The Making of Deeradise

Professional pics

2023-09-02T17:01:00.001-04:00

Basement Update

2016-04-10T17:03:00.000-04:00

We finished the basement at Deeradise so we thought we'd upload a few pics. We definitely kept it rustic and fun. :) We found some super cool light fixtures which really makes the basement cool and unique! We did have to leave some additional railing up on the stairs instead of leaving them open so we passed inspection so it looks a bit like a corral coming down the stairs but it's kind of grown on us. The cool entry light was found at Restoration Hardware. We have a cool hidden door for under the stairs storage, too.

The bedroom in the basement is all in cedar so it smells really good! Thanks to Mama Jo Ferguson for the awesome hand made Log Cabin quilt to go on the bed!

We did add a small basement bar with sink, microwave, and fridge for our guests. The cabinets were custom made by our friend Darwin Ledford who does amazing work! The rope pendant lights we found at Pottery Barn! The fish above the sink is carved from cedar and we picked that up at the Craftsman's fair in Gatlinburg.

No basement is complete without a theatre room! And, of course, we just had to have a large BEAR to make ours unique! It's sports themed with a mix of Tennessee Vols, Kstate Wildcats and Oklahoma Sooners. The Tennessee coal mining cart was locally made for us just outside of Tellico Plains.

And, lastly, you have to have some fun and games so the main room features our Jack Daniels pub table for some card games, an arcade for our 80's video game fixes and a sleeper sofa so we can fit even more guests into Deeradise because we know how much ya'll want to come visit and stay with us!

Finally, a quick look at the basement bath accommodations.

We also added a firepit out back for late night smores and a hot tub for those cold nights and achy backs. :) lol We have lots of woodland critters to enjoy as well!

Finally...Welcome to Deeradise!!

2012-01-08T14:22:00.000-05:00

Well, we are moved in! There are still some odds and ends to be finished up but we spent the first night at Deeradise New Year's Eve. Nothing like ringing in (er..sleeping in) the New Year in our new cabin!! Jason's family came all the way up from Florida to help us make the big move and we are very appreciative of their help! Thanks Dad, Tammy, Jimmy, Andie and Cayden! We've had our first guests at Deeradise and they were quite impressed. As Tammy said, it takes a while to soak all the details in! The pictures just don't say everything, so now that Deeradise is open, you'll just have to come see for yourself!

A big THANK YOU to Ron for spending almost a whole year in TN away from his wife, Lori. You worked 7 days a week 14-16 hour days for 10 months. You truly sacrificed on this one. Thank you!! Deeradise would have been impossible without you and we are so grateful for you and your many talents!! We love you man and you guys are welcome at Deeradise any time!

It's hard to tell, but there is a gutter! We were afraid the guttering would take away from the look of the house, but the guys from Holt guttering did a fantastic job!

Already bought the firewood rack and have started stacking!

This awesome Barn Light sconce came from Barn Light Electric and looks great flanking the front door!

Jason hung this light and I'm glad to say I wasn't there to witness how he did it. Something about ladders, scaffolding and another ladder.... Oh and he was doing this at 10:30 at night, too... Time didn't matter when we needed to get things done.

This is the matching Barn Light pendant for the sconces, also from Barn Light Electric.

living room

We used oak hardwood flooring for the main level.


dining/kitchen

These awesome mason jar pendant lights came from a wonderful woman in Maine who owns LampGoods. She also made our mason jar sconces you will see later.

This fabulous galvanized bucket light we used for the dining room came from Light Hunting.

The little bar area.

All the cabinets are Hickory and we went with metal on the back of the island to compliment the LG stainless steel appliances.

The beautiful granite countertops have a chiseled edge which is hard to see in the picture (and hard to find anyone who does it). The guys from Rocky Top Countertops out of Chattanooga did a great job!

The monstrous kitchen faucet is a commercial faucet from Krauss which we found on Overstock for a great deal.

Convection oven!

Laundry/Pantry room

Pantry

The 1/2 bath or as we like to refer to it, the Outhouse. Thanks Dad (Farmer Ferg) for the great 1//4 moon!

This is one of the nicest outhouses you'll ever be in....c'mon inside!

The Outhouse bath with our custom made Jack Daniels whiskey barrel sink! We ordered a Jack Daniels mirror but it's on backorder from the manufacturer until March so until then we get to look at that pretty white exhuast vent!

Love these mason jar lights we found for the Outhouse! Kristen and her partner at The Blue Cabinet did a great job!

The nicest Outhouse toilet you'll ever use! It even has toilet paper!!

Master Bedroom...aka 'the barn'

Master bedroom ceiling fan

The master bedroom closet doors.

Jason's closet. He got the cool barn slider doors but the smaller closet.

Cristi's walk-in closet. We had a little problem with the carpet so the closet floor was still unfinished when we moved in. The great gals (Jada, Donna and Jenn) at Lowe's hooked us up with two 5'x7' floor rugs and also got us hardwood flooring for the closet to makeup for the mishap!

Master Bath

Slate tile floor

The over-sized soaker tub!

Ron put in steps to the tub - if you look closely that is what is under the piece of paper. They were just installed so the note said not to step on it yet. Ron built and installed the steps, Jason wrote the note, team work baby. :)

The toilet room and shower.

The master shower with two shower heads and two jets!

Bench seat in the master shower

This side of the shower has the rain shower head and also the two jets out of the middle.

The master toilet room! We also used a bucket light in here to really capture the barn feel. The door hides the shelves for storage of toilet paper and what not.

