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Mea Culpa! We skipped our weekly update last week because, well, life got in the way. But we’re back on track. I think.
Un-Groovy Hurricane Florence
We want to give a heartfelt “thank you” to all who checked in on us before, during, and after Hurricane Florence. Fortunately, we remained pretty unscathed here. Rainfall was heavy and the winds reached maybe 40 miles per hour on Saturday. But all in all—we’re very lucky. None of our family’s homes were affected and we’re all safe.
Monday we tried to take our regular constitutional on the greenway path, but we soon came upon a barricade by one of the creeks along the way. Then we turned around and took a different path but ran into the same issue. We ended our walk by going up and down the hilly streets in our neighborhood. However, by yesterday morning we were able to resume our routine. Here’s a view of a pond we regularly pass on the greenway. All was back to normal and the skies were blue.
Effects of Florence on Groovy Ranch
Groovy Ranch is totally intact. No leaks or blown-out windows. Terry installed temporary locks on the two doors to keep them from flying open and he boarded up the garage opening. We found one small issue that’s a remnant from the storm—a trench with standing water. The water will either dry up on its own or Terry will pump it out. Another rain-filled trench already dried up, so one more day of sunshine might do the trick.
Build Update
I don’t believe we’ve shared an image of the exterior of Groovy Ranch painted white. We’re so happy we stuck to our guns with our color choice.
Work resumed yesterday on Groovy Ranch. The tile guys were putting up the backer board in the bathrooms and the dry wall guys were sanding the ceilings in the great room. Terry’s floor guy completed the installation of all the oak flooring last week. We’ve got red oak throughout the house, except for the two bathrooms and the utility/mud room. This week we need to decide on a stain color for the floors.
We’re seeking a light, rustic floor to complement our walls, cabinets, and our yet-to-be-purchased furniture. Terry provided us with samples of eight colored stains on red oak but we weren’t doing back flips (as Mr. Groovy says) over any of them. We did some research and decided to buy some stain and do a little experimenting on our own with a few remaining floor planks. We tried Classic Gray, Weathered Oak, and a 50/50 mixture of both—and we decided to go with Weathered Oak. It creates the perfect farmhouse look. We know the floors won’t exactly match our experimental plank because the installer will sand the floors, stain them, and finish them with two coats of polyurethane. If we were 100% on top of our game, we’d go to those lengths ourselves—but we’re just not that finicky.
Groovy Book
We want to give another heartfelt “thank you” to all of you who supported us in launching Mr. Groovy’s book, The Groovy Guide to Financial Independence. We’re extremely appreciative of the purchases, the mentions and images of the book on other blogs, the emails, comments, and reviews. Josh from Money Buffalo blew us away with this glowing write up—thank you very much, Josh. This is such a great community—bloggers and readers alike!
Speaking of a great community, we missed an error in the book but fortunately, Susan from FI Ideas contacted Mr. Groovy about it. In what other space do bloggers and readers send private emails to alert you of a mistake you made?! It’s more common that they call you out, deride you, and embarrass you in public. So thank you, Susan. Again, this is SUCH A GREAT COMMUNITY!
The error in the book was actually made by the person we hired to format it—but that’s no excuse. We should have caught it. I think we were just SOOOO ready to birth this baby of a book that our worn out brains and eyes were incapable of picking it up. But Mr. Groovy made the correction and it should take effect on Amazon within a day or two. (The process involves replacing the book file; you can’t simply edit the book directly on Amazon.)
If you haven’t bought the book and think you might—I suggest you do it now because we’re raising the price on Friday. We always intended to sell the book at a higher price but we wanted to make it very accessible during the first couple weeks of publication. We also enabled the book for sharing and made it available though Amazon Prime. That won’t change. And if you don’t know about The Groovy Guide, you can read all about it in my previous post about the book launch.
That’s it for this week, groovy freedomists. I hope you are all safe and sound.
