Tin, Trim and TSP

after more than a week of torrential rains here, work resumed on the roof at 10. the guys had spent the wet days attacking the Drifwood color oil stain a previous tenant had slathered all over the first floor and some of he second. (yes, they ran out and just left a line on nothing on an upstairs wall.) So, my big contribution to the work has been attempting to choose a shade of green for the trim on the grey siding and logs. The printer who does the color chips for Lowe's Stores Valspar paint and stain is useless. I don't think a single chip was true to the actual tint. I'd hoped to match the green trim on the little cabin next door i stay in, but the color was discontinued after i got it in 2006 and isn't really mixing up right. I hope today's effort got it right. It's sort of a long shot though, as two out of the 3 handy 8 oz sample cans brought home bore a "matte" label and contained gloss paint. The color on the left hand window's upper right side here is the front runner so far and best match yet to the old green on the little house. We'll see how it looks dry.

the good news around finishes on the place is that Matt and Zack have succeeded at removing the buld of the dated driftwood wal color on the whole cabin. The best part was that i had feared we'd turn the house into a tinder box taking off that stain. We all bet that only soaking wall in mineral spirits would get it off. Not so: 1/2 cup Trisdium Phosphate to a 2.5 gallon spray tank and ten percent bleach lifted it off like magic in one application or the most part. A day after it was hosed away and left to dy, the stair corner has a coating of that greeny grey mold like like a big country ham. Not sure why the bleach didnt knock all those spores out.the wood is fresh and clean with some sort of light pickled effect where the stain was real thick but those vestigal bits are part of the house's story and i can live with it sealed up under a lot of tung oil. The best part of the walls on log i think is the handiwork on them: adze marks, old thin holes from cut nails, different tree species stand in sharp relief the grain now liberated from the stain. We will add our own chapter soon and replace four lower logs where we seal an old doorway at foot of the stair with what I am told will be seasoned oak. And all of the old cement chink is out of the walls. Its now working like a poor man's rip rap on an unseen stream bank. A friend from town who does preservation and restoration contracting came out today and helped me come up with a rough in for the bath upstairs and using his great knowledge of the NC Building code and we are ready to roll. any one who sees this know where i can get two 12' and two 17' long sections of salvaged 4" half round guttering with brackets? I need it quick.

and the little cabin is no longer topless. Tomorrow morning it will gain the last section of ridge, made out of section of the terne roofing. just in time for cool wet weather that is October in the south-- even here.

Some Saturday reminiscences on septic tanks

The guys have gone for the weekend and if i climb the heap of equipment dumped in the shed's doorway, I can get at least my pump sprayer to hit some of the weeds out front with something lethal. I wish i could get the thing mulched. Need to get busy with the stones I had a guy dump all around the dive here soon and some other lansdscaping i dont really have the energy for doing. But Labor Day is past now and summer is really over here so it's time to get the place set down for winter I guess.
There's a tangle of Japanese privet out under the big tulip poplar that has a big rose bush climbing out the middle of the woody weed. Its like 'Dr Van Fleet'- i would have called it 'New Dawn' earlier this year- with its flush of familiar shell pink small double blooms, but its never thrown any more flowers after late May so i think it has to be the Dr. I reckon the next time a back hoe's on site they may as well dig out the whole mess. I had entertained thoughts of working the rose up the the tree trunk and slowly killing off the privet, but its not really worth the effort for a rose that's not in a good spot anyway and doesnt re-bloom. Anyway, there's enough stuff in pots here i want to grow off that needs planted and another shovel has walked away it seems so better to wait around and think for now.

I keep thinking of the first week in the place back in '04. After 5 days occupancy the septic tank was backing up into the drains in the second floor bath in 10. I couldn't believe I had filled a 1000 gal tank and opened he yellow pages to AAA Septic Service. Now, I made efforts to learn the location of the tank from the seller Kim Watkins and her agent Apple Valley
Realty on Chimney Rock Rd. Both had assured me they had no idea where it was and implied i neednt worry. with foul black water filling my tub I called the Watkins woman again from a number in information. apparently she was off spending the proceeds of the sale. But Troy the septic pumper at AAA soon arrived. I told him i had no idea where the tank was, but he shocked me with the announcement that he had been on the property a month ago to pump the tank and showed me where the thing sat at the corner of the house. Not a great beginning here but we have persisted.

Our little cabin compound now boasts an elaborate 2 tank system that pumps effluent up ont0 the vacant lot we own. I was told that Henderson Count, NC had no regulation of any sort of water or septic systems until 1977 and seeing the kitchen sin and washers draining directly into the yard, I believed that. Apparently the county felt a need to show that its now tough on water matters and an erratically enforced set of water and septic regulations. On paper, these codes were diligently enforced and awe were sent back at least twice to have an engineer submit revised septic plans for the property. In the County offices the ditch my neighbors heap with 'landscape debris' (garbage) is a public waterway and treated in the county's halls lie some fragile coastal estuary. Why not? They dont pay the engineer to draw up suitable plans-- its on the home owner. Now- installation was another story and after finding a tank sitting next to the outdoor fireplace in unoccupied number 10, as well as half out of the ground on one trip I made back here, the thing was eventually relocated well inside the set back from the water way and mirabile dictu it passed the county's inspection process just fine.

Apparently here in Henderson County- its not how you follow the code but who your daddy had babies with that will make or break your construction plans and woe to any "outsider' who might buy property and attempt to improve it. I guess we should have stayed in one of the gated communities with all the seniors from FL. Funny how the septic sits in the very place we were told over and over it could not be and the AC receptacles in the little house are full of combustibles that even a blind inspector would have failed and the house didnt even have positive drainage when it got a CO. I guess i ought go try and marry into one of the inspectors families to expedite things here.

The roof is about on

and for the at we have used salvaged tin ( or terne) roofing pulled off some old barn. Terne is a ot dipped sheet steel, origianlly lead coated, then zinc. The roofing on 10 was actually painted and doesn't have the rust marks the roofs on the other structures here do, but its a pretty close match.
The paint will wait until the roofs up and then the carpenters can focus on work insde. Its been cool and damp since mid-afternoon yesterday, but I expect they'll be back to finish up the roof today. then the HVAC will go in. I'm off to find a fine art metal restorer in fletcher NC called Brightwork. I suppose if the sun comes back out then I ought to see to spraying some of the weeds.

HAVENT LOOKED AT THE BLOG FOR A WEEK OR SO

We got a really good bid for the HVAC therre and will go ahead with a small capacity heat pump and ducts. For some bizarre reason, they began the painting tho the chinking's in place styill and to my knowledge we did not have a satisfactory means to get this 1970's 'Driftwood' stain off the interior walls. I been running around over fixtures and such and a horse issue. Had a 2.5 week rodeo trip to WA and OR cancel on me yesterday do i guess I better pick up effort on the houses here. Got an issue with upstairs bath that presses on me today. And if any of yall know where to get old doors stripped nears Asheville NC, let me know. I got little sconces for the fireplace here and a cool drop fixture for kitche and baths. Really premature i guess. Not even sure we'll repair this wonderful fireplace. Actually, i have little i want to wrote of here today- but wanted to resume the blog so that's one goal met.