Linen closet in Master Bath.

Hickory cabinets

We used a large slab of white oak from Everhart Lumber for the countertop and it turned out beautifully!

We went with copper sinks for the master.

The mirror was custom made by Ron and we used the same fabulous mason jar lights as the outhouse. We so appreciate The Blue Cabinet making these!

The Lucky 7 foyer chandelier made by J.D. Clark.

Beautiful hemlock stairs and log handrail. (The white caps are where we blanked off the sconce lights while moving - didn't want any lights breaking! These will be mason jar sconces.)

Lucky 7

5 jar mason jar pendant from Pottery Barn

The awesome bucket light came from Lighting Universe

the Loft

The loft looking towards the office and spare bedroom.

For the loft we went with a darker hardwood flooring. This is a maple hardwood in Mocha.

The cool mason jar sconce lights from LampGoods.

Upstairs spare bath done in a western theme with a very cool rock sink!

We did the cross hatches to add to the western feel in the spare bathroom.

Office

closet in the office

We used a mason jar pendant light for the desk light. This is from LampGoods.

spare bedroom

cedar log on spare bedroom ceiling

spare bedroom

It is amazing that this was all done by looking at some pictures and tweaking them. No blueprints were used - just ideas which made it fun for me and rough for Ron. He had to calculate, recalculate and then calculate again whenever we made changes. I think at least 10 notepads and countless trees were killed in the making of this house between us.

We would like to thank everyone who helped make this happen, and a special thanks to:

Kevin, Danny and my buddy Chris at Everhart Lumber

Christmas Lumber

Dave Jr at Appalachian Log Homes

Wired Electric

Dave at anythingassembled.com

Our Parents

Thanks to everyone who has read our blog! We greatly appreciate your support and comments!!

If you are interested in having your own cabin/home built, need consulting of any kind (design/construction, etc.) or need electrical work done, please contact Jason (logcabinbuilders@gmail.com). He and Ron are licensed professionals and have a combined 50+ years of building fabulous, quality cabins/homes. They would love to help build your dream!

2- 14' x 20" Poplar slabs which Mahlon Peters is making into a dining table and benches for us.

Earlene Kay

2011-12-18T21:34:00.000-05:00

We are taking the week off from the blog to celebrate the life of my mom who went home to be with the Lord on Saturday morning. She loved everyone and smiled all the time. She was mom not just to my sisters and I but to countless others. I will miss our walks in the mountains together and our shared love for creation.

Mynatt Park, Gatlinburg TN 2010

somewhere in TN

Thanksgiving 2011

Mom, I love you and already miss you. You were my friend, my hiking partner, my adviser and above all, you loved me unconditionally.

We are planting a tree in your honor at Deeradise.

Another Week Closer...

2011-12-12T11:51:00.000-05:00

This week continued with lots of work inside. The kitchen floor had to get partially laid so that the kitchen cabinets could get installed. The cabinets are hickory and the flooring is an oak.

awesome little bar area - love the hemlock but it's actually just a support and will be covered with the granite counter top; the cool log however, will stay in place :)

the little bar area is kind of a reverse bar - the stools will be facing the dining room so that you can be enjoying the views out the dining room windows.

The cedar logs arrived for the living room and loft ceilings and the spare bedroom. All of the interior railing was also put up.

This week we also picked out the granite counter tops for the kitchen and they should be arriving in another week or so. We searched all over for a piece of stone to use as the counter top in the upstairs bath and finally found one at Acme. We also ordered a large slab of wood to serve as the master bath counter top.

will cut down to size for the upstairs bath counter top. this should look great with the rock sink!

hickory bathroom cabinet in upstairs bath

cedar logs installed on loft ceiling

picture is kind of dark - but this is the spare bedroom with 2 cedar logs on the ceiling

spare bedroom ceiling character log

the other spare bedroom character ceiling log

The tiles were being laid out for installation in the master bath. The shower floor tile was laid last week and the rest of the tile should be finished this next week.

master bath

also used hickory cabinets in master bath

tiled shower floor

And finally, we have the hand crafted barn doors for the master bedroom I've been so anxious for! We love them! We know not everyone wants a barn for a bedroom but this is our house and we get to do what we want! :)

door to the walk-in closet in MBR

doors for the other closet - they are on a sliding track so the doors can bypass one another

doors can slide either way, just like real barn doors!

Interior Progress!

2011-12-04T20:44:00.001-05:00

The trees are now barren and Deeradise shines through the trees now to all who pass by. I think curtains or shutters are going to be a priority once we get moved in...which is just around the corner. We are hoping to be in for Christmas.

The rock guys from Castone finished the capstone on the front pillars. We are very happy with the look of the stone!

The hand hewn spruce log that has been sitting in our garage since April finally found its resting spot in between the living area, kitchen and dining area. In addition, the bar lights were hung in the kitchen and the laundry room got some paint.

These are mason jar pendant lights so the jars will be one of the last things installed to prevent breakage.

laundry room

Hemlock timbers were mounted on the master bedroom and master bath ceilings which also were painted. Almost all of the heavy lifting/mounting is done - we are still waiting on the living room/loft ceiling logs and the front bedroom ceiling logs.


Master Bedroom

Master bath


Master Bath

The temporary stairs got thrown outside and the beautiful permanent hemlock stairs were laid in its place.

