I wanted to at least come by and post the link to Flickr for the most up to date photos of the Tumbleweed House.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13073825@N07/

We had a really great time. In a nutshell, we took Matt's mom to Asheville and took her to see the house. She was really impressed that the two of us had done most of the work by ourselves. I don't think she would even fathom building any part of a house. Then we went to French Broad Fridays - a citywide event in downtown Marshall. Our neighbor's studio was open and we got to go hang out with her and see what she was working on. Then we went back to Asheville and checked in to the hotel. Ethel was done for the night so Matt and I walked to Sante and had some wine and a chocolate flight. Then we turned in for the night.

The next day, we left Ethel in the hotel and went up to Mt. Matt to do some more work. She spent the day riding around Asheville on a trolley tour and had a great time. We got everything accomplished on the house that we set out to do (first time the whole project that has happened) and we were satisfied when we went back into town. We went to Table for dinner and then back to the hotel to watch a movie. Watched I Love You Man, which was surprisingly funny.

On Sunday, Ethel went with me to Jubilee. I love that church. Then we met up with Matt and went to Lowes to see about ordering a roof. They couldn't answer our questions (we want it to be safe for rain catchment and not have any weird chemicals), so we couldn't place the order. Then we had lunch at Green Life Grocery (yummy sandwiches) and came home.

Once home, we watched a recording of the first Lions' preseason game this year. We won - but we won all of our preseason games last year too. Then Matt and I watched the latest episode of Being Human on BBC America. I really like that show, but I think that Mitchell is a very irresponsible vampire!

And that is all. Matt goes up in two weeks without me and then we won't be back in Asheville until late September (Dragon*Con and a trip to New Orleans for Lions Opening Day happen at the beginning of September).

oneandonlymatt and I went back up to Asheville this weekend to do some more work on the house. We got there Friday night like we normally do, went to bed and got up early to start working.

Saturday started with a trip to Home Depot where we got the plywood sheathing for the house as well as some 16 foot 2x4s for the top plate. We got back to Mt. Matt and unloaded. Then our friend Chris came up, arriving about 1pm. He wanted to get right to work, so we got everything up to the worksite and got busy. We put up the collar ties, which are essentially the joists for the storage loft above the door and the sleeping loft above the bathroom and kitchen. That turned out to be an easy process, but Matt informed me that he had spent days on end thinking about how to do those the best way, and obviously that obsessing paid off.

After our work was done for the day, we had to take the truck back to Home Depot. We had originally planned to go into Asheville for Bele Chere (the music festival) but Chris decided he didn't want to go. The headliner was the Family Stone - without Sly - so Matt and I decided we weren't invested in that. So, instead we went to Longnecks in Marshall. We got there minutes after they were starting to close up the kitchen, but the bar was still open and the owners said they could make us a couple of things. We told them we would be fine to find somewhere else, but they insisted and we sat at the bar and ate like kings. We talked with them for hours about their travels around the world and living in the Madison County area and the things they had built on their land. They had been a husband and wife team of realtors but now they own the bar. The wife asked us a lot of details about our land and as it turns out, she was the agent for the woman we bought it from! We were there forever and had a great conversation.

We finally went back to Mt. Matt and I crashed. Matt and Chris stayed up and made a small fire and I think they both went to bed around 1am. We got up the next morning and got started on the wall sheathing. We got the bottom half done all the way around and cut all the top pieces, but then it started to rain so we needed to clean up the work sight and tarp the Tumbleweed House. Chris left around 2:30 and Matt and I left around 3:30. We decided to stop at the Asheville Pizza Company for dinner, which was fantastic. Then we got home around 8:30 and watched Being Human on BBC America and went to bed.

Check out the latest batch of photos on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13073825@N07/

I just wanted to stop by and post the link to flickr for more photos.

This weekend, on Saturday we took the two 16 foot 4x4s up the hill to the build site. I was going to help Matt carry them but he said it was just easier if he did it himself. I followed him to make sure we didn't have any problems. That didn't take as long as I expected it to. Then we took the dremmel tool up and measured the bolts and brackets and cut off any excess bolt. The bolt can't touch the wood, so we had to trim them a bit since setting them in concrete isn't an exact science. once we did that, we could put down the brackets and level with washers. We didn't have the right ratchet so we had to go to the brand new Lowes in Weaverville. We got as much done as we could. Just as we were finishing up, it started to rain. A little thunderstorm directly over Mt. Matt, but the skies were blue all around. We waited until it seemed mostly done and took our showers and then went to Lowes. We got a few things and then went to dinner in Asheville. (Thirsty Monk for Steak Frites...YUM). We came back and watched some of John Adams, which is really good by the way.

