No "R&R"

We are so excited to have Dad with us in North Carolina this weekend! He took a late flight out of Colorado and arrived in Knoxville at nearly midnight last night. We had the two hour drive back up the mountain to catch up on all of the important happenings of our dual lives. We plan to spend Dad's visit working on the cabin.

Today's objective is to mount fire retardant plywood to the ceiling of the workshop and stalls in the downstairs portion of the barn. This is another big step and generally a big job. It requires at least three people: two to hold the plywood up in the rafters, and one to use the pneumatic screw gun. It is also very important to spot important plumbing/electrical lines and make sure that we don't screw the plywood into them! When we're finished, it will be time to cover the downstairs walls with rough-sawn wood and begin finish work upstairs.

Speaking of which...today marks the completion of texturizing the upstairs walls. Our paint samples turned out to be too dark for the space, so we still have some hunting for the perfect color. On Monday morning we should be ready to start painting!

Finish work is exciting, but not necessarily easier than all of the prep work that we have been doing. Just as with any "fun" job (what we consider as a job that provides more instant gratification with visible results) there is still a great deal of prep work involved.

Meanwhile, the little projects we've been doing in the evenings are coming right along! So far, we have "up-cycled" an old brass chandelier, transformed old horseshoes into toilet paper holders, and created adorable wooden fish from a fallen tree. The current project in progress is a circular saw blade clock. One of the joys of building a rustic barn is our ability to look at just about anything and see it's potential for use.


This chandelier has been sitting in the barn for five years waiting to be recycled. We found a can of black spray paint with a hammered effect and decided that it would be a perfect wrought iron style accent!



Papa helped us heat these extra large horseshoes with an acetylene torch and bend them about 90 degrees at the apex. We can utilize the original nail holes to attach the shoe to the wall and viola! We have created an easy-to-use, slip on-slip off toilet paper holder for each of the two bathrooms. I painted both with the hammered effect spray paint.



We spotted a similar piece of decor in a restaurant in Asheville a couple of weeks ago. About five of these wooden fish were strung through the "mouth" with twine and hung over a nail in the wall above our booth. I LOVED the idea and told Collier that he needed to make something like it. This is what he brought me. Needless to say, Collier's version is far superior while maintaining the rustic feeling of the wood. He plans to purchase a stringer for about four to five of these fish.