We’re getting a bit of a deluge this weekend, so progress outside of the house is paused. The upside of all of the water is that the river is twice as wide as it normally is, so it’s more visible. It’s also good to see the driveway holding up nicely.

The porch roof and a good portion of the house roof are on. The roof appears to be mood changing, as it looks like a different color depending on the angle. I’m assuming that the rain had some impact, causing the roof to be more reflective than normal, and it’s reflecting those ugly grey things that are up in the sky dropping water on us. I think those come from Pittsburgh. Here we call them “clouds”, even though up there its just called “sky”. In the sun, up close, or dry, the roof appears much darker.

I actually was glad it was raining because that meant I could definitively answer the question you’re all wondering: “Isn’t the metal roof really loud?”. Answer: No.

Don’t ask me to explain that, but I stood on the porch in the pouring rain and the roof didn’t make any noise. I was hoping for some sort of quiet ‘ting ting’, but nope, nothing. The metal that was sitting on the trailer was making noise, though. I could give you a made up answer about roof pitch and the angle of the raindrop, but I’ll let you ponder that one on your own.

Inside, we’ve entered the age of Ben Franklin. The snakes start nice and neat…

Then they head all over the house.   

The kitchen is all set with overhead lights, plugs for the range, microwave, dishwasher, and refrigerator. There’s also a number of plugs for the counter for the coffee maker, crepe maker, toaster, waffle maker, keurig, and whatever else someone could think to put there. If you looked closely or zoomed in really far, you could see the notes on the wall of where everything is going.

No, you’re not going blind. There was really no way you were going to be able to read anything in that picture. It’s there though!

There’s also wiring for smoke detectors.

Of course, the closet-turned-office needed a plug too. I’m glad the electrician thought of this, because I didn’t!

Outside, there’s 2 lights on the porch (one over head, and one next to the doors), and another next to the front door. There’s also a couple of outside outlets, one on the side porch and one on the front porch.

We stopped “downtown” again. It was a little quieter than normal due to the rain and leaf season coming to an end. We finally made it into the L&L Beanery. It’s in an old bank building and was really similar to Iron Bank in Columbus. The one thing that Iron Bank definitely did better was leveraging the giant vault in the middle of the store, which they turned into a conference room with comfy chairs that anyone can use. L&L had some pictures and other miscellaneous stuff for sale in there, but I think it was a missed opportunity. For the record, there is not a Starbucks in Blue Ridge.

The train was parked downtown today, which was unusual. it’s usually away when we’re there, so either it was running late or we were running early. We’ve never ridden the train, although apparently it’s a scenic ride..

In our previous post we mentioned that one of the ideas we’re tossing around is to build a “compound of small (not tiny) houses”. What we’re envisioning is a cluster of 3-6 cabins between 400 and 1000 square feet. Each one would would have a full bathroom, bedroom, and kitchen(ette). They’d be connected by paths, some shared outdoor gathering places, maybe an outdoor fire pit, endless pool, and a pavilion.

We’d build these on a big piece of land so that they’d have total seclusion, and would have some kind of natural element to look at or play with- a great mountain view or a big loud stream possibly.

They’d be rented out individually, or could be rented all together by a bigger group.

With the rest of the land, we’d eventually get some trails put in and link up to anything that’s already existing (so bonus for any land that’s near or adjoining any of the existing trails systems).

In addition to being compact, these cabins would be largely off-the-grid, leveraging solar power and captured water. At least one of the cabins would be accessible, and the other paths and shared areas would be built with this in mind as well.

We looked all around for a place like this for our small (10 people) wedding a few years ago and couldn’t find anything that fit the bill. There was nothing small, modern, and rustic that could accommodate us.

Now what are you envisioning in your head?

We found these cabins, designed by Osburn Clarke of British Columbia. There’s 4 cabins with an identical footprint but slightly different layouts. They’re 100% off the grid. Lighting is provided by solar, water by the rain, and heat by the wood stoves.

They’re not designed for winter living. Instead, the doors and windows can be covered up by the rolling doors. You can see these doors and the tracks in the couple of pictures below.

The same people designed this house with a footprint of only 500 square feet.

There’s also a slew of cool projects designed by Balance Associates. The house linked is bigger than the cabins would be, but at 1600 square feet, it’s not unreasonable. The inside is more modern than what we like, but it’s not too far off.

As we enter the final stages of this house, we’re starting to look at options for the next project. We’re fully prepared for this one not to sell immediately, but we also want to have sifted through some possibilities so that we’re ready to go if it does sell right away.

Going back to the beginning, our original search for a “mountain house” began very small:

That’s 14 Finch Lane, a 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom cabin in Cherry Log Mountain. It was small, simple, and rustic. It also had a noisy little stream in front of it. It’s major downside was that it was on a small lot, and located right off of the main road into Cherry Log Mountain, so there would be noticeable drive by traffic. The other downside was that anyone we talked to said “what if you have friends visiting?” This house didn’t have room for any guests.

The final house that we were this () close to buying was a new construction cabin with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. This one ticked off all of the boxes except for being secluded. The sellers (Sissons) were willing to sell us the adjoining lot at a decent and fair price, but as you know, that’s not the path we chose. It is still for sale. http://nathanfitts.com/homes-for-sale-details/L-540-CHERRY-LAKE-CHERRY-LOG-GA-30522/236754/260/

The point of this is to highlight that we built way more house than we personally need or want. Even the cherry lake house is bigger than the house we live in now! However, we do like to think that if we were to actually live in, or spend a lot of time in, a house up there, our friends would want to visit us. Maybe we’re delusional.