A lot of interior trim was put up, doors were installed and all of the painting was completed. We used d-log for the trim in the loft around the doors and windows. It looks sweet! We used rough cut for the top band. The stain takes differently to the varying types of wood we've used so the color varies, but we think it looks great! The contrast really makes it pop!

trim boards installed - they are out of rough cut wood

handcrafted door for the upstairs bath linen closet

accent logs were also stained in the same color as trim work

door to walk in storage closet upstairs

handcrafted door to the attic


attic door stained, installed and looking sweet!

Light fixtures were installed upstairs. These really make the place look different. We opted to use mason jar lights for the majority of the lights in the house and we are quite pleased with the way they look!

sconces next to picture window in loft

This beautiful Lucky 7 chandelier came from the talented J.D. Clark in Norman, OK.

Lucky 7

Lucky 7 - a view from below

This awesome bucket light is from Lighting Universe

This gorgeous 5 jar mason jar pendant came from Pottery Barn

5 jar pendant

The office was stained; the ceiling fan got installed and the desk light was put up.

Handcrafted closet doors - these will get stained

Awesome rustic fan!

Desk light - this is a mason jar pendant light which again will be put on last minute to avoid breakage

The spare bedroom had interior trim put up as well the d-log trim around the doors and window.

Some of the faceplates were put on the light switches upstairs. We are using western themed plates in the bedrooms and bath and then using wildlife plates for the loft.

Finally, the upstairs bath got it's faux paint job and we are quite pleased with how it turned out. It still needs trim work but we are quite happy with it and think it's going to work great for the western theme!

Thanksgiving

2011-11-21T18:17:00.000-05:00

We are grateful and appreciative this Thanksgiving for many things but we are just going to name a few.

Ron - we are thankful for him for his talent, help, wisdom and sacrifice of living hundreds of miles away from his dear wife, Lori so that he can help build Deeradise.

We are grateful for our land and the opportunity to build a home for ourselves.

We are most grateful for our family and friends and each other. We miss not being with the Ferguson/Wharff families for Thanksgiving in Kansas but are so glad to be spending the holiday time in Florida with Jason's family. As most of you know, this is a very special Thanksgiving as Jason's mom, Kay, has been fighting for her life these last few months battling pancreatic cancer. We were able to bring her home from the hospital this last weekend and have a wonderful Thanksgiving feast planned at home. We truly cherish the time we have with our loved ones here on earth and thank God for His sacrifice so that we may all live together again in Heaven.

Insulation was completed in the basement.

Metal and rough cut were installed in the 1/2 bath.

Rough cut was put up in the laundry room.

This large piece of stained cedar will hold the ceiling fan in the living room.

Hanging the extremely heavy 8x8 hemlock timber for the loft/living room ceiling divider.

Divider log for the living room/loft.

Accent log in the loft

Hemlock timber and accent logs in loft

Mud and tape!

Installing hemlock timbers on the office ceiling.

finished office ceiling

The spare bedroom ceiling was stained.

Hemlock timbers being installed in the dining room/kitchen.

installed timbers in the dining room/kitchen

kitchen

dining room

the foyer chandelier canopy was installed - the fixture lights still need to be installed

the rock (minus the capstone) was finished on the pillars

A Whole Lotta Railing

2011-11-14T11:56:00.000-05:00

upstairs' stairway

This week we finished putting up tongue and groove in a few spots - the upstairs' stairways, closets, linen closets and basement stairway.

basement stairway

coat closet

linen closet in Mbath

The shower floor and walls were also done in the Master Bath in preparation for the tile work.

MBath shower w/bench

Both fun and messy, Ron and Jason had a glorious time drylocking the basement walls. Drylock is a waterproofer that withstands 12 PSI (greater than a wall of water 26' high). So, the basement should stay nice and dry from all of the East Tennessee rain. The insulation crew should be out next week to finish the insulation in the basement and that should wrap it up for the lower level. (We are only partially finishing the basement.)

Most of the week was spent on the porch railing. The hand hewn porch railing from Rocky Top looks really awesome but was a lot of work to install. Not to mention, there is a LOT OF IT! The rock subcontractor, Castone, should be out next week to finish rocking the pillars now that the railing is in place.

back deck - you can see the rear stair opening to the left

Side porch and side stairway opening

Front stairs opening

rear stairway opening

messy! :)

We stained the interior loggerhead railing from Rocky Top which will go upstairs in the loft.

Installed porch lights

installed garage lights

Cow Patties of Concrete

2011-11-05T22:17:00.000-04:00

Garage doors!


We've been staining...this is the "barn" aka Master Bedroom

this is the Master "barn" bath - and yes, we have a window in the shower :)

added 2 extra coats of stain

We finally feel like we are in the home stretch of getting this house done! It's nice to know we are down to just weeks instead of months! All in all, the building process hasn't been too terrible. Mind you, I don't want to do it again anytime soon as it is stressful and unbelievably time consuming, but we've been pretty lucky and have not had any major problems in construction. And, I think that has a lot to do with Ron and Jason. :) It's like that old saying, if you want it done right, do it yourself and for the most part we have.

Which brings me to cow patties of concrete...we opted to subcontract out the work for a 28x30' concrete pad for the drive and the back patio. (You know where this is going, right??) Well, Jason's buddy Dave flew in from FL Wednesday so we went to pick him up from the airport and then went out to dinner. We swung back by the house to lock up as the rock and concrete workers were still working when Jason had left earlier. It was about 9:40 pm and the concrete guys were still there and as the truck's headlights shown ever so brightly on our drive, all we saw was a large mess of concrete with what could only be described as multiple cow patties of concrete all over the 28x30' pad. Not exactly what any of us were expecting.

