Brief Asheville Update
oneandonlymatt and I were back up to Asheville again this weekend. It is the first weekend since before the holidays that we went up to do some actual work. Tragically, I forgot my camera at home so we didn't get photos of the projects in process. However, we are going back next week so I'll take some photos when we get there.
The project for this week was finishing the plywood sheathing on the gable ends. Matt told me he was dreading this part of the project, but as it turns out, it wasn't so bad.
When we arrived in Asheville on Friday night, we checked in at the Downtown Inn and walked over to the Thirsty Monk for a beverage before heading to bed. We got up early on Saturday and headed out to Mt. Matt. When we got there, we knew we needed to do a little tree clean up before we could even get the materials up to the Tumbleweed House. As we drove up to the barn, we saw that the power company had come out to clean up the downed power lines. They also took a chainsaw to the tree that was on the barn and created treemageddon. There are trunks and branches everywhere. We have some work cut out for us to clean up the rest of the trees. But we took our tiny ryobi battery powered chain saw and cut some of the branches out of the way of the barn room door and then some of the branches off the tree that fell on the path. We didn't do anything bigger with that tree, we need to get a real chainsaw to do that, but we cut enough that we could climb over the trunk to get up to the house. Once we did that, we went up to the house and took measurements for the gable end sheathing. We also finished the framing of the gable windows. They had the vertical studs but not the horizontal ones for the window frame. Then we went back down to the barn to cut the first sheet of plywood. We decided to do one at a time because we weren't quite sure if our plans would work. Then we hauled that up to the house and without as much struggle as we thought, got the plywood on the back of the house. Most of the hard work was done by Matt, of course, as he had to lift the plywood up as he climbed the ladder and hold it there while he screwed it in. He did a great job. When we realized that worked fine, we decided to go down and cut the second gable end. However, we left the one good ryobi battery up at the house and we weren't able to finish the cuts. By this time, it was about 5:00pm and we were getting tired and it had been cold all day. We got ourselves kind of cleaned up and then went down to visit our neighbors.
They took us out to a very yummy Mexican restaurant called Taqueria Fast. The waitress was a little slow and less than pleasant but the food was fantastic and of course the company and conversation were great.
After dinner, Matt and I headed back into Asheville and got showered and dressed and walked out into town. We wanted to try the new Lexington Avenue Brewery, but when we got there it was crazy crowded. We wandered over to The Beir Garden and hung out for a little bit. We ended up back at the hotel relatively early.
Today, there was a significant chance of rain but we decided to go up around 11am and see how much we could get done. It drizzled a bit while we were there, but we were able to get the second gable end done without any trouble. Matt then went around the land and helped some of the little trees that had fallen down. He had this weird talent - he can just hold them up and they stay! I called him the Tree Whisperer.
We left Mt. Matt around 1:30, stopped for lunch and headed for Atlanta. It rained pretty hard most of the way home, which was horrible, but we are here and all is well.
Stay tuned for more updates on the build.
The project for this week was finishing the plywood sheathing on the gable ends. Matt told me he was dreading this part of the project, but as it turns out, it wasn't so bad.
When we arrived in Asheville on Friday night, we checked in at the Downtown Inn and walked over to the Thirsty Monk for a beverage before heading to bed. We got up early on Saturday and headed out to Mt. Matt. When we got there, we knew we needed to do a little tree clean up before we could even get the materials up to the Tumbleweed House. As we drove up to the barn, we saw that the power company had come out to clean up the downed power lines. They also took a chainsaw to the tree that was on the barn and created treemageddon. There are trunks and branches everywhere. We have some work cut out for us to clean up the rest of the trees. But we took our tiny ryobi battery powered chain saw and cut some of the branches out of the way of the barn room door and then some of the branches off the tree that fell on the path. We didn't do anything bigger with that tree, we need to get a real chainsaw to do that, but we cut enough that we could climb over the trunk to get up to the house. Once we did that, we went up to the house and took measurements for the gable end sheathing. We also finished the framing of the gable windows. They had the vertical studs but not the horizontal ones for the window frame. Then we went back down to the barn to cut the first sheet of plywood. We decided to do one at a time because we weren't quite sure if our plans would work. Then we hauled that up to the house and without as much struggle as we thought, got the plywood on the back of the house. Most of the hard work was done by Matt, of course, as he had to lift the plywood up as he climbed the ladder and hold it there while he screwed it in. He did a great job. When we realized that worked fine, we decided to go down and cut the second gable end. However, we left the one good ryobi battery up at the house and we weren't able to finish the cuts. By this time, it was about 5:00pm and we were getting tired and it had been cold all day. We got ourselves kind of cleaned up and then went down to visit our neighbors.
They took us out to a very yummy Mexican restaurant called Taqueria Fast. The waitress was a little slow and less than pleasant but the food was fantastic and of course the company and conversation were great.
After dinner, Matt and I headed back into Asheville and got showered and dressed and walked out into town. We wanted to try the new Lexington Avenue Brewery, but when we got there it was crazy crowded. We wandered over to The Beir Garden and hung out for a little bit. We ended up back at the hotel relatively early.
Today, there was a significant chance of rain but we decided to go up around 11am and see how much we could get done. It drizzled a bit while we were there, but we were able to get the second gable end done without any trouble. Matt then went around the land and helped some of the little trees that had fallen down. He had this weird talent - he can just hold them up and they stay! I called him the Tree Whisperer.
We left Mt. Matt around 1:30, stopped for lunch and headed for Atlanta. It rained pretty hard most of the way home, which was horrible, but we are here and all is well.
Stay tuned for more updates on the build.