Log Cabin Design

I went to visit the houseplans shop website tonite because I wanted to highlight a vacation house/cabin for all of you to enjoy.

I came across this one and it reminded me so much of a cabin that I stayed in in Tennessee that I just had to feature it.

The cabin I stayed in was at the top of one of their mountains, just down the road apiece from the Dolly Parsons "Dollywood", in Pigeon Forge.

This is Vacation House plan # 010H-0006 with 1333 sq ft of living space and even though it is 2 bedrooms and 2 baths there is a lot of room that can be utilized efficiently for more house guests if you desire.

High up in the mountain, the back porch with the hot tub and all kinds of old fashioned rocking chairs out there to look out over the tree tops and valleys below. I would take my cup of coffee out there in the early hours of the morning, as the sun was just beginning to come up. I would sit and watch the sun's rays peeking through the mist as it lifted off the valley below us.

The cabin we were in, had 2 full sleeper sofas so we were able to sleep 8 people very comfortably. In this plan, you could actually use the upstairs studio for addional sleeping accomodations by putting in a sleeper sofa or even several single chairs that convert to sleeping units.

Since this is a vacation home, either located in the mountains or by the sea shore, keep your furnishings simple and easy to care for. Slipcover your sofas or upolster them in denim, duck, or sailcloth so that people will feel comfortable curling up with barefeet on the furniture!  Also slipcovers can be removed quickly and easily and thrown into the washer! Choose a basic color for your slipcovers, maybe light denim blue, white or beige. Use the other colors from your palette choice for throw pillows, afghan throws and comfy velour blankets to cuddle up in on cool nights, and other accessories.

If this is to be a waterfront home, you might want to consider using the colors of the sand, sky and sunsets to decorate with. Go with off white or wheat/creams along with several shade of blue, the azure and pinks of sunsets.Keep your window coverings simple or as non existant as possible. Consider bamboo roll up shades for privacy areas and soft opaqe panels to soften if you wish a more suble effect. On the great room, perhaps you might not want any window coverings at all if the area behind you is secluded, otherwise go with just the bamboo shades or wood slated vertical binds.














If you are up in the mountains, maybe you would want to go with bolder colors, deeper shades of blues or greens, or even work in some vibrant rose or reds shades.

Buckets of Rain

They say if you live in Oklahoma and don't like the weather here, just wait five minutes and it will change!
Actually we did have to wait a little longer than that the other day, but when the thunderstorms moved in, I guess they thought we needed to make up for our extra dry weather and they meandered slowly across the expanse of our state leaving a trail of destruction behind.

We ended up with over ten inches of rain in some parts of the state.Numerous little towns and cities had massive flooding problems. Governor Henry ended up declaring a State of Emergency in 56 counties! Some of the farmers who were in the process of bringing in their wheat may end up losing their crops.In Oklahoma City and Edmond, there were areas where streets became raging rivers of water and there were many people who ended up having to be rescued from stalled vehicles. Many buildings of our State Capitol complex have received extensive damage.

Now the process of cleanup begins and much of it will fall directly on the shoulders of the homeowner  because many people will not have flood insurance coverage on homes.Of course rain like we had only happens about once every 500 years and unless you live in a flood plain area, where flood insurance is mandatory, one doesn't usually add that coverage onto their insurance policy.

If your home received interior water damage, it is going to be imperative that you start the drying out process immediately in order to keep from getting mold damage. You have water in your home, all your carpet and the bottom of your furniture is wet, who do you call? I would suggest that you contact a fire restoration company immediately! Most likely you will have to pull up all the padding and carpet, but you may be able to save your sheet rock walls if you can get them in there quickly enough with some of their huge fans. If not, you will be pulling out the walls of your home also. Do not think that they are just going to dry out on their own. You will need to take immediate action. Once black mold forms you will have a very toxic situation on your hands! If electrical sockets got wet, be sure to have an electrician come check things out to be sure that you are safe.
 
If you have a vegetable garden and flower beds, you probably will need to be checking them to see if too much water is standing in the beds. If possible, remove retaining borders to allow excess water to run out of them. There is a good chance you will need to purchase some new top soil to mix into the existing soil in order to help absorb some of the excess moisture.

If you ended up driving through high water, chances are the floor coverings in your car will need to be replaced.  Don't forget to also do the trunk area while you are at it. Depending on how deep the water was, you may need to have your mechanic check out your vehicle's mechanical and electrical systems.

When all is said and done, we were extremely fortunate that even though the losses will be into the millions if not billions of dollars and it may take time to recoup from these losses, we will in deed recover with time.

Sundays Country Cottage blog

Summer has arrived I guess!

It was hot hot hot here in "Okie" land today! The last I heard, it did make it to 100 in some cities and it made it to 97 here where I live. It was a good day to stay inside, laze around and eat ice cream.

I had visions of getting out early this morning and working on the backyard but that went out the window real quick!

I have some weeds that I swear are growing into small trees! I'm going to need a hatchet to chop them down rather than pruning scissors if I don't get out there and get them cut back. As it is, there is no way the electric lawnmower is going to chop them down.

My tomatoes look like they are doing great, they didn't wilt at all today in this heat. I thought for sure they would be but they appear to have done just fine. Since we only have a slight chance of rain tomorrow night, I am going to go out and give them some water in the morning. No sign yet of any potatoes trying to break ground, I am anxious for those to sprout.

Oh oh, I just thought of some seeds I forgot to get. Watermelons and I am sure it is too late to try and plant any of those. I guess I need to go check out some gardening websites and see.

I went out after it cooled off some (to a whopping 90) and since rain was taken out of our forecast for tonight, I went ahead and watered the garden an my new lilac bush. I even attempted to pull some of those tall weeds, to no avail. I tried cutting the stems with scissors, that didn't work either! So I guess it is going to take something more drastic to get them out of there. I did manage to get up some of the dried up burr weeds. Should have thought twice about pulling them with bare hands because now I have some of the stickers in my hands.

It looks like we are in for another hot day tomorrow and like it or not, I do have to go to the tag agency and get the tags for my car. Thank goodness there is a/c in the car and I am sure I'll end up having to use it. Get out early and scoot home and take it easy the rest of the day until the sun goes down.