I don't know the entire story or the reasons why the concrete was poured so late, etc. It was obvious there was some error in judgement. The next day, the concrete did look better but the job was still not up to our expectations. The back patio was acceptable; the drive was the problem. The subcontractor did compensate us for the mistake and the drive is functional, it just doesn't look as "nice" as we would have liked. Jason and I came to the realization that its just a drive. Its only concrete and there are many more important things in life than a patch of concrete on our driveway. We opted to let it go. We are also hoping everyone is just so wow'd by the house that no one even looks down at the concrete!

the scrap pile is gone! replaced with seed and straw!

The rock subcontractor, Castone, did an awesome job laying our rock on the fireplace and front pillars.

the 2 holes are for holding firewood

the hearth stone

We finally got our 2700 lb delivery of porch railing and interior railing. It was a lot of fun to unload and even more fun to stain! Thank goodness Dave is an awesome stainer and was a HUGE help!

the rest of the railing got walked down the drive

Farmer Ferg and the Mrs. Come to Town

2011-10-24T17:17:00.000-04:00

This week at the cabin was fairly quiet. The rock guys called to say the rock wasn't in so the fireplace/porch piers would have to wait another week or two. Then, the porch/interior railing was delayed due to sander issues. So, we finished up the interior tongue/groove in the dining/kitchen and living areas and also cut, stained and mounted the fireplace mantel from one of the hemlock timbers. Then, it was time for Ron to pack up and head to FL for 2 weeks for his wife's, birthday. (Happy Birthday Lori!)

mantel (with sample of the rock we are going to use)

t&g (all the boxes are flooring!)

spare bedroom

Just after the dust settled from Ron's departure, Farmer Ferg and the Mrs. came to town all the way from Kansas! They arrived Thursday afternoon after a long 16 hour drive and we were delighted to see them! We took them shopping on Friday all over Knoxville to find hardwood flooring for the main floor and the upstairs. (We are doing a lighter colored flooring downstairs and a darker flooring upstairs.) Then, we put them to work! Dad helped Jason clean up the yard which was much needed and a necessity for us to close. They burned scrap wood into the late hour on Friday night and continued burning on Saturday. They also managed to build some side walls for the trailer which will come in handy when it is finally time to move!!! Oh and I can't forget, they hung the Deeradise sign! Meanwhile, Mom and I started staining the upstairs spare bedroom.

our LARGE pile of scrap!

Farmer Ferg and the Mrs. :)

Sunday, we took a much needed day off to do a little sight seeing before Mom and Dad headed back to KS on Monday. We took the folks over to Tellico Plains and along the Cherahola Skyway for some gorgeous leaf viewing! We had a great weekend with Mom and Dad and greatly appreciate them taking the time to drive all this way and help us out! Thank you very, very much Mom and Dad!

Tellico River

Bald River Falls - cascades 100 ft!

Views along the Cherahola Skyway

Indian Boundary along the Cherahola

the colors peaked around 3000 ft.

The Leaves are Starting to Change and so is the Cabin!

2011-10-16T11:08:00.000-04:00

Fall is our favorite season and living in East Tennessee is really fortunate during autumn (or anytime of the year, really :)) . It is one of the most gorgeous places to see the fall colors! It's still a little early, but the colors are starting to change. Hopefully, in another week or two, we'll have some even better pictures of the fall foliage. This week we are going to take you on a tour of the cabin as it has also been changing alot in the last couple of weeks.

We enter the front door and head straight up stairs. The bathroom is right ahead of the stairs, bedrooms to the right and the loft is to the left.

Going left, we enter the loft. We opted to go with drywall on the walls because we didn't want an entire house out of wood! We will use log accents in here on the ceiling and walls. There will also be a window seat underneath the rectangular window in the middle.

Heading back towards the stairs, we stop in the bathroom on the left which is going to be western themed. It is also drywall but will have wood trim accents to fulfill the western look.

we are using oil-rubbed bronze fixtures throughout

Coming out of the bathroom, we continue to the 2 bedrooms on the left and a storage closet.

First, we'll take a peak in the rear bedroom which will serve as our office/2nd spare bedroom. We will add some timber accents on the ceiling and eventually will chink the siding to make it look like an old school log cabin. This is the same siding used on the exterior of the house; we are just going to chink this room to set it apart. (Chinking is the filler or mortar between the boards.)

Nice large closet with double doors

Going next door, we'll go into the front spare bedroom which has round log siding and will have some additional log accents on the ceiling to give it the feel of the popular round log cabin style.

has a nice large walk-in closet

Now, we are headed back downstairs. This is the foyer which is around 26' high and will house the main chandelier.

At the bottom of the stairs, we go right into the living area with the warm glowing fireplace which we have been using as the cooler temperatures have arrived!

The living area, dining area and kitchen are all open. There will be an island/bar in the kitchen that has not yet been constructed. From the living room, we walk straight into the dining/kitchen area. There will be a large spruce log at the intersection corner of the kitchen/dining/living room and some additional logs on the dining room ceiling.

To the right of the kitchen is the laundry room and pantry. We used drywall in here for the pantry and wall where the washing machine will go. The small 1/2 wall not completed yet, will be rough cut wood.

pantry will have doors

Coming out of the laundry/kitchen area we head back to the front door and find the 1/2 bath off the living room which has not yet been completed. This is going to have rough cut wood on the top 1/2 of the walls to emulate a barn-like look with metal on the bottom half. We are also going to be using the metal on the backside of the island in the kitchen.

