12/18/07

5Gsalot
I looked up the number for lawyer #2 and called him. They told me that they would get back to me. $5,000 is lot of money, but I'm adding 50% more property. We'll see what happens. Changed the format a bit on the blog lately with some links to Picasa so I can show photos/slide show. This is one of the little green gem.

12/17/07

Budget addition - Budget subtraction
Busy Day. I finally caught up with the lawyer Don Ferguson today. I tried to feel him out with a few questions before springing the serious questions. I mentioned the Shop on the square — Bang!...He hit the bait. This guy was no slouch, and got around to business fast. 4-5Gs to get the paperwork to the right people and six months later and we could own that property. I guess I thought it would be a steal. Consensus is that it’s worth it, but I want to to check a few things before I sign up. I’ll call the lawyer we used to do the buy sell —Keene— and see if their might be a cheeper way. Dan - my son in-law called today with a line on two large 7x3 ft. glass doors being discarded by the business he works for. They are now sitting in my garage—to good to pass up. I think they might work for the shop doors on either side of the overhead or some elsewhere. The frames did not come with them so we might have to track down the manufacturer. Still should save me some money and save some resources too.

12/13/07

Land Grab- breathing room.
My builder Jim called me today very excited - said he had been down to the assessors office in Cleveland to see if he could find out the names and addresses of the owners of the property just adjacent for easements on the overhangs. The small green house directly behind us is owned by Angela Henry who lives here in Atlanta. Harrison Allison is the owner of the other property - he lives near Cleveland. This is all pretty dull, but it gets better. Jim say’s the lady in the assessor’s office is a member up at Center Baptist Church.( across from the shop) Well he finds out first that the square passed ownership as recently as 2004 to the church - Bob Wurl told me they owned it way before that. Then he finds out that the plot just to the left of the property is not owned by Ms. Henry. Well this is news! The Community Evangelical Methodist Church own’s the land—and guess what? They apparently do not exist anymore! Story is that when they (?) carved up Robertstown they gave some land to two churches. This other church never made it. So this property is not ton the tax records - strange. Center Baptist may own it as a default but if they do they do not know it. Unless this assessor lady spills the beans. I need to contact Don Furgeson, some lawyer in Cleveland for more info - maybe we can pick up this small piece cheep and give Wurl Wood some breathing room.

12/10/07

SketchUp - Got to love it!
I’ve redone my my SkectchUp model and it came out great. As we go along I’ll try to keep it as close as possible to the real thing. I put in all truss work without having to redo everything. Added cabinets and built-ins, detailed the bathrooms and bedrooms. It’s amazing how much is available online —combine it with some creative changes and you can really do wonders—and spend hours and hours of time!
I’ve learned how to peel off the roof and take these overhead shots.

11/15/07

Down to Business — Architect Talk
I contacted Bob Cain by email Tuesday he replied that we could have a meeting anytime to discuss any modifications to the design.
He is discussing with my builder Jim how to build the studio. Since it’s a major component of the design and affects most of the drawings, he’s looking to him to advise on whether we use sips panels or conventional construction. We have obtained costs for the site delivered sips system. However, we don’t know what it will cost to erect it.
Since Jim has not done a sips installation, he’s researching the effort it takes and should soon arrive at a labor cost that will tell us if sips make economic sense.
Once they have that info, they will present it to me for an ok and then launch into construction documents (plans and specifications are needed for the loan). The construction documents and the price Jim gives me based on those documents will provide the bank with the info they need.
I have to discus the eave easement with my neighbors on both sides of the building. I will try to get some of that done while up there on Thanksgiving day.
In the mean time I’ve been working on my SketchUp model of Bob’s plan. I found lots of cool stuff to put in it on the web - even my car. More to come.

11/8/07

Waiting for Demo (Gadot)
Not much going on with the shop—waiting for that December demo day. I’m not sure how fast work will progress even after that. In the mean time I’m trying to get the loan all buttoned up. Not easy!—the Bank had not spoken to me since I dropped off the application from the builder two weeks ago. The loan officer never returned my call last week so I took the bull by the horn this week and made sure things are moving along.
I still need to contact my contractor to get an estimate for the demo and talk to the architect to see what he is doing.
I'm still enjoying the satisfaction of getting everything out of the shop—but I'm looking forward to my next fix. This is a shot from last year next to a recent one. Missing - about 5 tons of heavy woodworking equipment and scrap.

10/25/07

Implosion or what $? & Good bye old paint.
Oct. 25, 2007 -
Today Bob Cain e-mailed me and said we should go to all costs to save the existing cinder block structure during demo. This may be more expensive so he wants to explore conventional construction on the roof to compensate for costs.
I don’t like this. I like the sips - but again this is his expertise.
Anyway, I asked if he might be able to do - deconstruction drawings - or come up with an alternate plan.

