Our Front Entry Door

Gary and Debi have looked through many websites on the Internet to try and find the "perfect" front door for a log cabin. Most doors were way out of our price range, or just didn't have the exact look we wanted. We had stumbled across a website via eBay that had a carved wood door made by a wildlife woodcarver living in Springville, Utah, but we couldn't find his website address later when we needed it.


When we were visiting Debi's family during the Thanksgiving holidays, Debi's nephew, Brent (age 16), used his computer expertise to search websites and find "Stacey Mitchell"--the woodcarver we'd been looking for. We contacted Stacey immediately and met with him that very day. He lives less than two miles from Debi's sister, Denise! We were able to visit his home and studio and saw some of the work he does.


We were very impressed with his work and we commissioned Stacey to carve the top panel on our front door. We wanted a door that is 42" wide to accommodate our front entryway. Stacey saw no problem meeting our quirky demands: A knotty alder wood species; 42" wide, 80" tall door; arch-shape on top of the panel; the word "Welcome" carved on the center part of the door (between the two panels); and a carving of a pine forest and a mountain stream. This is a photo Stacey sent to us yesterday that shows the beginning of the door. He should be finished in a few weeks. We are very excited!
Check out Stacey Mitchell's website. Click on his website from our "Favorites" list.

The Shingles Start to Go Up (Day 1)

The end of the first day of shingling.
Gary stands near a dormer as he helps to shingle.
The tar paper goes up.


The shingles arrive and take a ride up to the roof.

Roof Sheathing Goes Up!

On December 29th and 30th, we hired a crew of eight men to sheath the roof. They worked from 8:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. both days and were able to get all the sheathing up and build five dormers. There are two dormers over the garage, and three dormers on the west side over the great room and master bedroom.

Front view of house as you come up the driveway.

Front door entry way.




Building the dormers over the garage

Christmas Eve at Bryan's House

With the Dearden Family in town, everyone gathered at Bryan's house for Christmas Eve dinner. We decided to make it a Mexican Buffet instead of our traditional pizza fest. Denise and Mom spent all morning making chile verde chicken enchiladas and red ground beef enchiladas. Bryan took care of setting the table and preparing the buffet. This first picture shows his house with the Christmas lights lit up. Seeing it in person is so much better! Click on these links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfeNUcz5qvQ (Santa's Symphony)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o28EdUHlfls (Jingle Bells Techno)

The Christmas light display in Bryan's front yard.

Across the street from Bryan's house: The soldiers stand guard.


The dinner table set in white, red, and green.

The lights are dimmed and the candles are lit.

Ray made a traditional Chile Relleno--it's still steaming!

The Mexican Buffet
Enchildadas, refried beans, rice, guacamole, salsa, tortilla chips, and "poppers". We had two kinds of hot wassail and sparkling apple cider to drink. There was See's candy, the gingerbread cookies, and cheesecake for dessert. We didn't even eat the peppermint and the mint chocolate chip ice cream with the brownies and whipped cream--we saved those for the next day!

We were greeted by Cocos (in red) and Pecos (in green).

(Bryan and Kyleigh smile for the picture, too.)

After dinner, we stepped outside on Bryan's back patio and took family pictures. This photo shows Dad and Mom Greenwood and Debi, Denise, Bryan, and Lisa.

Gary and Debi

The Dearden Family

Bryan and Ray

Lisa and Kyleigh

Bryan's backyard lights on his patio.

Bryan's backyard light display.

Making Gingerbread Cookies on Christmas Eve

The Dearden Family drove down from Utah on Monday, December 22nd and stopped off in Oak Hills to pick up "Aunt Debi". (Gary stayed home until Christmas Eve.) Debi had made some gingerbread cookie dough using an 1840's pioneer recipe from Nauvoo, and she had Gary bring the dough down to Dad and Mom Greenwood's home. On Christmas Eve (in the afternoon) we broke out the cookie cutters and made gingerbread cookies and decorated them. This picture shows Kyleigh rolling and cutting out the gingerbread dough.

