House construction began in 2006 and the entire process was documented with pictures but I’m just now getting time to post the entire process on the blog. I’ll try to keep it chronologically consistent to avoid much confusion.
Back in 2004 I was the victim of what many people fear–a house fire. In addition to the house, the barn, garage, and greenhouse all burned. The house was a cute little log cabin that my ex-husband and I built together–from scratch. So much for historical facts–shortly after that I was single once again, and after having been the helper on two scratch-built log houses, I wanted to build my own.
The search for property was on. I wanted what millions of other Americans were looking for, 3-5 acres in the country with a stream or pond. After looking for a year or so I was in a local hardware store and ran into an old friend/former co-worker who informed me that he and his wife had just moved into town from their farm. He told me they were going to sell the farm (65 acres) and my eyes lit up, heart skipped a beat….maybe…..
That afternoon I headed out to Crab Orchard. I had heard of a back way there so rather than go the most direct shot to the property, I had to take the scenic route. I got lost on my first trip to the property and ended up about 10 miles down I-40. I did find the property and it was a beautiful valley in between a mountain a a big hill.
At the time I was renting a small house in town and the owners of the farm asked if I would move out to the farm and rent from them. I was only paying $200 a month for the house in town, BUT I was still paying on a mortgage for the torched cabin. They let me rent the place on the farm for $200–wow, good things do happen to people! I had asked if he would consider selling part of it. He said “yes”.
My son and I moved to the farm and I started trying to narrow down which part of the farm I wanted, as I was given permission to “stake my claim”. I knew I wanted to build a house so I didn’t want the portion with the doublewide on it. The neat old barn was on the part near the trailer, but I could always build my own barn if I needed it.
The other end of the property had a cave and a year round stream on it, woods and several open fields–that’s what I wanted. Walking with the surveyor on that cold wintry day was so exciting, helping him drive stakes in the ground and then getting the results on how much acreage I had staked claim to–26.3 acres…..mmmmmm okay.
In May 2006 ground was broken and the driveway was excavated.
The “canal” I’m crossing is a canal that was dug back in the late 70’s by TVA to drain Crab Orchard during floods. Crab Orchard lies pretty much in a valley and the farm is at the northernmost tip of the valley.
Next up: footers and subfloor
Wild Things Farm 