Monday, Sept 9
Not expecting excavation to begin till Friday, we were rather surprised when we received word from George Lewis of C & L Excavation, this past Monday that he’d already started clearing the driveway and home site! Apparently the job he had scheduled ahead of us was delayed because the correct permits hadn’t come in, so he went ahead and started on our place that morning. WOOHOO…it has finally begun!!!! Dave left work a little early and as soon as Max got home from school we hopped in the 4Runner and headed down to check out the progress. We were amazed at how much he’d already accomplished in a day….
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- the driveway entrance from Colemans Lake Rd
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- walking up the drive toward the cabin site
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- view from the front of the cabin site
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- looking back up at the cabin site from the old road
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- Dave and Max walking along the old road in front of the cabin site
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- looking down the road toward the dam
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- the lake from the old road
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- sun reflecting on the rock along the side of Waffles Ridge
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- I love the exposed roots on these old trees
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- Dave and Max check out the lake before we head home
Tuesday, Sept 10
Having only roughed in the drive and cabin site, George asked us to meet him on site Tuesday, to discuss which of the larger trees he should take down as he refined the clearing and what to do with the fallen timber and debris. We want to keep the hardwood logs to use for various woodworking projects so he agreed to clean those up and leave them along the old road in front of the cabin site. The rest, rather than hauling offsite, we decided would just go over on the other side of the property back near the ATV trail as this would save both time and money.
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- Dave and George going over the foundation plans
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- discussing the next steps
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- view of the lake from the home site
Sunday, Sept 15
By the weeks end, George had finished clearing the site, removed all the debris and had brought in 8 truck loads of crush and run gravel for the driveway. Can I just say here that we LOVE George Lewis! He has been such a pleasure to work with, has gone above and beyond what was expected and offered his advice and expertise in areas that we were unsure of. The entire direction of the driveway and the idea to put in a cul-du-sac turning area down toward the entrance, were all his idea, keeping the view of the cabin private from the road, while making the steep grade as gradual as possible. We can only hope that every contractor we deal with during this building process will be as wonderful to work with as he has been.
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- we have a driveway!
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- we’d been warned that it was a little dusty
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- looking back down toward the entrance
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- George created a cul-du-sac where the driveway turns so that larger vehicles will be able to better make the sharp turn from the road
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- view of the drive from Colemans Lake Rd
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- dusty!!!
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- Dave, walking down the old road toward the dam
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- hardwood logs for future projects
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- view of the lake from the cabin site
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- view of the cabin site from our picnic area
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- checking out the plans so we can re-stake the cabin area
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- Max walking along the old road in front of the homesite
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- the beautiful sky over the cabin site
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- we three Kings standing on our future cabin site
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- looking back up at the cabin site from the old road
We also had word this week from Todd Hawkes, (the local contractor who’d been referred to us by our neighbors to lay our ATV trails) that he’d finally been back down this week to finish. He had completed half the trail back in the spring, but due to the frequent rains we had this spring and summer, he hadn’t been able to finish till now. We were totally psyched to not only be able to check out our newly cleared land, but to test out our newly completed trails as well!!!!
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- pile of debris from cabin site at the trail entrance
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- entering the trail
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- so far so good
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- Mom, you still back there?
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- and this is where it got interesting…I took it a little too fast and head on, went up on two wheels, thought for sure I was going to flip over! It’s possible that the “F” word escaped my lips
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- Max took it a little slower but got stuck
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- Dave shows us how we were SUPPOSED to do it
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- yeah Dave!
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- back in action
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- someone else has already discovered our new trails…turned out to be one of our neighbors! Dave told him to feel free to use them anytime as we know that good trails are hard to find…we don’t mind sharing in the fun!
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- Max and I heading back out at the end of the trail
George will finish up early next week and the foundation is scheduled to be put in next Friday. Yep, things are pretty exciting around here…
the coleman cabin 
YAY!! I’m on the coleman cabin blog!! This is great, I promise to be a regular visitor now…Jill, you have way too much time on your hands 🙂
Ok, I have visited the Coleman Cabin site for my second time! What a difference a month makes…there’s a friggin log home at this place now!! It’s looking good and I like the stain color, nice choice! Better get the fireplace going, the nippy weather is on it’s way 🙂 Congrats KIng Family!!
Thanks, Brian! Fireplace is on the way…Dave is planning on putting it in himself, perhaps you’d like to help?!!! ;-D
Absolutely! I used to do construction many moons ago when I was in college, so I’m willing to help Dave with any of his projects down there…we’ll just frame it out!! Ha HA!
Hahahaha, excellent!!!
Hooray, Brian, you’re now a member of the coleman cabin club! 🙂 BTW, Lynne says to tell you you’re not working hard enough if you have time to read our blog.
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