We've Got Mail!!!...

Yes Blog Cabin fans we have finally received mail! Our very first letter or let-ters I should say! There were 6 pieces total. We received a post card from "Our Wayne" & mom from Savannah GA and Florida and also 4 letters in different color envelopes!!...a green envelope an orange a yellow and a blue! The post cards were pretty...a picture of the streets of Savannah and a pretty cottage on the beaches of Gulf Bay Florida! According to the post cards Savannah is beautiful, especially the old historic plantation homes. Florida is quite warm these days...in the 90's and humid, but the ocean is like bath water ((ooooooh)) and the sunny beaches are gorgeous. There were even dolphins at the beach that swam about 5 feet away! Good Stuff! The cards I received in the blog cabin mailbox were cute too. We received a "thinking of you at the blog cabin" card that had a cute wrinkly Bull dog on the front...a pre-season Halloween card which got me excited for pumpkin pie and the mini individually wrapped candies that they sometimes change to orange and black to suite the season! Candy Yummmm!!! I LOVE HALLOWEEN...and all the treats that come with it! we received another cute card with a cat on it who was dressed mighty dapper for a cat if you ask me ;)...And last but not least I also received an envelope full of stickers!! There were all kinds...puppy stickers, duck stickers and some really cool 3D stickers with the googlie eyes! I love my blog cabin fans! THANK YOU ALL FOR THE FAN MAIL and Keep the blog cabin mail coming! I love checking to see what little surprises I may get next! Oh! ...and I will post the stickers, post cards, and the rest of the fan mail for you to view and enjoy as well:)

Be back later!
-J

Blog Cabin R & R...

This weekend while the construction is on hold P & I decided to enjoy a little blog cabin R & R! First, we did my most favorite thing in the whole wide world...we slept in! :) We woke up the natural way to the most peaceful sounds of nature. Around 9:30 the sun peeked in between the window shades and lit up the room. We laid in bed for a while and listened to the peaceful sound of the cool fall water trickling over the stones in the brook...so much better than my annoying alarm clock that I would love to smash! lol... Then, we lounged around in our jams for a bit and drank fresh brewed tea and coffee, ate some cookies, and chatted until about 10am. At this time we decided to start a puzzle!!! YAY! We broke out a new puzzle from our game trunk and sat down at the designated puzzle table and began! I poked through the shrink wrap with a fork and ripped the cellophane right off the box! What joy! We completed the border and a few chunks of the middle...no great achievement, but a good start at that:) After that we got a blog cabin phone call on our black rotary dial phone! ((RING RING!!))It was my sister inviting us over to watch the game and to do some relaxing kayaking! We took her up on her offer and off we went! I chose the kayaking and P chose to watch the game with my brother-in-law Jon....although I did stick around long enough to grab some yummy game snacks before we paddled off! lol. It was the most perfect kayaking day ever...Sunny...about 73 degrees and a slight breeze! It was a wonderful day! Here is a video and some pictures!
Enjoy...

And Now Introducing...

OUR NEW BATHROOM!!!! Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray!

Yes my friends...it is finally here...our new bathroom! How exciting! The shower is not quite finished yet, but it's going to be a corner shower and it will save us space which is important for a little cabin. It will be floor to ceiling and be surrounded by 3 panels of shiny new glass! ((Oooooo)). In addition to it's stylish geometric shape, it will also have a built in soap dish, razor, and shampoo shelf on the back wall! Everything will have its place and everything will stay nice, neat, and blog cabin organized...just how I like it :)**sigh** Next, we will need to decide on some tile, light fixtures and yep...you guessed it...a brand new medicine cabinet :)There are so many syles, how will we choose??...AND WHEN WE DO, DON'T GO SNOOPIN' AROUND IN IT WHEN YOU COME OVER FOR A BLOG CABIN VISIT EITHER!!!...hmpffffff! lol...JK...you can snoopy if you want, JUST DON'T TAKE ANYTHING FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD!!! lol..JK ...we trust you... kinda' :)~

This is a cute picture of P and I with Gracie in our kitchen! Aren't we a cute family??? Awwwwee.


See ya soon with more updates!
Don't forget to send blog cabin fan mail! We would love to hear from you and post your thoughts~!

J & P :)

Fan Mail Welcome!...

