

Getting started! Notice the ceiling has been raised! So excited about that.

New electric work

New electric box

This is the linen closet located in the bathroom. :)

Master Closet

Love those high ceilings!

Little better view of how high the ceilings are. Why would anyone NOT want that?

Looking from the bedroom into the bathroom on left, and closet in right.

Progress!

Where the tub will go.

Where the vanity will go.

Now all the walls and done!

Walls and windows, and also spotlights in!

Got the tub in, but notice those UGLY windows!

Bathroom linen closet, with door to the water closet.

Nice walk-in closet.

Walk-In Closet before the flooring was in.

We added a faux-antler chandy.

Another view with the light on.

Bathroom vanity is in, and so is the tub.

The vanity was a steal at Home Depot! It was clearanced out for about $800, including granite top, the sinks, and soft close doors. Score!!!

I love this tub! Love, love, love!! You can see the horrible textured glass better here.

Linen closet.

Water Closet!

Shower. I chose the acrylic surround that has no grout or caulk. I hate cleaning caulk and grout!

Shelves in the closet!

Our contractor, William, is truly a master. He was great to work with, and very knowledgeable about all things related to building and floor plans. My hat is off to him! He guided us through things I had never thought about, like which way doors should open, and where to put electrical outlets and switches. It was his idea to angle the linen closet to open up the space, then angle the tub to mirror the angle of the closet. It looks really great.

So, we are officially done with construction in the master, but there are several things still left to be finished. Furniture, for one thing! We need a mirror to go over the vanity (we have a temporary puny one up for now). And window treatments, and some pretty finishing touches. Rustic, and appropriate for a cabin, tho, of course!

This is such a long post, but I'm trying to catch up on the construction part in one post. More on the finishing up of the master later. Stay tuned!