Rain Gutters Finally - Great Service

Last week I called a local Ellijay rain gutter company for an estimate to finally get some rain spouts up. They're only needed on the back side of the house because the front runoff actually serves to water a flower bed that thrives.

Crump & Holmes is the name of the company. Run by Jarrod Holmes and his father John, the work was completed yesterday rather than the tentative date we had for later in the week. Great guys from the get go. I highly recommend their services.

John and his father... who incidentally has plenty of compost for free. The only concern is it's horse manure compost. Some web research tells me as long as it's broken down well it should work. Too green or smelly would result in lots of seeds germinating. I don't need an oat field in the backyard!

Next step is digging a trench so I can bury the drainage pipe shown in the background. Maybe now I'll have a drier yard?

Yikes, almost stepped on this critter while taking pics. He must like my new flagstone path. Sunny spot today. Saw another larger snake on the driveway too. Must be the cold weather bringing them closer to the house or maybe critters they like. Temps have been drifting into the lower 40's at night.

Olde Town Chimney Sweep

I've been meaning to have someone look at the chimney I have, or better yet get the thing cleaned out before it causes a fire. Chances are good it's never been cleaned out of the soot and creosote that has been building up. Is that right? Soot and creosote...maybe they're the same thing? Oh well, it's not like anyone has used the place as a permanent residence but more of a weekend getaway from Atlanta since it was built. So who ever thought of cleaning the thing?

Here I thought these guys would be on the roof sticking long poles down the vent chute. Good luck I thought, that roof is steep! Instead the reliable (that means they showed up when they said they would) chimney guys took care of everything from indoors via a snakelike gizmo with a course wire attachment thingie on the end. The chimney pipe must be twenty feet from floor of the wood stove to the top exhaust on the roof.

All the soot was brushed to fall into the whatchamacallit area and sucked up with a shop vac. I can't find the words today. Been doing tax bs, and impatient/frustrated. All in all I got an assessment of my wood stove, good or bad...passed the test. I feel more at ease now that I know how to operate the thing more efficiently and properly.

The owner...Sidney. Note the ponytail. Very nice group of guys and I appreciate their timeliness. Five stars! A rarity here in the hills.

Sometimes You Have To Wonder

Short story today...gravel being delivered.

What's wrong with this picture? The driver has yet to get out of his truck.

Guesses?

No tailgate!! I could not believe this. This guy drove ten miles from the plant including one mile up and down my weathered bumpy road. I could only imagine how much rock was left in his wake. Wow! Talk about some liability issues. He claimed somebody else broke the tailgate off last week. So they've been riding this truck all over the county since.

Yes there were small piles of rock here and there leading up my gravel road.

Next.

Um, I kinda wanted it centered so it would line up with the flagstone walkway. Something about not being able to get the level in between the block and steps to check for plumb. It was fixed.

I'm off to Dalton, Georgia (50 miles west of here) for a few days to catch up with some flooring inspectors. The event is a flooring inspectors convention. Many of these folks I have never met; only knowing them from internet message boards over the years. Should be interesting.

What Recession? Guys Are Too Busy

We've all been there. Waiting for somebody to show up to do work. According to my own time schedule it indicates people are busy bees up here in the hills. Why? Most don't show up half the time or take the time to let you know they will not be there. And as mentioned in a previous entry, sense of time must be some type of in the hills clock. First thing sometimes becomes near lunchtime.

My recent trip to Mother Nature Stone in Blue Ridge for more flagstone bothers me. Considering I've already spent some good money with them, you'd think they would be more customer oriented, or take some time to treat an existing customer well. I had one simple request.

"Can I get a better batch of stone than you have here?" They had only two and a half crates of the Cherokee Brown flagstone I needed, but it was obvious some of it had been picked through. Others choosing the better or larger stones, while leaving smaller ones. The response was more along the lines of "we can't provide all large stones..." I agreed, but... asked if they could bring in more. I was told a call would have to be made and they would give me a call back. It sounded as though there would be no problem. Besides the rock comes from Fairmont, about 45 miles away. That was Thursday afternoon.

Those guys must be busy! No phone call. Time to look elsewhere.

Edited:

This article was started five days ago and I have since received the next load, but it took some doing to buy the stuff. I don't know why they didn't make it easier. I do have a phone answering machine and I'm not about to sit around waiting for their call.

