Happy Easter

Happy Easter

Two blogs in two days! Alert the media!!

We were out exploring yesterday - spring is here - and decided to share some of our pictures.

 From our house we could see a white patch on the other side of our property. Since the Dogwood are in bloom we thought we might have one. We ventured out to check. We found these daisies.

 

We found huge patches of wild strawberry plants. Some of the flowers had taken a beaten from hail a few days earlier - like the Violet and the one on the right - not sure what it is - Kathy Stilwell would know.

 We found the Dogwood - Jim counted 10 trees. We feel very fortunate to have them because they can get sparse at this elevation.

 Not sure what this is but it is ready to pop open.

 Back at the house, my herbs are doing great!

 I'm waiting until after Mother's Day to plant them outside; if we don't eat them first!

Jim is doing a great job on the stone work for the fireplace. It is looking really nice.

"Why don't they write?"

"WHY DON'T THEY WRITE?"

So it has been a long time again since our last post, however, we aren't slackers. We have been plugging away with project after project. Let's get right to it...

Staining and trimming out the windows has been a big job. We are still using a water based stain from Build It Naturally in Asheville. It is an eco friendly stain and doesn't make the house smell when we use it.

We were fortunate to get this hutch from Tom and Kathy that was in my Great Uncle Buck's farm house in Ohio. It has been in storage for many years. Edrianna spent many hours washing off old soot and dirt from the back and bottom. We have no idea how old this piece is, but it is definitely an antique. This recycled piece of furniture fits in perfectly with our style. 

This was a very mild winter for us but it doesn't look like it in this short video. Last year they had over 50 inches of snow and this year we only had a few inches. We got off easy. But I was really disappointed I didn't get to use my new sled. 

Edrianna has been getting a head start on her herb garden. She wants to cover the mound in the video you just saw with herbs. She is going to need a lot of them! 

 The kitchen was the biggest construction project and that's done now. We are really pleased with the space and amount of storage.

 All the upper cabinets, except the ones above the frig and range, slide out like the spice cabinet so that Edrianna can reach everything easily. She loves how everything works and says, "I love my kitchen" every time she is in it.

 I've been taking some of the wood scraps and turning them into furniture. This piece hides our DVD player, VCR player and amplifier. It works great as a side table.

 I've been getting really good at making the furniture look weathered. This is important because I wanted it to match the piece we already had (below).

 This is our existing trunk. I made it taller by adding a bottom piece.

 It hides our TV and speakers when not in use. We made a conscious decision not to get cable or satellite TV. I hooked it up to an antenna and we get a dozen high def stations for free - whoo hoo! Our favorite is PBS explorer. Most of the time the trunk is closed so we can look out the window. At night when we are done working we put in a movie or watch a PBS special.

 I've started working on my office. Some of this is left over plywood from the house construction. The printer and scanner slide out like the kitchen cabinets.

 This shows the printer out when it is in use. 

I finished the master bath vanity. This was two living room side tables. I built the additional drawers and center shelves for the baskets, added the counter top and back splash.

 In our quest to be living green we are composting daily. So far our compost bin is bear proof - most likely he hasn't tried it yet. It is amazing how much smaller our regular garbage is and we only have to go to the dump every couple weeks - and then it is mostly recyclables.

We added a rain barrel to the front down spout. It fills up with one good rain storm. We have two more down spouts on the house and we are trying to decide it we will actually need that much water. The barrel holds about 75 gallons of water. It has a screen on top to prevent mosquitoes from laying eggs. It also has connections for attaching additional barrels and an overflow spout.

 I'm installing more perimeter fencing for obvious reasons. Our neighbors are checking it out and they don't like it one bit!

 Edrianna decided to add some flowers instead of only doing herbs. She is using creeping phlox. One of Kathy's garden's gave her the idea after watching all the butterflies that were enjoying the phlox.

Mountain Laural that sacrificed themselves when the house went in are now part of our fence.

I also used Mountain Laurel in the transom window between Edrianna's office and the living room. It looks great. It is nice to bring some of the outside into the house. 

 I've started the masonry work on the fireplace.

 This is the scratch coat of mortar that goes on before the stone.

I'm laying out the stones to make sure they fit. Then I'll attach them. This is for the section just below the mantel. All the stones are rocks we picked up during the excavation for the foundation.

We had a surprise visit the other morning. This golden retriever showed up and wanted in. He belongs to our neighbor to our east. 

Spring has sprung. These two picture are wild flowers near our creek. I haven't identified them yet. 

The guys in these next photos I have identified. This chubby little morning dove is enjoying our new bird bath.

This was the first bird we saw at our feeder. I sent photos of him to my mother-in-law to find out what type of bird this is. She let me know it's a Black Capped Chickadee.

This is a Golden Finch. One of five different species we have seen at the feeder (not including the squirrel).

 Tom and Kathy and their dogs have been up for a visit.

The newest member of their family is Kosmo. 4 1/2 lbs soaking wet. 

Here's Cindy on the "balance beam" that goes over our creek. She is very agile.

Just when we thought spring was here - we had a 20 hail storm - today (April 5th). It was about an inch thick in some places. I've never seen anything like that in my life.

We were warned that it could snow in April but no one said anything about hail. Several people told us that they had a bad storm a few years ago that shut down the town for 10 days. 

We will be sure to get our generator before next winter.

By the way, do you know what movie the quote we used for this blog title is from?

NO WE HAVEN'T FALLEN OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH

No we haven't fallen off the face of the earth or frozen to death...

