Visit to the Ozarks to Paul's Ranch

kcwaterguy · #1 12-06-2006, 11:54 PM

Holy cow people.... all I can say is the pictures do not do the new house any justice. To see those creative rolling doors in action was icing on my cake. The view makes me want to quit everything and move into their guest house NOW.

After a tour of the wonderful house, I was able to see his other talent that surely makes me realize I have LOTS and LOTS to learn. His carvings are great and he was such an inspiration and good source for advice.

Thank you so much for me "dropping in", Paul. I am ready to sit on that porch and carve with you.

Sean - KC

PS - I even got away with a nice block of basswood (real basswood not the hard stuff I got local).... thanks again for that Paul

Paul_Guraedy · #2 12-07-2006, 08:17 AM

As Sean indicated we had a nice visit yesterday. His "dropping in" was great and had an additional benefit for me. I found that visitors can actually find us using "map quest". He did admit "beginning to wonder" as the road narrowed down to a one-lane, dirt track through the woods.

In the house building progress thread, I did say that I would send additional pictures as we made progress. So here they are. This time I am concentrating on the lighting which we built for the great room. First is an old pepsi cola barrel to light the "rock shelf." We had a heck of a time making the dining room chandelier and getting it hung on that high ceiling. Eric (contractor) relieved my fears and scared some of the devil out of me when I mused, "I hope that thing doesn't come crashing down!" He stepped off the scaffolding, shinnied up the "axle" and said, "guess so!" The final photo is a decorative door on the end wall. My nephew, upon finding that the door did not go anywhere, dubbed it the Santa Claus Door saying that was his magic route into the house.

We do hope to be in the new house in January. At that time, the current place will become a guest house with a big welcome for woodcarvers and a special invitation for my friends from the WCI Forum.

Tom H · #3 12-07-2006, 10:08 AM

Paul, I think your "free design hand" you are giving the contractor is paying off. You have a very unique house, and I suspect there will be lots of other unique design elements still to come. I think it's always those little unique design things that make a house. Thanks for sharing. Tom H

Kenny_S · #4 12-07-2006, 11:45 AM

Paul, That light looks like it came from a still! Neat, I don't know where you live in the Ozarks but in my travels through out the Ozarks, I haven't found a place that wasn't beautiful no matter what season it was.
Done some hunting is several parts of the Missouri Ozarks and some find hunting it was.
I will say, Some neat things in your home.

slivers&dust · #5 12-07-2006, 03:54 PM

Now that is a crazy tile floor. I like it

Kenny_S · #6 12-07-2006, 08:11 PM

Me likes the cabinet bases!

Paul_Guraedy · #7 12-08-2006, 07:29 AM

Thanks for the compliments on the building project. Eric wants to make this house an example of his ability to take common items, even common building materials, and do something different with them. No one, before us, has given him this kind of leeway.Tom you are right. Giving him freedom to present any dream has paid off. It has been to our benefit that most of his ideas are acceptable to us, extremely good, and help make this house the unique place we want it to be.

Kenny, we were looking for some way to light the boulder we put in the wall. We wanted it to be eye-catching, but different. Diana found this old pepsi cola syrup barrel in one of the out buildings. We were already using the galvanized pipe (painted black) in other locations. When we started assembly, Eric said, "I have an old guage that will go perfecly and make this thing look like it was recently in use".......so........"yep, it does look like we just went up the holler, took part of an illegal operation and made it legitimate". The wood for the cabinets came from an old stack that Diana's Dad had harvested here on the ranch about 30-40 years ago. There are 6-7 different species. All we did was plane the boards and cut them to even length. and square up the sides. They are still different thicknesses and widths. We wanted pieces with holes, spalding and knots so that it looked like someone, as we did, utilized whatever was on hand.

S&D, I could not believe it when Eric proposed the floor tile pattern. He is being paid a set price, not by the hour. It is taking 2-3 times as long to lay as it would had we gone with a more traditional look. But, he wanted to mimic the stone ledges here on the ranch. Diana was skeptical and would not give approval until we "dry fitted" a bunch of broken tile into one corner of the great room.

We have two large beams across the great room and I recently purchased 60' of 1x10's to put on the face sides for relief carving. A couple of friends have already offered to help with this project. I am hoping to recruit more woodcarvers to come to the ranch, stay in our guest house a while, and do some relief carving for these beams. I hope to minimize my work there and make it representative of as many different carvers as possible. I plan to keep the designs very simple. Something that can be completed in just a few days. So anyone interested, plan on spending some time back here at the end of the world.

There are still a few more surprises to come as we move into the final stages of house building.

Kenny_S · #8 12-08-2006, 10:32 AM

It is so neat that a dream comes true, not only for you and your wife but for the contracter also. Not to many contracters I know would take the time. Thanks for giving us a glimpse of you dream home Paul.

brushpilecarvings · #9 12-08-2006, 10:52 AM

I showed my brother who is a cabinet maker the picture of your kitchen cabinets and he said "Now there's some good looking wood!"

Donna_T · #10 12-10-2006, 05:45 AM

Paul,
I like it all, but I love the floor!
Donna T