The inspection for the Certificate of Occupancy is now scheduled for Thursday, which is good because it gives us one more day to tie up loose ends.

To celebrate the day Dr. Ellen shares some of her winter views of the Great Smoky Mountains, taken from the Foothills Parkway that we take daily to the property. These mountains constantly inspire and comfort.

We also wanted to share a recent letter from a couple in Germantown, MD. This is typical of the kinds of letters that Dr. Ellen gets from LOG BLOG visitors:

Dear Dr. Ellen,
 
My wife and I purchased a twenty acre property in WV earlier this year and are in planning stages for … what to do next!  
 
We spent part of Christmas day enjoying the site for your log construction experiences and thoroughly enjoyed your candid and great coverage of your own trials and tribulations.  The settlement and emergency steel beam work in the basement must have been a rather tense situation, but eye opener for us that all does not go as maybe planned – or not planned – by the log company or architect to begin with.  
 
It appears you will have a lovely house once finished.  We look forward to your updates along the way!

Thanks for keeping your fingers and toes crossed for us! You can probably uncross them now, Dr. Ellen says it's safe.