You are probably wondering where we've been since December 8th - or not!
A lot has happened since we officially move in and we haven't been faithful with keeping up with the blog because frankly, at the end of the day we just crash! So here we go....

Our biggest indoor project, now that we are on our own for the finish work, is the kitchen cabinets. This is the beginning of the upper cabinets. I'm hanging the upper cabinets from this structure so it has to be really stable. This will also give me a place to stand for painting the wall above the cabinets. 

 In the evenings, we pause at about 5 to watch the sun set. They are spectacular from our living room window. In the summer the sun will set in a different location, behind the fireplace wall, so the heat from the summer sun doesn't enter the house. Then we will be watching from the deck, which I haven't built yet. That will be a spring project. 

Matt Vande performing a Blower Door test

 Our biggest news during the last month is that we got our Energy Star rating. We have a score of 38 which means our home is projected to use 38% of the energy that an identical home built to the 2004 International Energy Code would use. We will be using more than half the energy of a typical home that is close to our square footage. That's Awesome. Plus, because we have the Energy Star rating, we get a 5% discount on our electric bill for the life of the home - it transfers to any owner after us. 

Matt has been monitoring our home through out construction to make sure we were on line with the Energy Star requirements. In the photo above he is doing a test to check of the air tightness of our house. All the doors and windows are closed, a fan is placed in one of the door to suck air out of the house. He was checking for leaks. We passed with flying colors. 

Leigha Dickens our green building coordinator with Deltec, posted the test on Deltec's web site. 

click for Blower Door Test

The name of the blog post is Deltec Builds Another Energy Star Home

The blog will also link you to Energy Now. They contacted us through Deltec and interviewed us for one of their shows. Check it out, it has some good stuff. We are in the second story.

Penny, my mother-in-law came for a visit after we went to our nieces graduation. She was the first official person to stay in our "unfinished" guest room and to sign our guest book. (Thanks Bill Brown for sending it, we hope to use it a lot).

We took Penny on a trek to the "western 5". We took the long way around through our neighbors property so she could meet the cows. 

While on the other side of our property we set up some tree branches to make a land mark and see if we could see it from our house. Can you see our house in the background? The mark worked and we could see it when we got back to our house.

Melissa with my brother-in-law Jay and his wife Janine

Congratulations to Melissa on her Masters degree and new job in Atlanta

We spent Christmas Eve at my brother Tom's. His daughter (our niece) Rachel was there with her husband Mike and their 4 kids. Tom is getting ready to take us all for a "hay" ride. We delivered cookies to the neighbors. 

Back to work on the kitchen cabinets. They are really coming along. 

Jane came back to bring in the new year with us. As usual we put her to work. We spent one day marking the north property line which we have been holding off on because it is difficult terrain and dense with plants. We worked with a compass from one corner and marked our line with stakes from one point to the other - it was a straight line but not easy with all the trees and undergrowth. It took several hours to mark the 1800 feet of distance. We didn't have official surveying equipment and to our surprise we were only off about 65' when we got to the other side. We need to have Tom Mulloy come back and help us. He did our original survey. 

This is the west side of our property, an area we hadn't stepped foot on yet. It was nice to visit! We have been to a different spot several time - the top knoll that has some huge rocks. 

Edrianna and Jane in our evolving kitchen.

Jane just missed the snow by a day; she was bummed! 

Building a spice rack for Edrianna - because she loves to cook.

A delicious meal prepared by Edrianna in the new kitchen. She is experimenting with RAW food preparation. Why the he** did I buy that expensive range? 

It was actually very good!!

Now this is what the range is for - PIE!

We worked on this together. It is a vegan pumpkin cheesecake, but we cheated a little and used one tablespoon of butter. We changed the name to Flat Top Mountain Pie because it sounds much better than Tofu Cashew Pumpkin puree Pecan Faux Cheesecake.

Don't let this deter a future visit. We are flex-aterrians and enjoy a good steak once in a while. 

We forgot to mention we sprinkled coconut on top. It was goooooooooooooood!

All the cabinets are built from scratch. Most of the upper cabinets slide out so Edrianna can reach all the items inside.

All the hardware is hand made in Mexico and brought to the US by Glo who has a store by the same name in Franklin, NC. She gives me a discount and I don't even have to ask. I think she likes me. 

Some of the baskets on the shelf were made by my sister Cindy. One was given to us by Jay and Janine. The gecko came up with us from Florida. 

This shows the detail work I'm doing on the lower cabinets.

The fireplace is taking shape. The mantle is almost finished and I still need to add the rock - waiting for a warm day. That might be a spring job as well. 

Edrianna has been busy with projects of her own. She is installing utility room shelves. She stained all the inside doors and still has some work to do on trim and the inside of the exterior doors. 

Now is a good time to invest in Home Depot and Lowe's. We are spending so much there I think the stock should be pretty stable. 

Shelving adds up quick but works great. 

  Edrianna's orchids are doing great in their new home. They enjoy the morning sun. It is nice to have them in the middle of winter.

Can you spot the Bobcat in this picture?

No? Well we can't either but it is there - trust me. 

Can you say camouflage? 

Maybe it was a Bob-Kitten. It was kind of small but definitely there. I saw him walking through the yard and grabbed my camera. Good photographer lesson - always have the GOOD camera at the ready.

It snowed again last night. We are going for a hike to see if we can find animal prints in the snow before the sun melts it. We will let you know how it goes.