Glad to hear you stayed dry and the parents’ home was spared. Scary hearing about all the destruction from far away.
The house seemed to weather the storm nicely, with its good looks intact!
To your continued health and safety,
CD
Thanks, Doc! We’re all quite helpless when it comes to weather.
(Note to self for our series wrap up tips: make sure you’ve got a certificate of insurance from your builder’s carrier, and that it’s up to date.)
Glad to see you came out unscathed from Florence. The ranch continues to move forward and nears completion by the day. The white color is flattering for the house. Think it looks great!
Thank you! We’re going to get some interior photos this afternoon if no one’s working in the house. The tile should be completed.
Mrs G! The house looks fantastic, can’t wait to see the inside! I broke down and bought a $50 Kindle, proud to say The Book was the first one I downloaded to it! I watched Raleigh on the radar throughout the storm, was thinking of you. BTW, we have a 7500 watt portable generator, we had an electronic hook up an external plub so we can run the house with it (except A/C). May be something to think about for The Ranch…
Thanks for thinking of us. We thought of you too, but figured you were safe up in the mountains.
We’ll definitely want to pick your brain on the generator. It’s certainly on our list of things to do. We’ll need to get our well hooked up to it too.
Glad to hear you are safe and everything is intact. I love the front porch!
Thanks, Tonya. And I’m sorry I’ve been remiss in following your move but I’m heading over to your site right near to see how you’re doing in Idaho.
Glad all is well there! Sounds like Terry and his crew are continuing to move fast. The Ranch is looks great white. Looking forward to more interior shots soon.
Thanks, Amy. I believe the cabinets will be ready next week but I don’t think Terry’s ready to have them installed yet. But pretty soon we’ll be picking out the back splash.
You already survived you first hurricane. The place is building epic stories and you haven’t even moved in yet!!
Thanks, AF. I think we had more drama during the design stage, but we’ve got a few stories left — a new one from this week in fact.
So glad that you guys (and all family and family homes) made it through Florence alright. We were thinking of you!
And Groovy Ranch is looking pretty groovy! Can’t wait to see the insides when the work has been done.
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Thanks, Gary. We’ve been incredibly fortunate given that a mere two hours away, life is in shambles. Mr. G’s brother is an insurance adjuster. He’ll be working nonstop until at least Christmas.
Glad you didn’t get too much effect from Florence. It looked scary early on from the satellite images.
Looks like the house survived its first test 🙂
Thanks, Xrayvsn. Yes it was very frightening at first. There’s still a lot of flooding occurring in NC but not near us. I hope we don’t have more tests anytime soon.
We saw about the hurricane on the news… it looked enormous! Glad everyone and everything is ok.
Floorboards are the best. They were one of my ‘must haves” when I was looking for The Best House in Melbourne.
I went with a matt or satin finish on mine, rather than a high gloss. It stops small scratches from being so evident over time.
Thanks, Frog Dancer. The hurricane was massive — I believe about 400-500 miles in diameter.
That’s interesting about the finish. Thanks for the tip. There are so many variables we know little about.
Glad to hear that you’re safe and sound.
The house is looking great. I’m looking forward to seeing more.
Which flooring did you pick for the bathroom?
I’m thinking about our duplex. The upper unit is a one bedroom apartment and I’m thinking of using one material throughout. Laminate planks might work. What do you think?
Thanks Joe!
If you go with planks I’d choose vinyl over laminate. Better yet some cheap tile. Check out this article from the Spruce a source I tend to consider reliable.
I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks!
Congrats on the book! And the house looks great!
Thank you very much Abigail!
Glad to hear groovy ranch weathered the storm alright! It’s coming along nicely. I like the white look of the exterior and good job getting some stain samples to try on your own. No need to choose something you’re just meh, about since it covers most of the house.
