Tuesday, April 19, 2005


Opposite side of the office...they just finished painting when I got there and he came in with me to make sure I didn't rub into any of the paint still soft and damp...like I would make a mess like that...sheeesshhh!

The office is painted as well...it is a muted light brown/tan (BD can call the name...I am design challenged so I can't...) and is very nicely done...

More of the same...that's the Mom's room on the right, and the guest bathroom to the left...

Main wall, right after you enter the house...light yellow makes the whole Great Room very airy, bright and "smiley"...

The sun coming in through the windows and hitting the yellow was a very bright and cheery vision! This is going to be a super room!! We call it the Mom's room because that is where they will stay when they come...as will Anne, Jill, and anyone else who comes to visit...Ron Selepak thinks this is his room...I think my Mom can take him!

They painted some more of the interior of the house...this is the yellow shade we have in the Great room and hallways and the Mom's bedroom...

Melissa had a great day too. We flew over her Mom and Dad's house and she could pick it out...recognized her Dad's car. Hoss wore the Hawaiian shirt I gave him for Easter, and that flight jacket came from the Ronald Reagan Library in California. It was 80 degrees today, but he insisted on wearing it and never took it off!! Had to be very, very hot!!

This smiley face is how we looked all the time we were aloft...he seemed to have a ball!! Little hazy but still a pretty day...

He can't see much over the nose, but he sure enjoyed his first airplane ride!! I bought him his own headset and he did very well with them!! He helped me steer the airplane...he also said he saw his little friend Carter and that Carter was waving back to him...great pair of eyes on my Grandson...;-)! This was taken at Cartersville airport...I picked up the airplane at McCollum, my home field, then flew to Cartersville to get Hoss and his Mom Melissa...we flew over their house, the city, our new house, Lake Allatoona and spent about 40 minutes in the air.

Sunday, April 17, 2005


Ah, the garage doors...at first, we didn't like the arched look, and actually seriously thought about changing to square...but they made these mahogany doors to fit perfectly, arched them to they blended exactly as the arch in the doorway is sized and the result is wonderful...they will be stained a deep honey color to match the cedar shakes and front door...decided against any kind of hardware on them as they are so aesthetically wonderful to look at...

Another shot of the benches...love 'em! Just made for putting a cold beer on while looking at the sunset over the ridgeline...

The bookshelf on the right is stained with a first coat. The beams will be stained the same color...

The inside of the closet...I wanted only round, Cedar rails, but after talking to several people who do this for a living decided to go with their suggestion as you see it here...mucho room for all sorts of clothes and folded stuff and other stuff I haven't even bought yet but might now that I have the room...I think Macy's is part owner of this closet place,,,

Ruben has painted the liner of each level of the tray ceiling...wasn't much of a fan of tray ceilings, still aren't, but it does look very nice and I can live with it quite nicely...

This is BD's son Bryan in the dining room...color has changed and it is a beautiful Sage Green...this is the first coat of paint inside the house...

A closer view of the bench...it is built into the brick pillars and won't go anywhere!!

View of the built-in benches we have had made for the front porch and for the back deck...BD's daughter drew the prototype and Ugo the carpenter built them from a sketch...we think we might add a couple more as they fit so nicely and will be as handy as they are attractive...

Saturday, April 09, 2005


A couple of the ceiling beams are in place...we are going to have the ceiling fan coming from the beam instead of the ceiling...gotta patch it!!

The shower has a bench in each corner...he worked on these today as well.

Granite cabinet tops are in...

The front porch wraps around to the mud-room and continues to the left under the coverec walkway to the garage.

They are putting the floor to the front porch...there will be built-in benches between the brick bases of the front porch pillars

Little higher view of the road to RTM State Park. The longer hiking trail I spoke of earlier kind of follows the topography around the Lake to the left of the road on the body of land...

Little better shot of the house, the community layout and the bridge to Red Top Mountain State Park...the community to the right of RTM Road is Waterside...hi dollar side of the Waterside communities...multi-million dollar houses on that side...beautiful panoramic views of the mountains and Lake Allatoona...we definitely live on the poor side of the tracks...

This is from a point just about over the intersection of I-75 and Red Top Mountain Road...the covered spot in the lower right portion of the picture is a Texaco station, and RTM road goes E to the Lake...You can see the hill where our house is about midway up the picture and middle between the airplane wing strut and window frame. The bridge crossing Lake Allatoona at the top of the picture winds about another mile in the woods to the Ranger Station where you can park and hit the hiking trails (3 of them, ranging from a "walk" for about 1.2 miles to a pretty arduous 5..5 mile hike).

