Cedar Grove Road House

Daughter's note: My father will write the official introduction to this section soon. I wanted to go ahead and get this online, so here are just a couple of thoughts from the then-teenage girl you will see in a few of the pictures on this site. Wow. I know, deep thought, huh? As I put this site together, I have been truly amazed and humbled at the amount of work that went into building this house (and the gazebo and garage). Time is something else. It seemed a much longer period of time than just 6 years from land purchase to finished house. I am sure I didn't appreciate it at the time, but I know there was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that went into it. I can only hope that the current owners appreciate the craftsmanship, heart, and soul that went into building this house.

Oh, and I had a really cool bedroom, but it was obviously always too messy to take a decent photo. :)

Land purchased, 1981
Picture of the land before building the house
House finished, 1987
House finished

Gallery photos (click for larger photo and information)

  • Land purchase
  • Another view of grounds
  • Grounds, another view
  • View from where the house was to be built
  • Well house on property
  • Another view of property taken from the road
  • View from the other side of the property
  • Beautiful oak trees
  • Looking back toward the house site
  • A joy to clean on the property
  • Looking for worms
  • A beautiful place to relax, but lots of work
  • My son bushhogging
  • My son and I taking a break
  • Special place for flowers
  • Time goes by before we can start building
  • Some of the trees used in house interior trim
  • Oak trees were prime for use as trim
  • Cleaning up corners where backhoe couldn't get
  • Footing work progressing
  • Footing up close
  • Fish from the pond adjacent to our lot
  • Wish we'd been able to continue with the original plan
  • More concrete
  • Huge footings for earth sheltered home (originally)
  • My first 66 Chevy Pickup
  • Starting to build the gazebo
  • Building the gazebo - rafters
  • Building the gazebo
  • Getting excited about trying it out with a picnic
  • Getting the plywood on the gazebo
  • Another view of the gazebo in progress
  • Gazebo overlooking rock garden
  • Another view of gazebo
  • Gazebo's standing seam roof made of aluminum
  • Rafter tails cut the same
  • Pond
  • Cooling shade
  • Herringbone pattern flooring
  • Relaxing view
  • Working on the railing
  • Another beautiful view
  • Getting the railing more complete
  • Cutting in driveway
  • Melissa and Scott
  • More dozer work
  • Shaping up the sides of the driveway
  • Driveway looking back toward the main road
  • Bob, who helped a lot on the house
  • Driveway taking shape
  • Another perspective of drive with gazebo in distance
  • Cleaning off footing
  • Block being delivered
  • Changed construction from earth sheltered to conventional
  • Scott helping with block laying
  • Laying up one of the corners
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