Hide Out Hollow Hike

Running Around The Hills, And The Home Depot Haul

Looks like a rainy day is upon us, so we will work inside today and expect to finish all interior ceilings. The entire interior and exterior ceilings have taken 13 days to complete, which is 3 days longer than I estimated. It's been a big job, one I could'nt have done by myself, so I am glad we hired Scott and Mike to help me. I have been able to get alot of other items taken care of also; 1. hauled the walnut lumber to the mill for planing and straightlining 2. Hauled my cherry logs to the mill to be cut into lumber. 3. Hualed all the sheetrock debris to the dump. 4.Hauled construction debris to dump.5. picked all the products  from the Home Depot loads and delivered them to the house. Speaking of the Home Depot loads, wow has it been fantastic for our budget, I can't wait to go thru the last load. Let's see now, here's the haul; 1.All the cabinets for the mudroom- white raised panel prefinished. 2.All the sinks in the house, awesome stainless steel undermounts for the kitchen and vegi sink, glass vessell sinks for the master bath, thermocast utility sink for mudroom, and pre-installed undermount sinks in real granite vanity tops for the other 2 bathrooms, all of which are exactly what we would have picked out and in brand new condition. On the sinks alone, we have saved over 1300.00. 3. Commodes for master and Matt's bath. 4. Very nice wood mirrors for the vanities. 5. All of the material for closet shelves and cabinetry. 6. possibly a 2300.00 wall oven/microwave oven- GE profile unit. 7. Most of our electric light fixtures and ceiling fans. 8. a couple of beautiful wine coolers. Quite the haul, and if everything works out, a savings of more than 10,000. Wow, I love the salvage bussiness. Oh yea, we also are fixing up brother Scott with all the items he needs to complete his little bungalow over on Outlaw Ridge. Hope everyone enjoys the weekend, Robyn and I got a date at the Low Gap Cafe on saturday, Nick is cooking us some Spring Rolls and it takes him 2 days to prepare. Yum Yum, can't wait. They have also invited me to play for their guests, so in a couple of weeks I will have my first gig at Low Gap Cafe. Can it get any better? The time is coming soon to SYOTR, Later RJ

Another Piece To The Puzzle

Making good progress on the ceiling, should finish in a couple days. Just need to start the clear sealing, the ceiling is the key to the rest of the house. Sealing the ceiling is a big job, and I must get started. I'm still looking thru the Home Depot loads, but it appears that we will save several thousands of dollars. Yea Haw, saving money and time is good for me. One thing I gotta get busy on is taking the cherry and walnut to the mills and getting it all ready to work.  It's supposed to rain on friday, so it will be hard to not escape and do some paddling, hope I get the chance.  This post is kinda scattered, so I'll scatter to the job. Have a great day and SYOTRS

Beatiful Day

News Flash; Roger is not going to make his self imposed deadline of completing all the ceilings by the end of the month. Of course not, you hardly ever meet deadlines in construction, but I keep trying. But, I had to have a little time off, so I did not work on the house this past weekend. Still, we are making good progress and expect to complete all ceilings easily by thursday this week. My big thing is that I need to put the clear seal on all interior ceilings at night after working full days. That takes alot of energy, and I have not got going on that yet. Went on a hike in the Gorge on sunday with our new friends John and Jamie, the boys had a blast and so did the adults. They were pretty impressed with the whole creek, but of course the Mushroom blew them away. I can't wait until you can come off the trail and wash off in the outdoor shower, and then jump in the hot tub.

A Hike In The Backyard

Remembering Jeff Gwaltney

Today is the one year anniversery of my friend Jeff Gwaltney's death in an accident on the way to work on our house. Jeff was a great guy, and I think of him often still, and pass by where this terrible accident occurred every time I go into town. The week prior to his death was a beautiful warm week of Ozark winter sunshine, and we had enjoyed so much becoming good friends and so much commaraderie. My friend and nieghbor Tim Fletcher had also worked with us that week and had really got to know and like Jeff. Tim was on the scene as a first responder at Jeff's accident, and had to make the call to inform me of his passing. It was all a very tough time making sense of this, becouse there was no sense, and just a cruel timing of fate. The story just continued getting worse as the other man in the crash was charged with vehicular manslaughter and ended up taking his own life. I know this is a real downer to talk about, but I always want to remember and talk about Jeff. He would be really proud of the way things are coming together. The day before Jeff died, I bought a piece of his artwork entitled 'Van Gouge's Twin Brother' . We will be showing it off in our new home, and will always tell the story of our brief friendship with Jeff.  Rest in Peace Brother, we have missed you and your energy and sense of humer.

Shooting Star Hot Tub

So, I step outside to go down to the house last night and the wind is blowing hard. I can hear the creek all the way up here and the sky is brilliant. I drive the 1/2 mile down to the site, and walk out on the awesome deck. WOW, the creek is roaring so loud you can't hear anything else, the wind is blocked becouse it is out of the south, and the light show in the sky is incredible. It really starts to dawn on me, this is one incredible place, and so differant that it's hard to describe the 'holy smokes' feeling I get from just walking on the deck. So I enjoy a long and late soak listening to the creek and counting shooting stars, then sleep like a baby becouse it feels like I'm on vacation even though I'm working my butt off. This house may not be the status symbal sitting on some prestigous street in some houghty nieghborhood, but it is perfectly situated and perfectly designed for where it's at. And where it's at is one of the most awesome spots in Arkansas. What's so cool, is that I found this spot, and then spent a couple of years just daydreaming and perfecting the plan I designed. Making sure that the house sat just right, on the edge of the Gorge and in just the right position to see as much of the creek as possible. The house I believe would be awesome anywhere, but the combination of the house and the site is  a perfect fit. Linking the whole thing together with the trails is going to take it to another level. The whole thing put together is one of my greatest accomplishments, even though I have not accomplished alot. It feels like writing a song that took a long time and alot of work to write. It;s like that with creations, some songs just pour out of you like it's just been waiting to be uncovered from your soul, some songs take months of work and just don't want to be born. I've done it both ways, and the satisfaction is ultimately the same. Oh yea, I gotta get to work. It's gonna be an awesome beautiful day, get out and live it. Peace Out Bros and Sis's