Rocky Top, you will always be......

Rocky Top, you'll always be....more then just a mantle to me...good ole Rocky Top......well the day came to set mantles....and the first one up was Gold Ole Rocky Top.....Whoooooooo.....Rocky Top Tennessee.....sorry got carried away there.
By code we had to have the bottom on the mantle more then 20 inches from the top of the fireplace so they attached a two by and even leveled it....go figure!!!!


Then came time to just pickup the mantle, carry it over and set it. Well, to get the color I wanted I had it made from Sassafras which will bring out the orange once we hit it with the correct light hue. The dang thing weighed in a 540 pounds so this wasn't just a mantle it was my mother in law....being moved.


Once they got her off the ground, I mean once they lifted the mantle up....it was, "Let's move".


Up in place she went with 5 guys yelling at the guy in the back.....Screw it in...NOW........


They had drilled in 8 lag screws that went thru the steel joints, bracing and into the mantle to hold her in place...it was a tight squeeze to say the least....no room for a donut eater.


Once there was only one or two left to screw in, the pressure was off. The music notes are from the song with the following words....Rocky Top, you will always be, home sweet home to me.


After I made a pattern of the state outline the rockers did their thing. Once I have a 1/4 inch copper stressed outline of the state done, then we will attach it will ornage neon behind the copper to shine out around the state.....but that is coming later....


The rockers are working to finish up the outside, here they are working on where the 7 AC units will set along with a 750kw generator.


When we built the retaining wall last winter, we needed about 4 more pallets of Versalok stones to finish it after buying 34 tractor trailer loads of the dang stuff. The salesman BSed us for weeks until I told them to blow it out their XXXXXXXXXXX.............anyways the district manager called me one day asking when he could come and take a few pictures, also when would we be starting the next house and how many blocks would we need for it. I advised him that wouldn't be in his best interest because we couldn't get the additional blocks and will be covering up some of the wall so it matches. The President of the company called a week or so later and I gave him an ear full and told them since this was private property that if anyone from his company showed up to take pictures to use in some promotion I would have them arrested.....plain and simple......they haven't and we are about to cover up their blocks now. $11.00 a square foot to cover up $18.00 a square foot....three steps forward and half a step back at times.