I also called the dumpster company to have them pick up for a last time - with no return.
I’ll miss it. You get a lot thrown out and completed when you have one around. It was much easier than trying to organize trash to throw it out. I‘d like to have one of those big wheeled, flapped ones you see in the city.
Cost was a monthly $115 plus a dump and return fee of $125.00- this varies by weight. It’s a $47.00 per ton - not much. I dumped it four times. I spent $2,500 to have it up there for 14 months. Not bad - it was a lot of stuff.
All my neighbors will not miss it. The only problem remains the container, eye sore to some. Not me.

10/23/07

HISTORY - Oct. 23, Initial Plans
I’ve been holding out on you- it’s true. I’ve kept these back until I got comfortable with the blog process.
These are the first set of plans for the shop - actually I think they are close to being done.

I can say that my architect came up with some great creative concepts here and fulfilled most of my requirements. Initially I wanted a lot more covered space but the numbers were not adding up - 600k+to do it right.
Way too much for my budget - I compromised without regret though. This much simpler plan (compared to all my crazy sketches) is elegant and provides me with a very modern space that integrates the outside and inside and should be efficient to heat and cool. The design has sip shed roofs with a galvaluminum top skin and integrates well with the vernacular of the area. Metal poles support the roof with glulam beams in a tent like fashion. Three windowed overhead doors are utilized - two in the shop and one on the courtyard side of the living room. The clerestory will be made up of prefabed trusses with double sided transparent plastic celled sheets. Most of the existing cement block walls are left intact. The unique courtyard splits the woodshop and living areas. It has section cut out for plantings. The small studio pokes out into an roofless entrance. There is a step up to the kitchen and back bedrooms. Both bedrooms have showers - no tub. The shop has it’s own bathroom.

The plan uses the current windows by sawing them down to the ground all around except the shop - giving it a screen like attitude. Only about half of them have glass and the shop utilizes the original windows. This saved a lot of money. At night the light from the studio will shine out the open windows lantern like.

We have not discussed heating and cooling yet - I would like a mix of active and passive solar. Radiant heat is my goal throughout, but I only intend to cool the living/studio spaces. Active solar on those roofs is what I’d like to see - if can I afford it. The property has a well already but I intend to have some sort of cistern system. It is not tied into a public sewer so it’s looks like we will be living with septic. That story is for another time.

10/22/07

FINAL CLEAN UP Oct 20 -21st - The shop is now ready for demo.
Saturday was an amazing north Georgia day - crystal clear and about 75º. We got off to a late start out of Atlanta, stopped by the bank and dropped off the builders application. Got to the shop at about 11 or so - My crew was already busy. We accomplished everything we set out to. Most onerously moving a 600 lb. air compressor that I had forgotten to include on the list when we had all the other heavy equipment loaded into the container . After a cook-out lunch we packed all the unfinished furniture repair projects and useful lumber in and closed it up.

While we were there my builder stopped by. He said he was going to be able to start bringing down the roof around the Dec. 1st and has some concerns that when the trusses come down it will put excessive pressure on the walls collapsing them. Since our design utilizes them, we may have to brace them all around. He’s considering having an engineer look at it. This all could cost more money -and this is before we start to build. I said that we should consult the architect - so I will e-mail him.
Even this news put no damper on my spirits - three years of cleaning out this building are finally over. It was a huge undertaking and we did it at a minimum of cost. There was ten years of collected junk in the building. We preserved all the equipment and kept as much as we could in the way of wood - much of it mahogany. All in all, I had five full dumpsters taken out plus a my 40 ft. container filled with an entire professional wood shops tools and equipment. I only wonder how and when I will unpack and set it back up.
After a quick stop at the Wurls to clean up we made our way down to the fest hall in Helen. Had a great time sampling all the food we could find and drinking big steins of beer - then working it off with polkas and chicken dances. From there we piled into the cars and back up to the Wurls to spend the night. May bee next year we will be far enough along to spend the night at the shop.

10/22/07

HISTORY - Helen and Roberstown As I know it...
Helen Georgia is a tourist town in the north east part of the state. Along the banks of the Chatahoochee river it lies in a tight valley in this southern section of the Blue Ridge with many large peaks like Tray and Yonah nearby. Unicoi State Park and the Chatahoochee National Forest boarder it’s northern boundaries. This is an area with numerous falls, lakes and scenic views. Hiking and camping are very popular - the southern section of the Appellation trail runs nearby. It’s an old lumber town that boomed while old growth hardwoods remained. Ice age glaciers stalled out in this area leaving a rich fertile valleys with high cool weather slopes. An astonishing number of tree species from northern red oaks and sugar maples to southern magnolias, poplars, long and short leaf pine, plus abundant stands of catawba rhododendron and mountain laurel. When the lumberman left it became a gasoline stop on the road from Cleveland to Hiawasse. During the 1970’s some local entrepreneurs came up with the idea of promoting it as a bavarian style alpine village. It stuck, and over the years its Tyrolean style buildings, funnel cake shops and lone liquor privileges in a dry county have made it a popular day trip destination. During Oktoberfest and just about any weekend it will fill with cars and tourist shopping and staying in the numerous hotels and cabins.

