On this big family rally at Liberty Ridge Ranch, we had all hoped to accomplish a great deal toward finishing the interior of the cabin. It was not to be. It’s a very long, arduous story of bureaucratic brick-wall head-banging, but (and this is the short version) we are now still in the process of satisfying inspection after county inspection after state inspection after inspection.
Along with a pre-inspection, structure inspection, plumbing rough-in inspection, electrical rough-in inspection, plumbing final inspection, electrical final inspection, gypsum board inspection and final inspection, we had to also pass a driveway and address-posted inspection. So, we got to work on posting our address. Now, we certainly do not receive mail here, and we are the only people ever venturing that far up this particular mountain — except for, now, the INSPECTORS.
I wasn’t completely satisfied with the orange spray paint on a piece of plywood method, so I enlisted some help to post our address.
We still have a few brush piles left over from putting our driveway in four summers ago. I know, it’s a fire hazard, but that’s a LOT of chainsawing when you’re trying to build a cabin at the same time. The top tree in this pile is cedar (we have mostly piñon pine near our build site), and since it is a hardy wood that looks pretty now and won’t decay quickly, we chose cedar for our address sign.
My mountain-man husband got to work with his trusty chain saw. Notice, Kids: He is wearing all his safety gear. Better safe than missing a leg, I say. Of course, I wanted a notch to display the red wood, so that put Travis’ not-exactly-his-day-job chainsawing skills to the test.
Step one, complete. Doesn’t that blaze orange accentuate his blue-gray eyes? And the brush pile is shrinking already.
Now it’s my turn. Since my dad didn’t want me burning up the belt sander with this project, I did the best I could smoothing out the uneven chainsaw marks with a hammer and chisel. Like I said, my husband is not quite ready for any Stihl competitions, but he got the job done. Look at that gorgeous cedar. Maybe I’ll make a cedar chest for the end of my bed when I’m done with this project. Maybe I’ll save that for another day. It is starting to get dark.
Now, it’s our buddy Mr. Kenny’s turn to get in on the action. After much coaxing, and a threat to withhold his dinner, he agreed to use his RotoZip to carve out our address. He is very precise and, with Lillyan’s supervision, did a super nice job.
While the red cedar looked great with just the router contrast, we didn’t want to risk failing this INSPECTION, so I filled in the letters with a black marker. “Must be CLEAR and LEGIBLE from the public road.”
Ta Da. In place at the end of our driveway. Now, I sure hope we pass that address-posted inspection.
NOTE: Surely, you know this isn’t actually our address. A little photoshop help should keep all of the internet stalkers from descending on our little secluded mountain hideaway. And please don’t send any Christmas cards here. Who knows who would be seeing photos of your cute little family in reindeer-ear headbands.
This is a beautiful address sign. Definitely jealous of all that cedar!
I finally know what S can do with his rough cut lumber logs tucked away in the barn! He is dying to use them, but I haven’t agreed to any of his ideas yet! Thanks!