Back at the front door, we continue into the master bedroom (to the right of the front door as you walk in the house). Here we are using rough cut wood to make our own barn. Not many people would want to sleep in a barn, but well, we do. We first placed tar paper on the wall so when the rough cut wood contracts, you will see dark. Also, the sides of the rough cut were stained prior to being boarded up for this same reason. We had a very hard time finding a stain that would make the wood look barn-like, but I think what we got is going to work well. We will also be adding timbers to the ceiling and using barn-style doors.

2 doors to the left are one closet, the door on the right is to the large walk-in closet

the stain is a little on the dark side but should lighten up with time to be perfect!

Last, we will head into the master bath which continues with the barn theme. It is not yet all complete, but we'll also use timbers in here on the ceiling or maybe some metal....we'll just have to wait and see. :)

slate

The toilet room - there really isn't a window. It's a built-in shelf but the guys were on a roll cutting and made it into a window. :) They are fixing it.

And, finally, a few fall foliage pictures from our property and the roads into our subdivision starting at the turkey crossing! These gals are here every day!

Snake!

2011-10-02T13:11:00.000-04:00

I'm not a fan of snakes. I'm the person who will watch all the snake shows on Discovery but doesn't care to ever encounter one in real life. My mom still tells the story of me screaming my head off and running away from the latrine at Girl Scout camp when I was like 11 because I had seen a large bull snake. Well, last Sunday I was walking down the drive when I saw this little black curling tail and instantaneously said 'SNAKE'! I calmly walked on the other side of the drive like an adult and promptly went and got Jason. :) He came out, immediately tried to pick it up and then realized it was dead. Mr. Snake had met his demise when he got trapped in the fescue netting. Jason cut the snake out and disposed of it. I know living in the country will bring snakes, I'm just hoping I can adjust. This snake was also in the same spot as the other snake we saw back in April, so I also think we may need to put up a 'Snake Crossing' sign next to the drive.

a healthy rat snake (Jason is 6'2")

As for the house this last week, the A/C got finished up as well as the electrical and plumbing. We also had our framing, plumbing and electrical inspections and passed with flying colors! The insulation got done and the remainder of the siding was also completed.

We ended the week with a day of shopping for shower tile, stain, paint and other interior necessities. Jason had actually attended Lowe's customer appreciation day on Friday and ended up winning a 5 gallon bucket of flat latex paint, so we easily decided to stick with just one color of paint since it's easy to change paint later. However, I am planning on doing a colorwash in the upstairs western bathroom so Suzette from the paint center at Lowe's hooked me up - I just hope I can make my wall look like the picture!

Note: Jason and I are headed out of town this next week so the next Deeradise posting will be two weeks from today.

What's happening at Deeradise...

2011-09-25T12:42:00.000-04:00

The past couple of weeks at Deeradise have been busy. We are finally starting to near the completion of the exterior (minus the log railing for the porch which won't be ready for a few more weeks) and will be heading indoors in the next couple of weeks. The weather has turned to fall and it's absolutely beautiful here! Check out what's been going on - we have lots of pictures!

Excavation! The large hill/dropoff next to the garage was built up, leveled out and made into a third parking area (the boat spot according to Jason :) ). We also had fescue netting put down to help prevent erosion until we have time to figure out what we are going to do with the yard. The grass is already growing well and almost too fast as we don't want to have to mow it this year!!

HVAC started last week and will be finishing up early this next week.

unit is not hooked up yet, just dropped off near its location

Electrical is still getting done. It should be finishing up this week so we can get our electrical inspection. The plumbing will also be finishing up this next week.

The fireplace box got built last week and we now have a chimney on the roof!

The metal roof was also started last week and completed this week. We love it! It really does add a lot to the front of the house!

you might wonder why we bothered with all the work of putting tongue/groove on the porch roof if we were just going to cover it with metal...well, we didn't plan to but in order to pass code, we had to install some kind of wood roof prior to the metal being installed

metal roof from the loft windows

And, finally the siding is near completion. We ran out of it while working on the basement exterior walls so the siding is not all complete yet, but it will be soon.

For the 2nd story, we chose to use board and batten on the rear/side of the house for a different look (we also did this on the chimney).

The View from the Top

2011-09-11T13:32:00.000-04:00

This was our last week using the manlift. Of course, even with it being all terrain, it couldn't handle our property after almost 7 inches of rain last Sunday/Monday/Tuesday. Before United Rentals came to pick the manlift up, Jason took it for one last spin. He took it all the way up to 60' on the road in front of our house to catch some really great views.


Look carefully, and you'll see Ron putting on the siding.

So you might notice part of the roof isn't done...this will be metal as well as the porch roofing. The metal roofing will happen once all the siding is up/complete.

Hard to see the house from the street which is how we like it!

More siding was put on this week once the rain stopped. We also opted to use a 2nd coat of stain which took additional time.

Again, this week's pictures are from our phones so some of the pics are not that great. Good news is the new SD card should be here any day for next week's blog!

Jason continued working on the electrical wiring. He's about 80% done and there are wires EVERYWHERE! I don't know how he keeps it all straight!

