. . . with lots and lots of help!

Blogger’s Note

This post contains two versions of the same story. You can start the video below and hear the same words and see the same pictures as you would if you decided to read my traditional post below.

Watch the video:

Video Link: Click on the arrow to start the recording. You can watch fullscreen by clicking on the small box in the lower righthand corner.

Blogger’s Note, II

I apologize! Almost all of these photographs were made by others or were made for insurance records. I wish I had made pictures during the construction. Why would a photographer not photograph the important events in his own life? I don’t know, but these pictures are all that remain for me to use as I tell our story.

Where? You’ve got to be kidding!

“You’ve got to be kidding!” is what our mothers’ thought. I like to let people visualize the remote and mountainous land we loved – and our mothers questioned. Clay County, NC is 100 miles from anywhere USA!

Using Google Earth, I could locate our Clay County homesite only because the current owner built a row of greenhouses which can be seen on the Google images. The left circle is Murphy, the right circle is Hayesville. Brasstown is left center circle. Our house – actually the greenhouses – is the white speck in the right center circle.

Below is a more detailed image – Trout Cove is the farmland in the middle of the picture. In the 30+ years we’ve been gone more land has been cleared, a few new homes built, and the county roads have been paved, but little else has changed.

Our gravel driveway is still there, leaving the pavement at the northeast tip of Trout Cove but it’s hidden in the dense foliage.

We owned about 30 acres of land in the red circle. We built our house at about 2500 feet elevation; our property cornered at the ridge to the northeast at about 3600 feet.

The final image shows our homesite in enough detail to see the row of greenhouses. The actual house is just to the right of the greenhouses.

Before

By 1973 we thought we’d like to buy land and build a home – not just a house, but our home. We asked Bass and David (who were featured in my last post) about buying land. They had several parcels for sale and we bought a south facing cove. Warmed by the sun, sheltered from cold north winds, with a nice spring and access on rough mud track on a deeded right-of-way. There was a bit of level space for a house before the land rose steadily to the ridge.

The moonshiners weren’t happy. The spring fed a small creek. The Feds would follow the creek up to the spring – NO moonshine still. So they’d go away. They didn’t realize there was second spring about 100 yards higher up. This spring bubbled up, then disappeared. That’s where the still was! A neighbor, Norman, told us all about it once he decided we could be trusted.

So after a few thousand dollars to prepare the driveway and bury our telephone and electric lines under the gravel, we got started. Well – our friends got started!

With LOTS of help from our friends

It takes a lot of knowledge and a lot of work to build a house – let alone a home. We were clueless! We ordered a kit house from Acorn Structures.

The mountains and landscapes weren’t the only beautiful things in Clay County. Our friends and neighbors pitched in and carried us.

• We knew a guy with a small dozer.
• We knew a guy with a construction crew.
• We knew a plumber.
• We knew an electrician. And a roofer (see below!)
• And a sheetrock guy. And a cabinet maker.
• And …

Robin and I pitched in. We helped clear the site. We helped the dozer guy – by staying out of his way while he taught us how it should be done! We helped the concrete and block team – also by staying out of their way. But we actually lifted, placed wall panels in place, hammered in nails, and carried shingle bundles to the roofers.

But there were limits. No way were we working on that roof!

After the dust cleared, this is what we had …

Mostly us!

We had lots of help, especially as we got started and the house shell up. But then the help left us so we had to do most of the remaining work ourselves. We wired the house, did some of the plumbing, did the insulation, the paneling. We did all the cabinets and built-ins. Months of work after school, every weekend, every holiday and vacation.

It took time. Here I am finishing the deck …

My shop was in the basement for over a year …

Of course, Robin spent almost as much time in the shop, or with her sleeves rolled up, as I did. I can still see her bloody thumbs. When we wired the house, we’d drill 1″ holes in joists and and studs. Then we’d thread the electrical wire through the holes – on long runs I’d pull, she’d push. I’d give a hard yank and she’d push just as hard. Often her thumb would get drawn into the holes still holding onto the wire as she pushed. The first couple of times she cried from the pain ….

The next year I finished my real shop. I actually did everything myself. From the ground up – and it still stands almost 50 years later! From then on this shop building was our second home. (Although I also had a well-used darkroom in the basement. And an office in the loft. Robin had her sewing and craft room up in the loft too.)

Our house kit was delivered April 1, 1973. We moved in Thanksgiving weekend that same year. No doors on the bathroom or bedroom, but hey! they were down the hall so who cared. The house was essentially finished by the time we welcomed Megan into our lives on July 16, 1976. Essentially I say. One day in the summer of 1981 Robin announced, “By the way, I’ve hired Mr. Sellers to come in and finish the window trim!”

Our home

Summer …

Our front door …

Winter …

Here’s a gallery of our interior.

(Click on the first image of the gallery below. Once the first picture is up, you can view the kitchen, dinning area, living room and finally Megan’s loft bedroom by clicking (tapping) on the arrow that appears on the right edge. Click through the image set. Move forward and backward. Then you can click on the small [X] in the upper right corner to return to the main blog.)

Fall, with my shop and bee hive and “Ox” our blue 1947 Ford pickup …

A final image

In 1988, Robin and I sold our home. So much driving and times had changed. Robin was taking chemotherapy. Megan missed her school friends. I was the Cherokee County School System Computer Coordinator and my office was in Murphy. So we moved to Murphy.

I think this picture is from 1989 – after we’d sold the house and moved. But the desk, amateur radio station, video recorder and monitor, and computer equipment was simply moved and reinstalled. My happy place!

Sadly – it’s all gone …

In July of 2016 I revisited our old home. I wrote a blog post with new pictures on July 27. I was so elated with the young family who were continuing in our footsteps.

Renewing My Spirit – Two Short Stories

Sadly, sometime in 2019 while the family was gone, the house burned to the ground.

I cried when I saw the stones Robin so lovingly placed to create her small flower garden and the steps to our front door.