Well..I have just received word that "Our Wayne" and mom are relaxing and livin' it up in sunny Florida! It must be nice to have a month to drive around to where ever the breeze may blow:) I hope they are having a wonderful time because they totally deserve the much needed R & R to break up all the hard work they are doing at the Blog Cabin.
During a very interesting phone conversation with them I gathered all the fun filled details of their trip so far. They first drove to Georgia, and then to Florida and on the way back they will be stopping in North Carolina!...Hmmmm...maybe I wasn't listening that well??? Maybe I got those states outta' order?? Hmmm...I dunno...Anyhoo... They also mentioned that they had mailed P & I a beautiful post card from Savannah GA and they mailed it to the Blog Cabin! OMG! THIS WILL BE OUR VERY FIRST PIECE OF MAIL!!! HOW INCREDIBLY EXCITING!!! Then I thought to myself...OMG! WE DON'T HAVE A BLOG CABIN MAILBOX!!!! I thought to myself..."self"???...What to do???
So, P & I busted our humps and put up a mailbox lickity split! Ain't she a beauty???
I did all the fancy cuttin'on the post lol...that is why it's really short and the slant cuts are uneven! ;) lol
So...now that we have a mailbox, we are ready for FAN MAIL!!! Send us you Blog Cabin fan mail and we will post it on our blog! Sorry ya'll ...the address for fan mail must be obtained through friends and family only...this way nobody creepy will show up on my door step! :)

-J

TAH DAHHHHH!!!.....

The blog cabin addition is up and we are on a roll!!! Sorry for the brief hiatus on the Blog Cabin Adventure, but as you can see we were busy, busy, and oh yeah...BUSY!!! :)
As you can see, our walls are up, sheathing is on, the decking for the 2nd floor is complete and our windows are in! ((YEAH!!))It looks pretty spiffy if you ask me!



We have our new addition all buttoned up for the next few weeks as "Our Wayne" and mom are on a brief hiatus themselves! They are taking a few weeks off for some R & R in Georgia, then Florida, then North Carolina **sigh**
Once they return we will start constructing our master loft above the new kitchen and bath! This is soooo very exciting to P and I because we thought we were going to have to wait until Spring to put the master loft on, but fortunately we won $500.00 on a Patriots scratch ticket this past Friday which gave us the rest of the money needed to complete the 2nd story! Hip Hip Hooray!!! THANKS DAN! :)
This is some pretty exciting stuff ladies and gentlemen - yes sir it is!

Take a look below...for the before and after pics! As you can see there are a few reference points to compare and contrast the pictures. There are the sliding doors and the cabinets. You can see where the cabinets are in the "before" shot and then see how we blew through that wall into our new kitchen in the "after" shot. GOOD STUFF! :) In the "before" shot, there was a tree trunk holding up part of our ceiling! In the "after" shot...no trunk! YAY!

BEFORE & AFTER...


New bathroom pictures coming soon!
-J

All Kindsa' Piles...

Ever since we started blog cabin construction we seem to be accruing various piles of...well...construction stuff. lol.

We have a very unattractive pile of broken concrete & broken brick from an old wall we tore down:



A beautiful pile of blog cabin field stone that we found while digging the foundation:



Many small piles of tools:



Two GINORMOUS piles of lumber from the DEMOLITION GRRRRR:



A pile of sticks from some tree trimming P likes to do with her trusty bow saw:



A normal pile that every cabin should have..a "wood pile" for camp fires:



A pile that not every blog cabin should have..a pile of gravel left over from mixing the cement for the foundation footings:



And...a small pile of left over cinder block from the foundation:



So...do to to overwhelming amount of "piles" we have accrued in our little blog cabin yard, this Saturday will be dedicated to blog cabin clean up! P & I will be borrowing "Our Wayne's" truck ((GRRRRRR)) - purchasing our very first dump sicker & hauling a bunch of this crap to the dump!

It is time to say goodbye to some very large piles!

-J

Getting Closer & Closer...

Yesterday I was sent a Blog Cabin Surprise via picture message! My little blue cell phone vibrated against the hard plastic cup holder I had it in inside my jeep and I was like...wha...what was that?? I then realized it was my phone and that I had just received a picture message! I quickly picked it up, flipped the flip and my phone then asked me... "Do you want to receive your picture message?" I thought to myself.. DO I??? OF COURSE I DO!!! Without hesitation I accepted my message and saw this!


OMG! When P & I were hard at work all week "Our Wayne" and my brother-in-law Jon were blog cabin busting their humps putting up our walls!!! What a great Blog Cabin Surprise! THANKS GUYS!



This Sunday we will be working on the ceiling and the decking to the 2nd story loft which we are adding above the new kitchen & Bath!