My good shoes after spilling an entire gallon of stain on me and the driveway. (I wasn't supposed to be working, I was just supposed to pick Jason up which is why I had the shoes on.) Followed, with a shot of gas in the eyes when I set the fuel cannister down after cleaning my staining brush. I didn't get a lot in my eyes, but plenty enough to experience a good burn and an evening full of flushing my eyes out!! I think I'm glad my contacts were in to partially shield my eyes! I was mostly upset at spilling a $40 gallon of stain! ;) Kind of funny the day after especially when I started the day tripping over something in the drive and falling backwards on my bum!! I blame the full moon...

Thank You Lee...

2011-09-05T11:34:00.001-04:00

East Tennessee is in a flash flood watch through Tuesday thanks to Tropical Storm Lee. The rain started on Saturday here and progressed to a full-on downpour by Sunday night. We are supposed to get 5-10 inches by Tuesday evening. We chose to rain delay the blog which usually gets posted on Sundays so that we could get a little more progress made. For those of you who look forward to our Sunday posts, thank you and we hope to be back on schedule next week.

The week began installing windows, fixed glass and doors. It really does make the house look different and it's nice to be able to finally lock up especially with all the rain! Wednesday started the siding. We chose a hewn siding made from pine and log corners made from Lodgepole pine. (Lodgepole pine is named for its common use in Native American tepees.) The stain is also getting applied. We chose to use Sikkens semi-transparent SRD stain in Butternut and it's really turned out beautiful!

All the pictures were taken with our camera phones this week. Somehow in all the chaos of building, we lost the SD card to our camera and our camera is so old (Sony Cybershot DSC-W80) they don't sell the SD card in any stores. We have to find it online and order it. So, hopefully next week we might have the camera which does take better pictures!

Other happenings this week...Jason has been wrangling wire throughout all of the interior as he is doing the electrical wiring. The remainder of the logs on the front porch got stained and we discovered new wildlife. The Eastern Fence Lizard (aka Prairie Lizard)...Buster and Justice will be sure to love these li'l guys!

Shingles and Cool Signage

2011-08-28T18:05:00.000-04:00

The roof to the entry way is now complete!

The fascia and soffit got completed this week.

shingles were started and completed this week.

This awesome rustic sign was created by Brandi Proffitt of Creekside Furniture in Gatlinburg, TN. It is a solid slab of maple and is going to look sweet over our front door!

The Entry Way....

2011-08-21T13:29:00.000-04:00

This week at the bat cave...

This week started by finishing up the roof decking on the side porch with the 2x6 tongue and groove that Cristi has been staining endlessly. After that was complete, Ron got to work laying out the logs and timbers on the ground for the Entry Way roof, piers and girders. After confirming that the 2 main logs being used for piers were just too mismatched to use, I went down to Everhart Lumber and they traded me out for a very sweet specimen. While I was in Tellico at the sawmill, Ron got started on the fascia and soffit.

Before it was debarked

starting the soffit

Wednesday, we chainsawed and measured, and remeasured, and measured again lining everything up on the ground. There is no way this super structure of an entry could be built 30' in the air. All of the holes for the log bolts were drilled and lined up. Then, the custom log king truss was built by Ron while I tended to my business today.

Thursday, we stained the 6 logs and set one in place. Then, we cut and prepared all the timber girders and rafters. This doesn't sound like much work but it took 12 hours to complete.

Friday, we lifted the 2 main pier logs into place and marked out were the wrap around porch 8x8 girders intersected with them. Once they were marked, we chainsawed out the cedar so the girders would rest inside the logs 5". This was both fun and iffy (we have never attempted anything like this before). One wrong move with the chainsaw and the log would have been ruined.

Saturday, Cristi stained like a maniac again trying to keep pace with our entry roof framing. Ron finished laying out the roof where it ties into the main house. We stained the timbers after we installed them as rafters. This was dumb as staining from planks 25' above the porch deck was nerve racking! But, it got done safely. As soon as the entry roof rafters were done, we started decking the roof with the 2x6 tongue and groove. Yes, we spent 5 days on the entry roof, but when you have only 2 guys and a man lift, it takes time. That Entry had to be laid out perfectly for it to work and it did. Ron was amazing this week as always. The Entry Way is pretty amazing, too!

The Marathon

2011-08-14T10:08:00.000-04:00

Right now it feels like it's mile 18 and all you can think about is getting this over with! You're hot, sweaty, exhausted and feel like at least one of your legs might fall off but you can't quit. You haven't reached that 26.2 mile marker and that is what you've worked so hard to reach so you keep going. I've done three marathons and this is my first time building a house and I have to say, I've been having a lot of marathon reflections these last couple of weeks as I'm discovering this house building stuff is a lot like training for a marathon!

Jason has been through this before as he's built cabins in the past but I have not. This is my first house being built from the ground up and right now, I feel like I'm at mile 18 of the marathon. The time commitment, the physical exertion/aches/pains, the endurance of it all is almost overwhelming at this point, but I know the end is near. And, from my marathons, I know just how rewarding it is to cross that finish line and get the medal around your neck after all the months of hard work/training. I just have to keep the end in sight. This house has a lot of sweat, blood and heart and I know it's going to be a very special place once it's all done but I had no idea before we engaged upon this journey that this would truly be a marathon in its own right.

I haven't even put in as much time at the house as Ron/Jason but I think we are all ready to get this project wrapped up in the next couple of months. So, we've been working like crazy this week. We have a super cool tool; well, more like an awesome piece of industrial equipment: the MAN LIFT! <insert Tim 'the toolman' Taylor grunt>! This bad boy goes 60 feet in the air, articulates and is all-terrain. It has helped us sheath the roof, the walls and everywhere else we couldn't reach before. Check out this week's pictures!

