Day 9

Another gorgeous day here in East Tennessee -
The new microwave is up and running – we now have LIGHT! The cabin is very cozy, but lighting leaves a bit to be desired. One of the circuits on the control board of the old microwave burned up. It was the one that controlled the vent fan and the light. So we've been cooking in the dark since the range is in the corner and if there is still daylight it is blocked when you're standing at the range and blocked from the side by the upper cabinet. We managed, but it's SO much nicer to have the light.
The foundation guy was here. He said that the crack is indeed from settlement and it's due to the fact that up until 2009 there were NO CODES for building! Holy heck are you serious? Yep – so the lack of rebar, etc is why minor settlement is causing bigger issues. Quote $1750...which gets us some carbon fiber panels that will be adhered to the wall that is cracking and will keep it from cracking more. However he said it's possible that other walls could crack depending on future settlement. Great...

Being from Florida – land of death by codes – it never dawned on us that some places don't have codes. Especially here in the mountains! Logic (and science) tell us that mountains are on fault lines...I mean the mountains are there because two large land masses slammed together at some point in history. Fault lines = earthquakes. Granted they're few and far between (usually – save for the 3 that happened in April) here, but not unheard of. How can you not have building code requirements??? Lord have mercy....


Good thing Mr. Paisley got a raise. Two homes = two money pits!


The roofer finally showed up and his fix is only $250...for now. Evidently, every 10-15 years you need to replace the screws in a metal roof. They have rubber washers that seal up the holes in the metal panels and the rubber breaks down and can lead to leaks. He's going to seal and clean up the roof, but said before too long we'll need to replace the screws. He gave us a heads up on that. A bag of 100 screws is about $45. Mr. Paisley says he calculated about $500 just for screws. I can only imagine what the labor for that will be. Obviously we could do it ourselves – screws...no big deal. Except it's a metal roof (slippery) and it's 30' off the ground in the back. Not happening...


Mr. Paisley is digging holes to plant the hostas we picked up yesterday. He's not enjoying it LOL. Nothing like digging in rocks to try to plant something. Remember...we live in Florida...our “dirt” is gray sand. The worst part of digging in Florida is that for every shovel full of dirt you take out, half that amount falls back in from the walls of the hole. Not really a problem here...but Mr. Paisley did bust out a hammer and a chisel to dig out part of the hole (limited tools that we have here at the cabin).


I hung up a new shelf / quilt rack on the first stair landing today. I also hung up the Norman Rockwell “seasons” pieces up the stairs. They were a gift from someone I work with.


I want to paint the frames though – they're gold. I'd like to paint them black. Not really a fan of gold...plus the black pops against all the wood. Maybe i'll make that tomorrow's task.


Tonight we are going into Knoxville to do a little shopping and have dinner at Ye Olde Steakhouse. We were going to do that on Wednesday but the roofer is coming back at 6 tomorrow to do his roof thing.