I asked the guys who brought the stuff how business was. I don't think they could have been more negative. People, follow up on potential sales next time. Leave messages. I was very close to going with someone else in Blue Ridge.

End Editing.

For two weeks now I've been trying to find somebody to set up a home theater system I purchased. My skills at that kind of stuff are horrible and I wasn't about to touch it. I called around and was referred to Radio Shack. Great! Guy said he'd to it for X amount of dollars per hour and I agreed. Good dough for guys up here too. Tentative appointment was set for the day after Labor day. I asked he call that Tuesday morning to let me know if he was going to make it. It didn't seem to be a problem at the time.

He must be too busy! What recession? No phone call. I have better things to do. At this point I make plans to do something else instead of waiting for calls.

Another. Pest control. I discovered a mice problem. Looking through the yellow pages I made the mistake by choosing the biggest advertisement. North Georgia Exterminating who has offices in Ellijay, Jasper, Canton, and Ball Ground. They guy was timely, but did not handle the real problem I wanted taken care of; mice.

"I don't have any mice (control stuff) in my truck..." You'd think he would be prepared after the main concern was mice when the original appointment was set up over the phone. This was after I gave him a check for the initial service set up. I was told someone would be back the following week. Hmmmn, that was before Labor Day.

They must be busy! After all, kids go back to school this time of the year and bugs must the largest single most concern on parents minds. Let's not forget cabin rentals in the area probably skyrocket after Labor day too. Parents send their kids off to school and head for the cabin in the mountains. Bugs are on their minds again.

Maybe my phone was out of order? I checked. Working fine.

A few bright spots.

I had problems with the Direct TV reception after the recent storms. This guy was dead on time. Perfect! My experience with these guys has been exceptional. Yet, they have a monopoly up here (except cable closer to town), so one would think why bother being so good at what they do. Keep up the great work guys.

Ellijay Heating & Air - HVAC system wasn't working. Using these guys was a referral from my handyman Tom. On time and professional. At this time we discovered the system was down because mice were eating away at the wiring in the crawlspace. Oh, he couldn't finish the job because he didn't have the proper relay switch. The fan would continually run if the system was used, but it didn't concern me because cooler weather had arrived.

Two out of five. I suppose that's not bad. Yikes! Hunting season is approaching. Guess I better plan far ahead if I need anything done.

Reliable Handyman Builds New Storage Area

Considering I was planning on living here full time, the amount of storage space was at a premium. A few areas in the loft, and bedroom closet under the staircase accounts for about 50 square feet. Where would all the tools go that I was going to drag up from Florida? Or what about the collection I've already picked up from Lowes and Ace hardware in town?

I asked Jim Stover for a man that could do the job and he offered Tom Powers (above) who is the handyman extraordinaire. Tom is the most reliable contractor to date. And he likes to call in the morning if he's running late. Otherwise I hear his truck coming down the driveway between 8:00 and 8:30 AM. What a relief. No guessing if somebody will show! Or more important, will first thing in the AM be early or late? Some guys think first thing in 10-11AM.

The new storage area would be under the back porch. Since day one I wanted to do something with the area because it became an eyesore. Downright fugly if you ask me. It was the ideal solution instead of building some shed on the property with no power. Tom handled the grading, framing, and electrical. Another source was called in for the concrete pad work, but no sense mentioning that name. He rated better than POOR, being mostly unreliable and having me play the waiting game. Overall workmanship was fair.

Realistically I could have handled the grading and framing, but I was still back and forth to Florida and needed it done quickly. It was also slated to be a temporary storage area for furniture that was coming up from Florida during the early August move.

During...

After...
Way back when...

Gravel Driveway Repairs - Scott Brothers Construction

Anybody that has a long steep driveway probably knows the situation. The driveway to the log cabin is 3/10 of one mile mostly downhill with a small flat section. The area near the bottom at the cabin had serious erosion problems. Being a novice to all of this, I just assumed calling in a grader and throwing some rock down would take care of the problem.

Wrong!

North area of driveway...

Opposite direction looking down the hill into the valley...

What made matters worse was the area between the back porch and creek. It became a retaining area for all the rain water that fell off the driveway and steep hill that surrounds the area on the north side of the cabin.