Stay tuned...
-J

Building Walls, Raising Walls & Bracing Walls...

This past weekend we started raising our blog cabin walls! Friday night P & I arrived at the blog cabin and found a big blog cabin surprise! It was dark when we got there so we ran inside, grabbed a flash light and made our way around the back of the cabin to take a peek. I took the flash light, clicked it on and pointed away! Gadzooks!!! To our surprise, the blog cabin decking for the kitchen and bathroom floor was already done! What a grand surprise! THANKS DAD!! :) With the decking already all set by "Our Wayne", we dedicated both Saturday and Sunday to building, Raising and Bracing our very first wall! We started by making a lumber list. I love lists **sigh** Once the list was made, off to the lumber yard we went! "Our Wayne" hand picked every 2x8 we bought to make sure each board was perfectly straight. I watched him carefully as he did this. He would carefully look at the pile of 2x8's for a nice clean board. He would then select the 2x8 he thought looked best and pull it out of the lumber pile. Then, leaving the end that was farthest away from him tilted on the ground on the 2" side, he would lift the end closest to him up to his eye. Next he would close his left eye and look down the 2" side of the board with his right eye. He explained to P & I, if the board was warped you could see the curve in the board and know it's no good. I tried this technique and he was exactly right! You could see the warped wood vs. the perfect wood. All the warped pieces he discarded and the nice straight pieces we purchased for the blog cabin addition.
We loaded the truck and took all the lumber back to the cabin and began to frame out our wall. We learned about studs, jacks, headers and window openings and in about 3 hours we built our very first 8' section of blog cabin wall!
We then raised the wall, braced the wall, and added sheathing to the outside.

Here are more pics we took this past weekend...ENJOY!
-J

Official Announcement...

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages - gather round'...I have a very, very important announcement to make! - AHEM - Today, on the twenty-first of August in the year two thousand and nine, I proudly announce that our Blog Cabin foundation is officially COMPLETE!!!
Ain't she purdy?

Demolition: The Process of Wrecking or Destroying...

WARNING: For safety purposes and most importantly to avoid getting me butt sued...DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME :)

Sometimes it just feels soooo good to hit or smash something! GRRRRRRR! We finally did it! We tore the existing bathroom right off the back of our little blog cabin and I must say...HOW EXHILARATING!!! I may or may not have mentioned this in my previous blog cabin blogs, but our little bathroom was no ordinary bathroom...oh no...it was a very special bathroom. Our good friend Micheal said it best as he use to refer to it as...our "bitchenette" - that is half bathroom/half kitchenette! Can you believe it??? The kitchen was in our bathroom and the bathroom was in our kitchen! It was all one room! Who does this??? No word of a lie, whoever owned our little cabin before us built a bathroom where right next to our toilet, shower and bathroom sink, nestled in the corner was a kitchen sink and microwave! IN THE SAME ROOM! lol So...as you can clearly see...it had to go and it felt good to finally say goodbye to our little blog cabin bitchenette adventure. It's time to welcome and focus on our new SEPARATE bathroom/kitchen floor plan;)

It took one full day of work to rip the back end of the cabin off. There were wood fragments, pink insulation, nails, screws and paneling flying everywhere! We even hit a nest of mice -((yummy))! It was so beautiful that I almost shed a tear! At one point in the video (see below) I thought "Our Wayne" might have gotten a little sentimental having to say goodbye to our bitchenette, but it turns out he just caught a piece of debris in the eye. Poor dad:( That my dear blog cabin friends is why you should always be wearing protective eye gear during construction :)

Anyways...without further ado....ENJOY THE SHOW!
-J

The Candy Apple Catastrophe...

Forsaken Again!! Hmpffffff!!!....

