We got a load of fire wood from Daniel Roper. Daniel, his father Dennis, and their friend Jim helped us out of a problem when I got stuck climbing the mountain with a U-Haul on the back of my Expedition. I had too much faith in my ability and that of my SUV and not enough respect for the mountain. Daniel also helped unload our trailer after towing it to the cabin with the family Ford F250 4x4...and then took it back down for me. We're indebted to the Ropers for much. What a great family. The day was the coldest of the season and the cabin heat didn't work. Stacking all this wood helped heat me up...for a while. Javier Guzman of Comfort Zone heating and air-conditioning saved us and spent 3 hrs repairing a leaking high pressure value coil, replacing a contactor, refilling the refrigerant, fixing the heat element sequencer and rewiring the heat elements. What an adventure!

After about a day of work the broken toilet flange was replaced, the new Hardie backer board is installed, and the toilet rebuilt and reinstalled - whew! Now to install the tile and marble threshold and then to remove the wall paper and replace the tub surround with tile.

The fun part of a bathroom fix - crawling under the toilet thank to get the tank bolts tightened (less water go gushing all over the place).

Well, the Super Wal-Mart in Hickory, NC, didn't have the bunkbed. Then, the Wal-Mart in Morganton didn't - so they let me call the Super Duper Wal-Mart in Forest City, NC, where they had one and put it on hold for me as I drove the hour south to get the bed. It took 3 hours to put the gazillion parts together. The final product seems quite sturdy (revenge from Viet Nam).

My mother and sister spent the better park of 2 days cleaning the cabinet interiors, putting self liner in the cabinet interiors, washing the dishes and glasses, putting them away, cleaning the grime off the upper cabinets and using Murphy's Oil Soap. The stove and oven are much cleaner but the dish washer is another issue. Oh, the refrigerator is clean and usable inside but the outside is rusted. I have appliance epoxy to paint the frig (two cans on the right) when the weather gets nicer this summer and we can open the windows.

Oh, the vinyl floor was scrubbed and looks nice at this point.

The wood stove in the great room.

Frances bought us the coffee table as a house warming present. It really makes the great room look nice and goes great with our green couches.

Cynthia and I purchased the matching sofa table. I rewired the lamp and replaced the light bulb socket and topped with a new woven lamp shade.

My grandmother made this granny square afghan; she's been gone for 4 years now but still with me in many ways.

A view of the great room the morning prior to leaving our cabin on Dec. 12, 2006.

Mom getting ready to leave the cabin after spending 5 days working very hard - she was a trooper and all at 70 years of age (I hope I hold up as well...won't happen...but I can hope).

This plaque says it all; every time there was a challenge on this trip a solution was found.

What a great morning view of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

A panorama photo from in front of our cabin stitched together.