Little different view...now we are over Lake Allatoona, looking back W and a little S to I-75. If you continued across I-75 a 1/4 mile or so you hit U.S. Hwy 41, go S about 2 miles and you are in Emerson, GA...that is the little (1200 people or so) we actually live in (boundary wise). Going right on U.S. Hwy 41 for 3 miles takes you to Cartersville, GA, where I actually lived for 23 years...

This is my first aerial photo of the house...framed between the wing strut and the window...turning left at the intersection takes you into The Village At Waterside...our house is the one on the hi point on the left after entering. We own about half of the hill that fronts the intersecting roads. To the ENE from the house you can see a cove of Lake Allatoona...This was taken from an altitude of about 2500'...never had the window open like this before...it was very, very windy and noisy!!

This is about 3 miles from the Lake..framed between the propeller and the checklist/sunglasses is the turn off from I-75 to the EAst that leads to the Lake. To the left of the road in the background is Pine Mountain, and you can more easily see Lake Allatoona...

The airplane I normally fly (a 1978 Grumman Tiger...low-wing, single engine, 4-place aerial hotrod!) is going to go in to the shop for paint, radio and interior work. It will be down for about 4 or 5 weeks, so today I flew with my Instructor and began the check-out process in a Cessna Skyhawk SP, a hi-wing, 4-place airplane. Slower, a little roomier, and more sedate airplane...but it is brand new (only 155 hours on the tach), has a super radio stack, and it was a very stable airplane to fly. Decided to kill 2 birds with one stone, so while near the house my Instructor had the airplane while I tried my novice hand at aerial photography...this is about 5 miles to the SW of Lake Allatoona (yoiu can make it out at about 12 o'clock over the nose)...

Friday, April 08, 2005


Haven't a clue what this is...I know it must have something to do with the hot water heater for the office, but don't know why it is this long...I am hoping they have just forgotten to cut the end off...I assume that is what will happen next...not very attractive...it just sticks out...right there...in the middle of the brick...it's ugly.

Much to BD's delight, the stairs are complete with steps and handrails...BD had a hard time when they were mere 2"x2" boards you could see through.

This is the back deck...there will be benches and stairways back here too...

Guide-ons for the beams across the Great Room...the guy on the right is the carpenter who did the bookshelves...the beams go all the way across the room to the fireplace...

Closet racks/rails are installed but not yet finished. Of course, I own not anywhere close to the amount of clothes this will hold...nor ever hope to!

Just started the tile in the shower...there will be a bench like this one in the other corner as well...lots of work still in here, but at least they got started...

These are the built-in bookshelves. The carpenter did them from scratch by hand. He is an artist. He is the guy who will also help build the benches for outdoors...he will always be welcome to come by and set down a beer or two...

Garaga doors and openers are in. The doors are mahogany and will be stained in a like manner and color as the cedar shakes.I admit I am not a mechanically astute guy...cars befuddle me (other than turning the key to start it), and I don't allow myself around tools...so when they asked me if I would like to see the doors, I said, intelligent guy that I am, you can't bring them down as we have no electricity. Of course, all you have to do is bring them down manually....duh!!!!!!!! That is what the red cord is for...it releases the door opener...(no, it's not the starter cord for the opener...what a silly question!).

They have now framed the front porch. There will be a stairway with 2 risers leading up to the front porch...between the brick pillars, we will have built-in benches so you can sit out in the Spring, Fall and (me anyway) Winter and watch the sun go down in the West over the ridgeline...or have a place to set your beer, or lay down after you have set down too many beers (not in the Winter, probably)...

Second coat of house paint is on, and the house has a darker tone to it. It rained 2 or 3 days this past week, so not a whole bunch has been done outside...

Saturday, April 02, 2005


They started to brick the retaining wall...the weather didn't cooperate much this week or they would have had much more done. It rained Thursday and Friday, and today it started sunny, but quickly turned overcast and windy (I was going to fly this AM to get some aerial pictures, but the wind was gusting to 35 knots...not conducive to light airplanes maintaining right-side up!!).

This is the left side built-in cabinet/bookshelf. It will look like the one on the right side.

This is the built-in bookshelf under construction. What is going to change is the vertical spine will be shortened to begin 30" above the cabinet shelf...One foot in from each side will be bookshelves, leaving a space 30" high x 45" wide on the cabinet shelf...lots of room for pictures and other displayables...it is hard to see the details in this picture (or the one of the just started left side bookshelf), but the carpenter who is doing this is doing it from scratch based upon a drawing I gave him...the woodwork is beautiful...he is an artist actually, as well as a mind-reader particularly since he can make East and West from a drawing I made...I can't draw stick men, so you can imagine how difficult it is for him to understand what I meant by my drawing...the panels in the space where the bookshelves will go are the doors to the cabinet.