We’ve come up with a few things that could be the next project, and the list continues to grow. My main criteria are that it has to be at least marginally fun and profitable. We are all ears to ideas or thoughts from anyone, so let us know what you think! Here’s the top of our list right now, not in order:

• Rent out the existing house
  • This will only happen if the house does not sell by late spring/early summer. We do not want to rent this house out, but it would not be a bad problem to have. It would be a positive cash flow every month, but it would also mean that we have both a ton of cash and a mortgage tied up in a rental property, so it’s not the ideal scenario. It would also limit our ability to start another adventure. However, I think Brittany would have a great time furnishing and decorating it to get it ready for rentals. On the downside, we would need to put in a hot tub, which we have vowed to avoid.
• Sell the house and do nothing.
  • If we sell the house and have not found the right next project, we won’t start something new. Yes, “do nothing” actually means “Dave brainstorming, researching, iterating, and building financial models for 100 ideas”, but from an investment standpoint, this would be a break until we hit on an idea we like. This is not a probable scenario.
• Build on lot 12, 14, or another in River Escape
  • This seems like the easiest option. However, I’m not sure we want to build another $300,000 house. I struggle with building something that we (or our friends) wouldn’t or couldn’t buy. Everything else we’ve done personally has been to simplify things (including our phases of “yard simplification” and then “life simplification”), and a 2600 square foot vacation house doesn’t line up with that. The selling process for the existing house will affect this decision. If it sells quickly and for the asking price, it will be a lot harder to pass up the lot next door to do it all again.
• Small (not tiny) house compound
  • Yes, I love this idea. In fact, I love it so much that it’s going to get it’s own post. If this isn’t the next project, it will be a project at some point. I hope you can handle the suspense I just created.
• Bears Den Mountain
  • This will also get it’s own post after we visit the land again this weekend. This is a small tract of land that has already been divided into 5 lots. We considered it before, and it is still on the table. There are a few similar pieces of land that would allow us to do the same thing. We’d be committing to building at least a couple of houses. Ideally, we’d manage to keep things smaller than what we’re doing currently.
• Build OUR house
  • If we were certain of where we wanted to live, we could build a house to actually live in. Unfortunately, we don’t know where that is. We’re lucky in that we have the abilities to make a go of it just about anywhere, but how do you pick out of “everywhere”? The only way I see the next house being one we live in is if we decide to move to Cherry Log/Blue Ridge, but maybe we’ll have a revelation.

Thankfully, no the roof is not fire, but we’ve picked the metal colors so that hopefully it never will be!

Tim (the builder) and his sons were measuring the roof this weekend to order the metal roofing and gutters. They had no qualms hopping around the roof 30 feet up.

The roof will be charcoal gray ,and the gutters will be bronze.

You can see the other options and some examples at Jimmy’s Metal Roofing. There’s lots to pick from, and you could go pretty crazy, but I think we’ve picked something that will link up well with the rest of the house.

We went with the metal for a few reasons. We think it will look awesome, and will be something distinctive from the other houses nearby (although, biased, I do think it’s the most unique house in the immediate area!). Also, it will last a long time-about 50 years. Whoever buys this house won’t have to worry about the roof, and if they sell it in 10 years, those people won’t have to worry about the roof either. This is not a throw-it-up cookie cutter subdivision house that will need overhauled in 10 years!

The rest of the exterior will be underway in a couple of weeks, so it looks like everything outside will be done around the first week of December. We’re only about 8 weeks out from being completely done!

No, that’s the HVAC ducts. Got it.

The furnace and AC units are both in now, and there’s ducts snaking through the walls and ceilings.

Ducts need intakes and vents, and those have appeared in the floors, walls, and ceilings.

Another source of heat, the fireplaces and chimney pieces are also installed. At the beginning, we changed the location of the fireplace several times, moving it back and forth from the corner to the side wall. The advantage to the side wall was that it could be carried through and line up with the outside fireplace, and would also take up less total space. Ultimately, we decided that the would have more flexibility if the fireplace was in the corner. This also allowed us to put the outside fireplace on the outside of the porch, which I think makes the porch more enclosed.

Of course, your day is not complete without hearing and seeing a slight brag about the view from the porch. Mountains, leaves of all colors, and the river. Perfect spot to sit next to a fireplace!

There was quite a bit of progress this week on the plumbing. That will all be finished up in a couple of days, and then the electric will start. The weather didn’t cooperate for the tree trimmers, but the views were still better than they’ve been with the wind having cleared most of the leaves off of the trees.

The upstairs bathroom has a shower/tub. The downstairs bath will have a tiled shower, so it’s just pipes now.

The washer connections are also in place on the first floor.

Outside, the ac unit has been put in place. AC was the last thing we were thinking about as it was 32 degrees. It won’t get a whole lot colder than that here, so for November 1st, it’s a bit nippy.

One of the two windows that’s yet to be installed is the window for the closet turned office nook. This will be a small window similar in size to the one in the bathroom below it. You can see it framed out in the picture.

I forgot to get a picture of the front door last week, so here it is.

The outside won’t change now for a couple of weeks. The roof will go on in 3-4 weeks, and the framing crew will be back in a week or two to start on the exterior. Everything in the meantime will happen inside.

The porch is still the highlight for me. If you don’t like this porch, you’re just not a porch person.