The power is on!

The power was connected yesterday, and today they will test out the water (to make sure there aren't any leaks!). We plan to go up and stay this weekend, assuming that the water is working.......

We forgot the camera last weekend, so I don't have any updated pictures. The kitchen is still a mess anyway - boxes everywhere while I decide where to store things - decisions, decisions!

We have a CO!!!

We have a Certificate of Occupancy! This means the house has passed inspection, and they will come out next week and connect the electricity. We're heading up this morning to move some things and get the kitchen set up. Pictures next week!

Almost done!

We should have a CO (Certificate of Occupancy) this week! Which means they will connect the electricity either this week or next week. We'll be going up this weekend and starting the move of all the furniture, kitchen stuff, etc from the old house. Can't wait!

Anyway, here are the latest photos from this past weekend......

The skylights in the porch roof - didn't he do a beautiful job with the ceiling!


The cathedral ceiling of the screened porch - we'll be adding the screen next spring after we stain the woodwork.


The French doors into the living room....


The beautiful fall colors - past peak, but still beautiful!


Can anyone tell me what Tom is doing? First correct answer gets a voucher for a weekend visit at the Redd Roost!!!

And the roof goes on......

The roof went up on Saturday - well, almost all of it anyway.

They've got just a little more to do on the back side of the house. The door to the porch, and the siding to finish the outside are on order and will hopefully be here next week. They got the tank from the well installed under the house last week also. So we're making progress. I spent early morning Sunday up on the deck all by myself - it was so peaceful and quiet, and I took a picture of the sunrise....

I promised a picture of my Charlie Brown chair, so here it is! With a swatch of the material I might use to recover it....

Construction update

Progress has been made! If you notice the new title photo, we've got a deck and most of a porch! The porches have been finished this week, and the roofers should start next week. Next week, the well will be hooked up to the pump under the house, and they will install the heat pump. What's left? The electricity and plumbing have to be hooked up and a few other odds and ends. But the goal is to be finished by the end of the month. We're really hoping to be able to spend Thanksgiving up there.....



On the furnishings front, I'm working on my chairs for the dining room, and I bought another used chair. It's sort of a "Charlie Brown" chair - it looked like it needed a home, and I think will be perfect to sit next to the hearth. I'll recover it of course. I'll add a picture in my next post.

Setting the house

The foundation took forever.....after grading, we had to wait forever on the state to approve the footer plan. Once approved, the grader had to mark the footers and wait for an inspection. Then after pouring the footers, another inspection. Finally the masons could start the foundation. Unfortunately, we didn't get a good pictures of the whole foundation before the house was set, so no photo. The foundation looked really high, but after contemplating it for a bit, we decided we really liked it. After the foundation was laid, the home people had to bolt the house plate to the foundation. By this time, the house was finished and sitting on the lot in Sparta.

As Hurricane Hanna was approaching, the modular home people decided to set our house before the rains came. We almost missed it, since it was a last minute decision. It was pretty wild to see them bringing the house up the road and setting it with the crane.

Here's the first half before it was set on the foundation......you can see the fireplace, the small side porch, and one corner of the foundation.

It really something to see a house swinging in the air.
Watch and see for yourself!

We finally decided to build.....

After years of postponing building a house on our land, we finally decided to jump in. We had always planned to build our "dream house" and move to the mountains after our parents had passed away (We are both only children, and our mothers are in their 80's and 90's and need relatively constant attention, so a permanent move isn't possible). We finally decided that we're not getting any younger, and they may be with us for many years yet.

The dream house was not in the picture since we wouldn't be living up here full time, so we scaled down to an "affordable" modular home. We'll be blogging about the building of the home, the things we have learned along the way, and once it's built, we'll continue with decorating, landscaping and the fun and interesting things we do and see.

I'll be breaking up this inital blog into several posts, since we've been working on the house for a couple of months.