The valley just before you get to Helen is called Sautee-Nachoochee. It is considered sacred by the Cherokee indians and as you pass over the river there is a raised burial mound. A small victorian style gazebo now perches where the chiefs of mound building indians once ruled over a large settlement. Mount Yonah (bear), an extremely dramatic peak with granite escarpments provides a dramatic background. Gold was discovered near by in the early 1800’s. This brought prospectors and settlers who forced out the native Cherokee, eventually on their way to Oklahoma and the Trail of Tears. In the 1890’s it was the dramatic flow of the Tallulah River through the Tallulah Gorge and cool temperatures that brought tourists up for the summer to stay in small victorian hotels from as far away as Florida. Though the river was damned in the 20’s you can still find people who have escaped Florida to enjoy these cooler mountain valleys. Airline pilots and executives form Delta, Eastern, and others discovered the area and began buying vacation homes along the shores of the lakes created by several damns owed by Georgia Power. Lake Rabun and the beautiful Lake Burton are the jewels of the area with mahogany Chriscrafts and million dollar properties. Both are surrounded by high peaks and dense pine forest. Burton is the largest and its sheltered water makes it fantastic for water skiing and boating.

Just north of Helen is a small crossroads called Robertstown. It was settled by families seeking property and moving down from Burke North Carolina in the 1820’s. John Trammel and his wife, six children and slaves settled where Robertstown now stands and bought land from the Indians for a penny an acre!. legends go that at one time there was a 10 room roadhouse run by Margaret Rosette Dillard Wiklea one of the matriarchs of the famous Dillard family. Also author/poet James Dickey in his poem Faces Seen Once curiously mentions Robertstown.
There was a lumber mill at this location but now only a convenience store, a barbecue restaurant and the Alpine Flea Market are noticeable. I say noticeable because Robertstown is deceiving - Traveling up GA 75 you will not even see the real Robertstown. You have to take Curtis Road up the hill to find a small square with about six houses, the Center Baptist Church and my little shop - Wurl Wood.

10/18/07

Oktoberfest ‘07—Last clean up weekend
Oct. 16, 2007
I heard from my builder yesterday. He told me he was sending the bank’s contractor information packet to me so I could send it to them. This is fine with me because it lets me get a copy of the information as a back up. I told him we would be up at the shop on Saturday the 20th for what we hope will be the last day of communal work before the demo can begin.
This is the third October my girls and their husbands have all gotten together to help get the shop ready to be remodeled. Much thanks to the guys and gals. I will be writing some plans out tomorrow so we can have an agenda and hopefully get everything done before we head out to Oktoberfest in Helen later that night.

Oct., 17
Received the contractor application —I will drop it off at the bank before we leave for the shop on Saturday.

10/17/07

HISTORY- How it got started This is edited from FabPreFab Dec. 2005

I bought an old school building from my father-in-law outside Helen GA. Fell in love with the North Georgia 30 years ago when my wife and I would visit. We now live in Atlanta, 150 miles away and intend on retiring to the area. I want to convert it to an office for my automotive advertising agency - I also need studio room for painting, photography, printmaking and an area for woodworking. I need to be able to stay overnight up there - so I want two bedrooms and loft type space.
I am a graphic designer. I can draw what I think I want but I am also an art director - I know it is best to leave it to professionals.
Of course I can’t help myself from thinking about it - way too much.
Bob Wurl, my father-in-law. is a woodworker and ran his cabinet shop out of the building for many years. He is now 85 and can't keep up the place. The shop is full of woodworking tools - table saws, plianers, shapers - the works. It is also full of holes - it needs major repairs.



I started looking on the web for info and bumped into all this prefab modernist design. I love modern architecture. Love the light and space.
I’ve looked at everything - I’m was blown away by Res 4, Lazor Office, and I love Marmol-Radziner - but I don’t like the very thin spaces, and the $250 a sq. ft.!
I just don't think you have to pay that much more for great design.
I may be wrong.
Fleetwood glass sliding glass doors are not cheep.
This place of mine started as a $100,000 to 150,000 project now it looks like I’ll need to spend twice that to make it work the way I see it. That will make it the most expensive building in town. It’s an L shaped concrete block building with about 3,000 sq. ft. Built in the fifties it was a school - one of the first with an indoor bathroom. On the inside the spans are 25ft+ and it has 12 ft. ceilings. The spans are much longer than laws will allow now.
I studied it, and came to the realization that steel may be the best way to keep the space inside.
Take a look at the designs (side bar)— I'm an artist not an architect - but I have incorporated a lot of the ideas I’ve seen in prefab and other modern houses. I’d like to separate the two buildings and isolate the wood shop (noise and dust) - from the living/office space.
Right now I'm busy with my son-in-laws cleaning the one side up so we can get started. I bought a shipping container and had it delivered up there so I can use it store all the wood and tools. I also rented a dumpster.
Next I need and architect and a loan.