The next morning we woke to more rain. We knew we couldn't do much and checked Weather.com for the hour by hour forecast and it didn't appear it would stop until about 11. We did the only thing we could think to do...we went out for breakfast. When we got back we went back up to the clearing to level and do the temporary braces for the 4X4s. We got the brackets tightened down and it looks really good. We didn't have time to cut the 4x6s that make up the posts, so that will be among the first jobs for next week.

I also sprayed the heck out of the poison ivy with Round Up. I will kill that stuff!

That brings us to next week. We leave on Friday for our week long building extravaganza. Different friends are coming to help over different parts of the week. I am so looking forward to it!

Check out the latest photos.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13073825@N07/

oneandonlymatt and I are up at Mt. Matt working on the foundation for the house. We have been very pleased with our progress and are planning to stay as late as we need to tonight to get all the cement done. (Hooray for good weather!)

We got here on Friday night and went straight to bed. On saturday we got up intending to do everything but realized there was only so much we could do. So, we made really good progress. We got all the tools up to the tumbleweed clearing. We measured all the sonotubes so we could cut them. We did that with a water level which is my new favorite tool. I enjoyed water leveling as much as I enjoy creating flow charts. You may not know that about me, but I love making flow charts. Then we cut all the tubes. Crazy thing about the human brain. When you look at them they don't look even remotely even but sure enough they are level. Crazy optical illusion. Once we got all those set up and leveled we back filled the holes to brace the sonotubes. And that ended up taking most of the day. We had originally brought food to make but we decided that it would be way too late to start pouring concrete since we really couldn't stop once we started, so we went in to Asheville. We went to Hannah Flannagans and had a couple of beers and some yummy food. When we got back to Mt. Matt we fell right to sleep.

This morning, we got up pretty early and went back up to the clearing. We set up the batter boards and tied up the strings to make sure we have everything level and square. Right now, Matt is taking the concrete up to the clearing three bags at a time on the ATV. It is working very well, but there is little I can do for this process, so here I am. Once he is done with that we will eat some lunch and then it is concrete mixing time. Matt did already deliver the water and cement mixer up there as well. We decided since the weather is so perfect for it, we would stay and do this work as late as we had to. That may make for a long and miserable day at work for me tomorrow, but I'll work it out. It is all worth it to have the Tumbleweed house!

I have taken some photos and will take more. I'll be sure to pop those up on flickr when we get home.

Just a quick post about our weekend because I don't have much time. We did some more work on the barn room. The problem with a room that has no straight lines or angles is that it is hard to make things straight. We started out not worrying about it but them Matt's OCD kicked in and we took down everything we did last weekend and started again. Truth is, he was right and it is much better.

The ceiling isn't done yet. Along the seams of the flashing will be 4 inch battens in a dark brown stain to match the dark brown that will go on the walls.



The ultimate purpose of this room will be 1) a place to camp while we finish the tumbleweed house and 2) a studio for music, or writing or whatever creative endeavor we would like to pursue.

We are going back to Asheville this weekend. Hooray. I am so excited. The weekend can never come fast enough.

These are our current plans. I like to make a record so I can see just how different things actually went. Kind of like the weekend we planned to get a ton of stuff done but ended up with a Budget Truck in a ditch.

Anywho, the plan is currently as follows:

I want to leave on Saturday before crack of dawn o'clock. Convincing oneandonlymatt of this time frame will probably not happen. I would be prepared to leave the house by 6am, but I'll be lucky to compromise at 7.

If we leave at 7 we should get up there around 10:30. We can stop and pick up some subway to hold on to for lunch. Then we'll head to the barn and finish up the insulation. The two of us should be able to knock that out pretty quickly. Then we can break for lunch. Then we can start on the ceiling. We are doing silver metal flashing across the ceiling that will eventually be "finished" with batons across the seams. This will give it sort of a rustic industrial look. It is a barn, after all.

Sometime during the day we'll pop in on our Neighbors. They invited us over for some wine the next time we were in town. I wanted to stop by and suggest we get together in the evening if they are avaible. That way we can work on finishing the ceiling. Then we need to go get dinner. I want to go back to Bacchus Bistro in downtown Marshall. Then we'll need to stop at Ingalles to pick up something to eat for breakfast the next morning, assuming we will decide to camp. We are fully expecting to have that be a game time decision. It'll be a little chilly, but we'll have just finished insulating the barn so it will help a bit. I've camped when it has been colder, that is for sure.

I am so looking forward to it!