Worth Writing Home About

I know it's been since July that I gave my blog an updated post. There was simply "nothing to write home about". The roof on our new home is complete which is the feature where we get most compliments. It's pure and simple. Most of the sheet rock has been installed and now the interior brick is being laid. I take a good bit of pride in the wood being used in this house. As I've mentioned, the flooring is beautiful heart pine which I got from Easley, SC. which arrived back in June and had to be stored over the summer. I like to get material in ahead of time because in this business you don't want to be caught waiting on anything to get delivered in order to get work done. All of the wood was stored in a nice, dry space, even though we had heavy rains awllllll  summer long. We stacked most of it carefully  with cross pieces of other wood to lift it off the floor, with one exception. Some of the nice 12" x 16' x 5/4" pieces were sitting flat on the concrete right on top of a crack. So a few weeks ago we moved it all out to go to a local mill and low and behold as we got down to the bottom 3 boards, little white nasty, slimy bugs, yes termites, were feasting on my mighty fine pine lumber. So, we had to load it all up to get zapped with some vile poison to kill the bas*ards. I tell myself, it could have been worse. We really only lost 50% of just one of those boards. 





























So in the photo above is the impressive 26' Penske truck I rented to go fetch ancestral lumber with my trusty nephew Jones. That lumber has been in storage for some time. It's from a cottage that we tore down on the family farm I've mentioned earlier. That cottage by the way, was where my Mother's parents lived in the first couple of years of their new marriage back in about 1932. We decided to tear it down, very carefully because the structure was starting to go and the house would need restoring or removing, the latter of course is what we decided. There is a lot of nice wide boards I'll be using on some of the ceilings of my new dwelling.  Driving one of these trucks through the streets of Savannah, GA with all those low lying limbs of the live oaks lining the streets is a little unsettling. You earn a serious judgement of what 12'-6" looks like, in height! Needless to say, we had this load treated just like the pine flooring in case there were any bugs lurking about.

I'll be glad when we get to the phase where the dumpster is removed! 





To the left is some of the heart pine flooring we had gauged at a local mill so that it won't cup once it's installed.

At first glance, I didn't think some of this lumber was going to be worth much till I  started unloading it (with lots of help) board by board. I looked at a sample with the mill owner who ran it through to remove a thin, thin layer, leaving just a spec of paint. That's how I knew I had some interesting material. It's going to work, and I'll have some nice boards left over to use for something else. And by the way, I can't go on another word with out mentioning how accommodating and helpful my contractors, Brian and Scott Grant of Grant Homes have been in all these extra special steps in building this house. They've tolerated my old wood and termite issues with a no worry "we can fix this" attitude. 

The things I haven't written about are the planning, budgeting and procuring being done for the interior furnishings. John and I have our lives stored in several storage facilities. We were in Birmingham a few weeks ago and went through most everything, reorganizing items that: 
1. will go to the new house 
2. Will be available for our children to go through if they can use something 
3. Good Will or similar 
4. the upholsterer or refinisher.

So while at The Lexington Junior League Horse Show this summer, I found a beautiful side board and mirror which have since made it safely to storage in Birmingham awaiting the big move which will probably be in early January. Here is a glimpse.

As always, stay tuned.