Too bad you guys won’t be at Fincon next week, but you’ll be there in spirit I’m sure. 😁👍
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Thanks, Mr. SSC. Oh yes we’ll be at FinCon in spirit, for sure.
You’re exactly right about avoiding the meh factor. We’re also staining the mantle over the fireplace and the rafter ties the same color. We’ll be surrounded by it.
I really look forward to seeing those floors! And I think white was the best choice for the exterior. It looks amazing.
It’s great to know that you weren’t affected too much by the hurricane. And, of course, congrats on the success of The Groovy Guide! 🙂
Thanks, Amanda. And it’s so great seeing you active again in the community! You found the sweet spot this time.
I happy to help in my small way because the book is fantastic. It is great to see the blue skies over there.
The porch railing looks great and I think the way you made the stairway wide solves the issue of it getting in the way visually. We are selecting floors for our rental, which are all about being practical and cheap! Less than “half normal”.
Thanks, Susan. I agree with you on the wide stairway but I think that was just dumb luck. The dimensions were specified in the design.
I’d probably go with vinyl planks that look like wood for a rental. If you can go half-normal that’s pretty good!
the place looks great! that little standing water won’t last long i’m sure. i bought the book but now i need to borrow one of my mother-in-laws several readers. i don’t think i can read it on my laptop. i’m glad the storm didn’t mess up your dream place.
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Thanks Freddy!
You should be able to download the Kindle app on your laptop. There’s one for both Windows and Mac.
I can’t wait to see pictures of the interior! I’ve discovered I love watching other people renovate or build homes…. not so much doing it for myself haha. Thanks for letting us be house building voyeurs!
Thanks, Gwen!
Mr. Groovy enjoys watching Matt Risinger on YouTube. You might check him out. Terry’s son, who’s a GC, follows him too. He’s well respected by the pros.
Do the trenches lead to your secret bunker?
Come on… I won’t tell anyone. 🙂
Haha, no. One is for electricity for the house to the garage and the other is for a water connection to the well. But, we do have plenty of space to build a bunker.
Glad to hear you made it through Florence relatively unscathed. We did fine in Raleigh too. Our power was out for about 16 hours but no big deal.
Groovy ranch is looking fantastic! Go Terry Go.
Thanks, Brian. I’ve been thinking about you. Sorry to hear you were without power for long. You seem like the kind of guy who might have a back up generator? How did the chickens do?
I inherited a generator from my dad, but it’s something that’s rarely used and another engine to maintain, so I sold it and split the proceeds with my dad’s widow.
The chickens got pretty wet, but none were blown away.
We did have some excitement when I accidentally left the backdoor to their coop open well past dark. A raccoon looking for a dry place took advantage of the opportunity and climbed in.
I didn’t realize he was there so when I finally closed the backdoor before bed I unknowingly sealed the raccoon in the coop for the night.
The chickens then woke me up at 4am with all kinds of squabbling. I went out in a sleepy haze to check on them but I didn’t see any problems and told them to go back to bed.
The next day I checked the coop and then discovered the trash panda. Surprisingly he didn’t touch any of the chickens or their feed. He was truly just trying to get out of the rain.
I evicted him later that day with the help of a leaf blower, which he did not care for even though it got him nice and dry, and a 12′ bamboo pole. I explained to him that he didn’t have to go home but he couldn’t stay here.
Too funny! That raccoon must have had a good meal before spending the night with your chickens. Happy to hear you didn’t lose any.
That’s a beautiful sky from Monday. That’s when we finally got a couple inches ourselves from Florence. But, it’s nice and sunny here in TN today!
It’s great to see the trench did its job!
Thanks for the mention too!
Yes, I like how the sky is reflected in the water too. I’m glad we sent good weather your way.
I’d like to agree with you about the trench doing it’s job. But we talked to Terry this morning and found out he pumped it. He stopped when his pump ran out of gas.
How pretty is the front of your new home! Wow! I love the siding choice.
Thanks! We’re very happy with it!