Additional Pictures Taken During The Month

We have attached some miscellaneous pictures taken during the last month of work at Zelda and at home. We hope everyone has a blessed Thanksgiving and we will continue the work on November 30th.

Dining Room Fireplace Hearth

Today, Brent woke up and designed and built the fireplace hearth in the dining room. In the process, the first three pieces of the downstairs wood flooring was installed. The hearth is the black marble which will be installed in the foyer. Brent had some trouble in cutting the marble and not having it split. Some tiles broke when he simply picked them up, but he was able to salvage the broken pieces for the smaller areas. Code requires a minimum 14" width on the hearth but Brent decided to make the width 18".

We currently have about 85% of the flooring installed in the master bath shower. We are installing 1" square slate which is on a 1 foot square mat. Lynn spent the entire morning cleaning the top surface of the installed tile squares of mortar that during the process of installation had oozed through the tiles and dried. Her next job will be to clean out the excess mortar between each tile in preparation for the grout. Working with slate is difficult as is the marble, but the end results looks great. The different colors in the slate will allow us a lot of latitude in picking out the color of the tile for the walls.

On the way home we made a stop in Dillsboro, NC to eat at the Jarret House. Unfortunately, they are operating on winter hours and are only open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We decided to walk around the town and Cookie insisted that we go to the Smoky Mountain Dog Bakery. Yes a dog bakery. Inside the bakery smelled wonderful and Brent was temped to buy a treat for himself. Cookie surveyed the goodies in the glass display case but settled on the free treat offered by the owner. The owner of the bakery was very nice and we highly recommended visiting while in Dillsboro. I know that Cookie will pester us to stop on a weekly basis.

We are looking forward to spending the weekend with our girls and celebrating their 20th birthday on Friday. Brent is heading to Richmond, VA on Sunday for a job interview and will return home late Monday night. With guests coming in for Thanksgiving, we have decided to take a break from work at Zelda next week. We will head back over the mountains to Kings Mountain on Monday, November 30th.

This is a picture of the two vanities in the master bathroom.

Our wish for everyone to have a Happy Thanksgiving and safe travels to your destination to spend time with family.

Like the Weather, Plans Change

The good weather has turned and on Wednesday, it started raining and turned cool such that all the planned outside painting had to be changed. Instead, Brent has continued to work on putting down the slate tile in the master bath shower and install the second vanity in the master bath room. Lynn has continued to work on the mantle and has put a first coat of paint of the side of the stairs. It looks great.

Brent was able to get the ladder from Ray Jr on Monday evening and used it to reach the peak of Zelda on the west side. He was able to caulk and repair the siding as needed and he painted the window. He also was able to apply the finish coat on the courtyard and the back of Zelda.

Lynn was able to use a paint brush and apply the finish coat on the bottom portion of the front of Zelda.

We are heading back home Thursday evening as the girls will be home on Friday to celebrate their 20th birthday.

This is the west side after caulking and repair work.

Almost All Primed

On Saturday we looked at the forecast for Kings Mountain, NC and decided to head over on Sunday evening to take advantage of the nice weather forecasted for the start of the week. We are having to drive through Cherokee, NC because I-40 between Asheville, NC and Knoxville, TN is still closed due to the rock slide. It is not expected to be cleared for several months.

While on our drive over Sunday, we stopped and got boiled peanuts in Cherokee and apple fritters at the Barber Orchard just outside of Waynesville, NC. This orchard makes the best apple fritters, turnovers and pies, such that on the way home, we have been ordered to purchase an apple pie for Thanksgiving.

Decide to show a view of what it looks like to stand at the bottom of the ladder and look up to the top of Zelda.

Well, today (Monday) at Zelda we were able to prime the west side of Zelda. All but the very top has been primed and Brent will need to get the ladder from Ray, Jr. to reach this point. We also started to apply the finish coat on the front of Zelda, but Brent ran into a problem of applying the paint too thick with the sprayer. There is not a lot of difference in color between the primer and the finish coats, so he moved to the back of Zelda, in the bright sunlight, and finished the entire back with the finish coat. Brent plans to paint the east side and front on Tuesday.

Lynn continued to work on stripping the mantle, painted the lower level of Zelda, did some minor grouting of areas in the master bath and stove area and did some touch up painting inside.

Rain and Chilly

This was not a good week to schedule work such as painting outdoors at Zelda. It rained and was chilly the entire week. The only day it did not rain was Friday, so Brent finished caulking the west side of Zelda. It was too windy to paint, so no painting was performed this week.

We did rearrange our work schedule and moved all activities inside. We now have a working washer and dryer downstairs which has been used more than once. We also have a working kitchen sink with garbage disposal and the dishwasher has been installed. One of the two (2) master bathroom sinks is not operable and about 1/3 of the master bathroom shower flooring has been installed.

Lynn grouted the entire kitchen floor and removed all the old paint off one of the original mantles that we had in Zelda. On one of our trips to Lowes and Home Depot, we discovered some marble tile on sale. Brent bargained with the manager and took all the remaining marble ( 170 sf) at $2.00 per square foot. This was about 60% off the original price. The marble is a black with white grains and will go in the entrance foyer.

With the rain gone on Friday, Lynn went by Lowes and picked up all the remaining 37 boxes of hardwood flooring that we had purchased in the summer. For some reason Lowes did not want to store our flooring anymore after we had them hold our kitchen cabinets for over a year. Go figure. The total amount of boxes of wood flooring is 75 with each box containing 20 sf. The total boxes of marble we purchased was 22 with each box containing 10 sf.

Final Kitchen Floor Tile Is Placed

The remaining three days of the week were not as exciting as seeing the results of putting on the primer. We scraped, caulked and repaired the side of Zelda. It took two days and we still need to apply some more caulk next week. Brent was tired of putting on caulk, so Friday, we finished the tiling the kitchen floor.

We are close to installing the stackable washer and dryer in the downstairs laundry room. The only missing item is the clamp to attach the exhaust vent to the dryer. Next week we will be able to wash and dry clothes.

Cookie worked hard all week and was very tired. The picture of her is a break she took on top of the wood flooring. We have 27 boxes remaining to be picked up at Lowes. We headed back to Gatlinburg Friday evening and met the girls. Jennifer and Jessica are taking Brent to the Tennessee football game Saturday night. Go Vols.