Later that afternoon, Kyleigh enjoyed frosting and decorating the gingerbread men. She couldn't decide which color to use, so she is using two tubes of frosting in this picture.

Here's what Dad and Mom's Christmas tree looked like this year. 

(It looks the same as the tree they had last year!)

Danielle and Denise join in on the decorating of the gingerbread cookies.

Lisa decorates gingerbread cookies.

Taking a break from cookie decorating: Gary convinces Kyleigh to give him an "Eskimo Kiss" inside her cardboard box house that Grandpa made for her. Notice the "snow" that Grandpa incorporated on the top of the roof.

Debi and Kyleigh cut out the gingerbread cookies.

Mom helps decorate cookies.

Kyleigh discovers that holding your tongue just right will help when decorating cookies.

Dad even gets in on the cookie decorating!

Snow Play Day with Lisa and Kyleigh

Debi's sister (Lisa) and Lisa's daughter (Kyleigh) came for a play day in the snow on Saturday, December 20th. We built this snowman together. His hat is a cookie tin, his eyes are two halves of a plastic Easter egg, and his nose is a small orange shovel. We used gold coins for his ears, plastic eyeglasses, a drawer pull (handle) for his mouth, and a "Happy Birthday" banner for his scarf. He has lava rock buttons, CDs for his feet, and branches for his arms. The snow was so powdery that we had a difficult time making his head. We used snow molded into a bucket--hence his robot-shaped head. Kyleigh named him "Windy" and then changed it to "James".
We had this great brake rotor that looked perfect as a snowman's hat, but it squished the snowman, so this little snowman next to the big one only ended up being about a foot high. He is wearing pink sunglasses and a brake rotor hat.


Kyleigh enjoyed eating snow. Lisa and Debi taught her about "yellow snow" and she saw some yellow snow being made by Maggie, the Kayser's dog. For the rest of the day, Kyleigh kept reminding us not to eat yellow snow!

Lisa and Kyleigh pose by our snowman.

Debi and Kyleigh pose by the snowman.

Kyleigh and Lisa ride Gary's quad around the property.

Debi rides through the master bedroom door onto the back patio.

Debi (in the pink helmet) with Lisa and Kyleigh following behind, tearing around the property on the quads.

More fun on the quads.

Lisa and Kyleigh ride through the master bedroom door.

Let it Snow, let it snow, let it snow!

A good way to spend a snow day is to decorate the Christmas tree. Since we are living in our 5th wheel trailer while the log cabin is being built, we put the tree in the shop. Every year we purchase a living Aleppo Pine tree so that we can plant it in January. This year we were able to get a taller one than we normally do because the shop's roof is 18' tall. The tallest tree we could find was seven feet high. Usually we just get one that is five feet tall. We decorated the tree with only homemade ornaments that Debi has collected over the years.

On Wednesday morning we got another call saying that school was cancelled due to snow. This was the third day in a row of no school! The snow kept coming down all day long. We measured 14" of new snow as of 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon. (There were 24" of new snow by midnight!)

Just a shot of our "home" while the log cabin is being built. Don't worry--it has a heater!

Gary barbecues chicken on the outdoor grill in the snowstorm.

How many people can ride their quad right into their living room? Gary and Debi had a lot of fun tearing around the property on the quad through the deep snow--including a ride through the front door and out the master bedroom door.

SNOW DAY!!

We got the automated phone call at 5:00 this morning that school was cancelled. The weather reporters predicted it correctly. The Cajon Pass is closed and it's still snowing as of 9:00 a.m. We measured over seven inches as of 8:30 this morning. Here's the proof!

Our favorite tree on the property is this perfectly-shaped pine tree. See Debi standing in front of it? It's a big tree! One day we hope to put Christmas lights on it--but Gary doesn't want to climb the ladder to do it.

The first snow of the season on our log cabin. Too bad there isn't a roof on it yet!

It's snowing inside our house! This is the "great room". The windows to the left are facing west.

This is Debi standing in the front entry way. The log posts are being supported until the cement hardens and the roof is complete. The supports will be removed after all the roofing is finished. We will also stain the log posts to match the cabin