The Week in Pictures

2011-08-07T16:19:00.000-04:00

They Say Everything Is Bigger in Texas...

2011-07-31T11:07:00.000-04:00

but they should see how we do it in Tennessee! This week was all about the wrap around porch. The timbers we had been waiting on got delivered late Monday afternoon for the start of a productive week. These beauties are 8x8 and made from Hemlock which is an insect resistant wood and they look sweet!

8x8 hemlock timber post

First, we had to cut the timber posts to size which took some time. Then the garage trusses showed up on Tuesday adding to the local lumber pile. The driveway looked like a lumberyard with all the decking materials and trusses! It was hard to find a spot to work.

lumber yard

garage trusses

Next, came the installation of the rim joists for the porch which wasn't easy since the side/rear deck is anywhere from 11 foot off the ground. Then, the remainder of the decking was installed...all 1100 square feet of it! It is awesome to be able to see the wrap-around porch in all its glory now and it does seem big! But, it's going to be well used and we are looking forward to spending a lot of time out on the deck.

installing timber posts

installed rim joists

no direct house entry from the garage - you have to walk on the covered porch to get in the house via back door

This next week, we'll continue working on the porch as we have to install those "purty" logs sitting out on the driveway and put the roof on.

log to the right is one of the entry way logs

entry way log

Plumbing, Logs and a side of Garage

2011-07-24T15:39:00.000-04:00

All of the plumbing drains were installed this week. We now have pretty white pipes with purple spots on them all over the house! (the purple spots are pvc cleaner which goes on before pvc glue is applied.) I am still partial to purple and white even if I don't live in KS anymore...still love my KSU Wildcats! I guess that is also a dead give away that Jason isn't writing this week's blog as he would never call plumbing pretty nor admit liking K-State! (He's an OU fan.) Ron needed the tub drains and shower valves so that meant I finally got to have a little fun doing plumbing fixture shopping!

K-State inspired plumbing!

Jason and I both scoured the internet for faucets and sinks. We discovered finding a roman tub faucet with a minimum spout reach of 10" is close to impossible to find. We found two! I even called Delta, Moen, Kohler, and Pfister personally to verify they didn't have something. I also discovered that you can't buy a galvanized bucket sink anywhere!! (We were going to make our own but the local building codes wouldn't let us.) I finally found a copper version to suffice for the top of our whiskey barrel in the half bath. We found a rock sink at Southeastern Salvage in Knoxville for the upstairs "western" guest bath. We managed to order all the bathroom fixtures except the master bath faucets/sinks. Oh, and Jason found an awesome shower system for our shower! It has 2 shower heads and 2 jets - there is no way you aren't going to get squeaky clean in this shower!

rock sink

Tuesday we were finally able to pour the remaining half of the garage slab floor as the rains held off until Thursday this week. We also got a delivery of cedar logs from Everhart Lumber on Tuesday to be used for the front porch posts and interior accents.

cedar logs

The load of porch timbers that was supposed to get delivered early this week didn't come. The mill's saw didn't get fixed until the end of the week so that means hopefully next week we'll have the porch timbers and be able to start back up on the wrap around porch.

So, instead of doing porch work, the garage framing got started and all the walls were up by Saturday night. The trusses are being made by Christmas Lumber and should be delivered early next week.

front of house w/garage

side view w/garage

And this week at Deeradise...

2011-07-16T18:52:00.000-04:00

The weatherman forecasted at least a 30% chance of rain each day this last week which caused us to rearrange some of our work schedule. We really wanted to get that garage floor poured but it just didn't happen. Most of the work done this week was all inside.

Monday: I went to Tellico Sawmill and picked out our logs for the front porch. Tellico Sawmill has provided me with a lot of great stuff on my previous cabins and its run by some great folks. Meanwhile, back at the fort, Ron finished up the basement framing.


storage room wall was built

Tuesday: After Cristi made changes to the basement, the entire stairway was torn out and rebuilt. She is now happy and that means the rest of us are happy, too! The basement bathtub, toilet and sink were installed allowing us to cancel the porta potty which saves us $70 a month. I believe Cristi's words were 'hallelujah!' - she sure isn't going to miss using that porta potty!

newly redone bsmt stairs that will now be open to the bsmt

basement bath - we are using the laundry sink temporarily during construction

Wednesday: After Cristi made changes to the master bath layout, the linen closet was torn apart and rebuilt in her "preferred" location which I have to admit was a really good idea. A flush mount cabinet was also installed in the toilet per her request. The master tub was also installed.

master bath toilet drain

master tub with the newly relocated linen closet

flush mount cabinet, but we're thinking about making it a bar window so we have a full service toilet :

Thursday: I started installing the electrical boxes in the basement and hung the electric panels in the mechanical room in the basement. Ron, finally tired of the 2 foot step to get onto the porch, made same temporary stairs. When I showed Cristi the picture, I think she was more excited about the stairs than hearing the inside toilet was usable! Her short legs made that step pretty difficult and she was quite appreciative of Ron for making the steps. The upstairs shower was also installed.

temp porch steps - hallelujah!

upstairs guest bath

Friday: Some outside frame punchout work got done before the torrential rains forced us inside to install all the wall blocking and bracing. The timbers for the porch were supposed to arrive today but we got a call late Thursday that the saw had broken and we'd have to get our delivery the first of next week. I guess it didn't matter anyway since the rain would have prevented us from picking back up the porch construction.

