A Visit to Bob's

Last weekend Stephanie and I were able to get away without the boys and we headed north about 3 hours to Roanoke VA. She had a baby shower to go to. It was a great drive because it was fairly fast and mainly back roads. Our mapquest route took us along Rte 40 along Smith Mountain Lake. Steph's parents once had a house on the lake so we were used to traveling those roads.

Once on the road and into Virginia we remembered our good friend Bob has a house (homestead) that he is building on along Leesville Lake (just below the Smith Mountain Lake dam). So we call him while on the road and planned to meet up with him on the way back on Sunday.

We first me Bob almost 2 years ago. He heard about our project on the Forestry Forum timber framing section. He offered to come one weekend and help cut some timber jointery. So we spent a cold Saturday in the basement of our soon to be house cutting away. (Bob is on the Left, I am on the Right)

He also came with his family for the weekend when we raised the frame (another cold day) and again to help out when we were making the final push before moving in last November. It was such a blessing since we were under the gun with Stephanie in the middle of chemotherapy (NB: all is well now!)

Enough back story.....

Bob and Angela's place is on 10 ac and is situated on the hill side towards the back of the property. They decided, like us, to start with a smaller guest house and later build the main house. His plans are to use insulated concrete forms for the walls with timbered King Trusses on top. Here is the guest house with the main walls ready for the pour. The peaks will be done on a second pour.

It is great to finally get to see his place and it sure brings back memories of all the hard work. We are grateful for our friends we have meet through this project, especially those via the Internet.