A call went in to Jeff Scott, a local grader that handles driveways, land clearing and the like. I liked Jeff from the beginning, but his sense of being on time or at least calling or remembering when he was supposed to make an appearance would have been nice. We came to an agreement to grade about half of the driveway (upper areas had no drainage problems) and put down some gravel. Jeff must not have had his thinking cap on because he quoted a price that was pretty good.

He was also kind enough to remove a stump that was on the edge of the new driveway. The tree cutters had cut it too close to the ground, but after about ten minutes it came out. Thanks Jeff.

What a change! After about six hours work and some 600 feet of driveway with new gravel I finally had something that was not pocked with ruts from the rain water runoff. It was also pitched or sloped much better so the water could run off the sides.



I thought I had matters solved until the first big cloudburst. In one 40 minute period in late May of this year we had three inches of rain. The new yard area had become a twelve inch mud bath. I suppose with all that new soil exposed it's gotta get settled...and settled into the low area between porch and creek.


More on that subject and recipes for better drainage another day...

Work performed by: Scott Brothers Construction, Ellijay. They also handle septic tanks, basements, pond construction, culverts and whatever you may have for them. I would have to give them a very good grade on actual work performed, but other aspects of customer service at the low end of the scale.

Phone 706-636-3244

Cabin Painting Service - Five Stars

For any folks that may have some property in the Ellijay, Jasper and Blue Ridge areas and you're looking for a painter, look no further. I can't locate his business card but if you stop in Sherwin Williams on Industrial Blvd (Ellijay) across from the post office and ask for Jason Avery they'll set you in the right direction. Oh here it is. Mobile 706-889-4985.

This dovetail log cabin needed a serious makeover with new staining and chinking. I opted for painting the trim an Evergreens SW #6447 color and the log portion a Dark Walnut. Jason also offered to throw in the removal of all the screening and trim that held it in place on the back porch. Also included was painting of the exhaust vent for the wood burning heating system that is used on ocassion.

Before painting...


After painting...

Tree Removal Service Ellijay Ga

June of '07 I contracted two separate local contractors to handle tree removal and painting. At the time I still had business interests in Florida that needed attention so I would not be present during the work. Yea, being away from any work is never a good idea because one knows chances are good it won't get done properly.

This property was chilly due to the tree cover. With the creek so close to the cabin it also created alot of dampness. With June afternoon temperatures in the mid seventies and nothing but shade I was shivering much of the time. Something had to be done.

Before pictures...

photo taken from the edge of the creek

trees marked for removal

I called in a tree removal company named Brian's Tree Service out of Ellijay At least the guy was timely when I first met him. He had the talk and wanted to be your best friend to the point "you have to be careful with guys up here..." or "I can watch the place when you're gone..." This after I gave him a check upfront for the full amount to remove something like 25 trees. Yea, I wasn't thinking. I did have some serious issues at work so my mind wasn't on top of things.

I should have thought twice when he asked about throwing a line in the creek. Seems fishing was on his mind over work. In any event I said I would be back some 4-5 weeks later so he had plenty of time to get the work done. One week before returning I asked Jim Stover my real estate guy if he could look in on the work being done. I even offered Jim some kind of general contractor status where he would be paid for looking in on things while I was gone.

Jim is the kind of guy that will almost do anything for you; a real sense of integrity and commitment. He knows what this kind of attention can do for him down the road with referrals and such. To this day I try to help him out considering how bad the real estate market is.

Jim informs me some work was done, but the place was a mess. Something about truck problems and or wife/huntin' dog in the hospital. I can't remember which. I heard it many times before. Perhaps there was a problem, but come on dude call me and keep me posted. Afterall you have the cash already.

Could be these mountain guys only know one way of doing business (when we get around to it) and not much else is of any importance. This area was dirt poor until the mid eighties when the four lane highway 515 came though. Industries like chicken farming and logging were the only forms of survival as Ellijay was isolated from metro Atlanta and all other points. Moon shining was also a popular form of income prior to 1980. I have remnants of two small abandoned stills around my property to prove it.

After pictures. Including a new paint and stain job.

plenty of room for landscaping...

Overall I was not pleased with the tree work. Some trees had been removed that I did not want. Others were cut too close to the ground which has created some major headaches removing for landscaping purposes. I actually began marking each tree with orange surveyors tape before Brian's arrival but he assured me he would remember. What a mistake that was!! The mulch pile was put in the wrong place as was the small log pile. Overall rating POOR.