Saturday: I finished laying out the basement electrical design and Cristi helped nail up the boxes. Ron started installing plumbing drains.

Hopefully, we'll get a completed garage slab this next week and get back to working on that wrap around porch!

This Week at Deeradise...

2011-07-10T22:01:00.000-04:00

Monday: Happy 4th..I went to bed at 8:30 and didn't see a lick of fireworks although Ron and I did go through a few 50 round drums on my Sig Sauer 522LR and took the Mossberg for a spin too, so I guess we created our own fireworks! Prior to the fun, we made all the joist and top plates for the wrap around porch. We also had to move the basement bedroom window down a foot so that the wrap around porch deck above would flow more seamlessly with less steps. Unfortunately after doing that, I now wish all the windows in the house were a foot lower because it gives a better sense of openness to the room with the large casement windows we will be using. It also rained and I ordered more t & g (tongue & groove) as well as all of our porch timbers and logs. We can't do much else on the porch until the timbers/logs arrive.

joist/top plates for wrap around porch

Tuesday: I tore off the built in place forms Ron had made for the other side of the garage slab which holds all the rebar in place and the magnesium skreed board that was used to level the slab. We then prepped the other half of the garage slab for pouring which included laying the mesh, rebar, and another skreed used for leveling the concrete. Other items getting done today included some miscellaneous framing. We also got our casement windows delivered today.

casement windows which will be put in after the porch is done

Wednesday: We were supposed to pour the other half of the garage slab but it rained off and on all day, so it was back to some miscellaneous framing which included some design as we go style building.

Thursday: Framing started in the basement. (We are only partially finishing the basement but completing the basement bath so we can use it when we come in from working outdoors.) We placed the tub in the basement bath and built the equipment room in the basement that will hold the water heater, the electrical and audio video panels.

basement bath

equipment room in basement

Friday: Again, we were going to pour the slab today but the weather showed rain and we canceled the order only to have it stay dry all day. Weathermen have the only job in this world where you can be wrong 65% of the time and never lose your job. So, instead we built the basement bedroom and started on the basement frame punch list.

braces in the basement were completed

basement bedroom

Saturday: More basement walls were built and once the boss showed up (Cristi), we got more work. The master bath and basement stairs got some revamping thanks to her. Thankfully, we haven't had much rework from our initial framing but Cristi's "suggestions" did seem to be worthwhile to help the layout of the bath and stairs so we opted to do the re-framing. Cristi and I also took a hike on the property. The blackberries stretch at least 500 foot on one side of the property so we set off to pick some berries from the back 40. We found the deer trail and scared a few bunnies but we got about 7 lbs of blackberries which made all that briar scratching worthwhile.

storage room in bsmt

future bar/game room in bsmt


home theatre in bsmt

hiking through the back 40

blackberries

Decking Dynasty

2011-07-04T19:16:00.000-04:00

Deeradise's namesake

young buck and hopefully our new "pet"

It sure was a hot and rainy week. We managed to get the first half of the garage slab poured on Tuesday. Hopefully, we'll get the 2nd half poured this next week although there is a chance of rain every day until Saturday. I'm sure as soon as our house is finished the rain will stop and we'll be in a drought for the next year but until then, it sure does keep a coming.

This pic is before the power trowel was used

Despite the weather, the porch continues to develop. Everything is about the porch right now as it will also double as scaffolding once it's completed which will make it easier to continue working on the second story and roof. The porch is no small feat though and will take a couple more weeks to complete. I knew the porch was a good size but didn't realize it was 1100 square feet!! I think that set in after I saw the large load of lumber awaiting me in the drive which was to be the deck and porch roof. I spent 3 days staining just under half of the 260 2x6x12 tongue and groove in the 95 degree heat while working on my tan. I still have about 144 boards to go but that will have to wait until next weekend and that is just the porch roof. Not to mention, there is staining the deck and all the wood we'll be using inside the house. I'm going to be a stain master by the time this place is done!

decking!! it's going to be soooo nice!

mammoth load of tongue & groove to stain

garage came in handy!

i think i prefer last year's camping at Balsam Mountin, NC to this year's 3 day binger of staining for the 4th

Mudfest 2011!!

2011-06-26T14:19:00.000-04:00

I felt like I was wearing platform shoes in a mudslide carrying a 65 lb. hunk of cement! The reality was almost 2 inches of mud caked on the bottom of my Asics as I carried 65 lb. chimney blocks down the side of our house which had turned into a mud slide! Thanks to yet more rain in East Tennessee, Deeradise was like Mudfest 2011 more than once this last week! Jason also carried the blocks - it sure wasn't easy but we got them all carried to the footer holes around the house in preparation for their transformation into piers for the wrap around porch. (Unfortunately, we didn't get any mud pics...maybe next time.)

All 15 piers were completed this week with rebar and concrete. The concrete pouring was pretty labor intensive as Ron and Jason used the rented concrete mixer to mix the concrete and then poured the mix into buckets only to then climb the ladder to pour the concrete into the pier. Jason and Ron both looked like they had survived a bombing when they returned home that evening. Concrete is some nasty stuff.

rebar inside the pier

the 2 tallest piers are for the front entrance

completed front piers

side piers

rear piers

Headway was made on the garage floor as the poly, rebar and mesh wiring was laid in preparation for pouring this coming week. Fortunately for the guys, the truck can just back in and pour on this round of concrete.

garage prepped for pouring