Ok…before I get into all the guts and glory of the blog cabin demolition this past weekend and yes, there were guts and uh huh, it was glorious;) – but, before I can even begin to summarize all of that, first I must blog in on what I now refer to as…The Candy Apple Catastrophe!!!
The Candy Apple is a cute country restaurant located about 40 minutes yonder of the blog cabin. This adorable restaurant is located amongst some of the most beautiful country farm lands and stunning green mountain scenery I have ever seen. We have been trying to pay this little hidden jewel a visit for some time now, but it was just about a week ago when we were finally able to set this plan into motion. P & I have been planning to take my mom, “Our Wayne,” and our long time blog cabin friend Gloria to The Candy Apple for a delectable country breakfast. We have been dreaming of fluffy buttermilk pancakes, syrup drenched French toast and crispy bacon for too long. Everything about this place sounded heavenly right down to its name… "The Candy Apple” Yummmm…my very own carnival treat of choice! If you name a restaurant after something that delicious then you must be delivering something magnificent right?? I mean, if I personally place this amusement park treat into my very own junk food treasure chest of choice and deem it to be one of the greatest junk food inventions of all time – that is HUGE people! And…that’s not even mentioning that low and behold its main ingredient is of all things…an apple hello?? Talk about tricky! You think you are eating something crazy like a strawberry frosted donut. Ahhh those happy tiny rainbow sprinkles having a party on top of that scrumptious pink frosting **sigh** - But with the candy apple, you are really being tricked into eating something healthy!! What a wonderful trick it is! Natures own candy if you will… the apple!!! Not to mention the original candy apples first cousin, yep…you got it - the caramel apple and I must give a special shout out to the chocolate covered walnut coated apple. Yummmmm! All of these juicy sweet treats get a whole cluster of extra points for being served on a stick which adds a whole other element of fun, but don’t even get me started on delicious foods served on a stick! That could take all day to run through! lol.
Anyways, back to the journey…Hmmm…I seem to have lost my place again…ummmm…ok let’s see, apple, caramel, chocolate, walnuts and …ok yeah…setting the date!
So, it was hard to schedule a Saturday morning that all of us were free to meet up and make the trek to this jewel of a place located in the middle of nowhere, but finally we all synced up and we were on our way. ROAD TRIP - YEAH!!! For the first 20 minutes of the ride we all talked about what we would be getting…I had my mind set on blueberry buttermilk pancakes swimming in a shallow pool of warm and buttery syrup!…There was also some chatter about homes fries and biscuits and eggs served over medium with a side of honey glazed ham. We drove, and drove, and drove some more…and then there it was!!!! THE CANDY APPLE! WE MADE IT! We all piled outta’ the car and rushed to the door to beat the crowd. We perused the specials posted outside the door. Our mouths were watering just from reading the chalk on the board! I thought we better head in because it’s 10am and I certainly don’t want to miss breakfast! I couldn’t wait any longer so, without hesitation, almost militant like, I swiftly snapped to my left and placed my little hand upon the door handle and gave a quick strong pull. The door did not budge! I thought to myself, “Self, this door is wood and must be really swollen from the humid summer heat you must pull harder!” I then gave a second yank more forceful than the first, but NOPE... Hmppppfffff #!*$!!! CLOSED!!! How can that be??? I then looked up at the door and saw the giant “CLOSED” sign. It was your generic black sign with the giant orange letters that spelled out that God awful word “CLOSED” And here is the country kicker in the pants!!!…this horrible closed sign was hanging right next to a bright yellow sign that read...AHEM...AND I QUOTE:
“NEW SUMMER HOURS – WE ARE OPEN 6:30AM – 2:30 PM”
- It was now Saturday morning @ 10am and the doors were locked, lights were off and nuttin' was cookin'! P & I & gang were FORSAKEN AGAIN!!!!

Moral of the story…if you are driving far, far, away to the middle of the country to have breakfast…even if they are supposed to be open, don’t count on it and most importantly...pack a snack - You could literally starve before you find a place to eat…((good grief)) lol haha.
-J

Just a Bit of Country Charm...

Blog Cabin Blast From The Past!

I was just thinking that the weather today reminds me of Fall. 70 degrees and sunny with a slight breeze **sigh** There is nothing better than a Fall day at the blog cabin. Here are some pictures from last Fall. This was a random day where P & I grabbed the dogs and took a drive around the country! Enjoy...

It all began as we crammed ourselves into my 2000 Jeep Cherokee. It was a little tight, but we all managed to fit :)

It was Gracie on the left, Koda (my sisters dog) in the middle, I was squeezed in the corner in the passenger seat (lower right,) Buddy...P and my other little dog was sooo smooshed that he didn't make it in the shot:( and P was behind the camera in the drivers seat.

We drove for about and hour and saw a bull and a donkey...

An old country wagon...

A beautiful sky...

A rolling pasture...

A gorgeous country road...


A really famous cabin featured on the hit blog: Blog Cabin Adventure :)

And the babbling brook it sits on :)


We hope you enjoyed our Fall adventure Blog Cabin Blast from the Past!


More to come... J & P :)

This Just In...

BLOG CABIN BREAKING NEWS!!!

Now that the other side of the cement slab has been poured, the cinder block foundation is almost complete and all the columns supports have been set, we are just about ready for DEMOLITION GRRRR! According to "Our Wayne," demolition will begin this Saturday 08/15/09 bright and early!!! He instructed us as follows: "Go to bed early, get plenty of sleep and be ready!" Those were his exact words along with, "Now, don't just be rollin' outta bed when I show up...be dressed and ready to work! Have your coffee and have your breakfast because we gotta' lota' work to get done this weekend." Little does he know I will have a yummy Dunkin' Donuts coffee and strawberry pop tart in hand when he arrives!...oh no...wait...that's wrong...I mean...I mean that I will have just finished eating & drinking a yummy Dunkin' Donuts coffee and strawberry pop tart when he arrives;) Phew...that was a close one! I don't wanna upset the boss man...especially when he's holding a giant sledge hammer ((yikes!))

So, ladies and gentlemen...boys and girls, with that being said... grab yer' sledge hammers and yer' hard hats...this Saturday we will be BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE!!! Well...at least a small portion of it :)

-J

Journey to the Other Side...

I did it! Yes ladies and gentlemen...after 2 years I have finally conjured up enough courage to cross the brook! This past weekend the brook was lower than usual so, I seized the opportunity, braved the whitewater and across I went!...Not alone of course... I took P with me;) I mentioned I was feeling brave, but I was certainly not going at this alone! Seriously, if I were to go solo, who would fish me out if were to fall in? I needed some back up and after some coaxing P agreed to make the trip with me and off we went on another blog cabin adventure! First we were afraid to cross, fearful that we may fall in and get swept away by the current but, then valiantly, like 2 knights on a mission to storm a castle, we bull dozed through our fear and began our journey across the brook. We almost turned back once or twice, but we thought "how would we ever be taken seriously as blog cabin bloggers if we let this brook get the best of us?" So, thanks to the support of our devoted fans we persevered - after all, we need to keep you all informed of all blog cabin news and views no matter how dangerous it may be for us. This isn't the first time we have put ourselves in harms way for the good of the blog cabin and it certainly won't be the last! We needed to take new pictures for you all from a different angle and a new perspective so really, it wasn't a choice...we had to cross. we thought to ourselves - "selves...we can't let our readers down." And we didn't! We made it to the the other side with our little blog cabin camera and snapped up a storm for all to enjoy!

Even though I made it across with no issues... I repeat...I made it across with no issues;) It was a little tricky to maneuver and balance on the stone. There were some stones covered with a thick green moss, some that were all wet and real slippery and some that were a bit too shaky to step on. We did have 1 casualty which I will get to in a bit, but luckily for me, I was not involved...phew! close one J! :) The picture above is the back of the blog cabin. If you look real close you can see the top of our cinder block foundation peeking out just above the black silt fence we put up to abide by conservation law. Above the foundation you can see all the columns we added for support in order to dig out underneath the camp. Above the columns is the portion of our little blog cabin that we will be ripping off to add our new addition! DEMOLITION!! GRRRRR!

Back to our journey to the other side! Okay... where was I...oh yes...on the rocks! Like I said I made it across with no issues and I managed to stay dry which was a bonus! P on the other hand was not so lucky:( Now don't go getting all scared and worried - there is no need to send any cards or flowers - although, we appreciate the thought:) P was able to cross with no injuries as well; however, in the category of staying dry...she was not as lucky as I. Remember how I mentioned that some rocks were covered with moss, some were wet and real slippery and some were a bit too shaky to step upon?...Well, P found a real shaky one that sent her for a swim in our very own blog cabin brook! The picture to the right shows P on a fabulous contraption I thought of :) I called it "The Extender." There were a few areas on the brook where the rocks were too far apart to reach...so, I took one of the planks we used for the cement forms and used it bridge the gap between those rocks for us to cross. P clearly demonstrates this in the picture to the right. What you do not see in the picture to the right is 3 seconds after that wonderful pose, P looses her balance on that little rock next to the one "The Extender" is on and takes a short yet relaxing swim in the ice cold mountain water - Ahhh...refreshing! One good thing that came from her little dip in the brook was this beautiful picture below that she snapped just before our blog cabin camera died. Cause of death...water damage:( So, P's fall wasn't in vain - YAY! She took one for the team and produced some very beautiful photography for us as well. We thank you P for your commitment to this project :)

-J

You say Tomato…

So tell me...what is the difference between a river, a brook, a stream, or a creek? Is it a case of the old Tomāto Tomäto or is there a sincere difference between them all? At first I thought perhaps it's determined by the swiftness of the flow - maybe if it was just a trickle after heavy rain then it would be a creek...but what would differentiate a creek from a stream?? They both sound a lot like little tricklers to me. Then I thought, maybe it's not about the flow at all, but instead, maybe it's about the sound...If it roars it's a river, if it babbles it's a brook? Hmmm...I dunno. It seems confusing to me. Why are there so many variations? Then I thought, perhaps it's not about sound or flow at all, but instead about structure and dimension - if it's more than 15 feet across from bank to bank then it's a river - anything smaller than 15 feet is a brook, anything smaller than 10 feet is a stream and anything smaller than that...a creek?

Ever since we bought the blog cabin, we have always wondered what to call our river,brook,stream,creek in our back yard. The picture above was taken from the new cement floor that was poured last weekend and it will be our view from our new breakfast nook in our brand new kitchen!! The river,brook,stream,creek is beautiful and creates an all natural 24 hour relaxation/meditation CD for us to unwind our week to. In addition to the wonderful sound and sight, there are the birds chirping throughout the day and from evening on we hear the crickets and bull frogs chatting it up until sunrise. Our river,brook,stream,creek is also great to soak your feet in after a hard days work **sigh**
Baffled by the whole river,brook,stream,creek definition I turned to Webster for some clarity. Webster reads...ahem..."A river is a large natural stream of water emptying into an ocean, lake, or other body of water and usually fed along its course by converging tributaries." Ok great! Our river,brook,stream,creek is really a river! It's both large and natural - check! - fed by mountain water - check! - empties into a lake - check! - and is fed along it's course - check! - Our river,brook,stream,creek must be a River!! - BUT - because I am who I am and I need all the facts, I had to be sure so, I consulted Webster again to research a brook - and Webster read...ahem..."A Brook is a natural fresh water stream" - Hmmmm that sounds like our river,brook,stream,creek too:( Now finding myself in another state of confusion I consulted Webster yet again..."A Stream is a steady current of fluid"...hmmmm...not any more lucid on the subject and figuring I may as well go all in at this point, I looked up a creek - "A creek is a small stream, often a shallow or intermittent tributary to a river." hmpffff :(
After all of that I felt both confused and defeated:( and then I thought... Eureka!! - what about a map?? I quickly jumped onto google maps and yep...I totally did it...I found it! Yes sir I found the answer we were looking for all along! It was right there before my little eyes! WEST BROOK! The name of our river,brook,stream,creek is WEST BROOK ladies and gentlemen!:)

Congratulations P & J... IT'S A BROOK :)
-J

All Jacked Up!

This past Saturday and Sunday we were all jacked up!! ...the blog cabin that is:) We literally jacked up the back left corner of the blog cabin using 1 hydraulic jack, 1 bottle jack and a few pieces of scrap wood for some extra support. I have to admit there was a very large part of me that was concerned that our little blog cabin may give way and roll off the cliff into the river behind it, but much to my surprise, that did not happen and it was a huge success! Once the cabin was all jacked up, we removed the old crumbling cinder block that was supporting it and dug out the back corner. We needed to dig out that corner so that we could pour a nice level cement floor. We decided to add a floor to the interior to our foundation so that we can keep our water heater under our house rather than keeping it inside the cabin in a closet or taking up unnecessary space in our bathroom. So, we spent a little extra time for a little extra space:) We hand dug the corner with pick axes and shovels, leveled the ground, built a form, mixed the cement and poured half the floor (the other half will be dug, mixed, and poured next weekend.) It doesn't look like much, but if you take a look at the before and after pictures below, you can see it's quite a difference for 2 days work. Once we build the block up we will add an access door to enter and exit the crawl space to service our pipes & water heater when needed. If we are lucky we will have a little extra space for bike and kayak storage. Our last project on Sunday before packing up and returning to the city was replacing the support and removing the jacks. For this we borrowed and old column from my sisters house that was no longer in use and cut it to the current height of the blog cabin floor. once it was placed, we sloooowly released the jacks to lower the house onto the much more solid post. In about 2 more weeks we will have the other half of our floor poured and the rest of the cinder block stacked!.... And then...DEMOLITION BEGINS Grrrrr! Time to rip the entire back end off the blog cabin!

Stay Tuned for more pictures and video footage of the blog cabin adventure!

-J

BEFORE

AFTER