All Decked Out - making progress

I know - I promised regular updates. But the last two days have just been wildly busy. Even though this is an 'All Decked Out' update, I'm glad to report we've made some progress at Smoky Mountain Tower, too. We did a lot of deep cleaning, we changed all the batteries in the smoke detectors and TV remotes, and changed all the furnace filters - just like we did at All Decked Out. Can you believe that we have more than 50 batteries to change every year? The old ones are tested and, if they're good, we put some in drawers to use as spares.

But, of course, the real action is at All Decked Out. Mark has finished all the floors. Here's the lower level bathroom:


So now there is new 'Allure' flooring in the kitchen, upper and lower bathrooms, furnace room - and one other place that will be a secret for now.

Best of all, the crew from Ogle's Carpets started installing the new carpet.


The first job was to get rid of the old carpet:


Then, after some clean up, down went the new pad - and finally the new carpet!


As of this moment (10:15 pm on Thursday), the lower level bedroom and family/game room are finished. Tomorrow, they'll start on the main floor bedroom. Everything is out of that bedroom ... and in the living room. How's this for chaos!


We're really just reporting on the highlights. There is so much more we're getting done. A lot of it is behind the scenes - like the leak we discovered in one of the water heaters under the lower level of All Decked Out. See, you never knew we have TWO 40-gallon water heaters in the crawl space under the lower level - to make sure you never run out of hot water!

Tomorrow, we'll see how close they get to finishing the carpet installation. We hope Joyce will paint the upstairs bathroom. And we'll head for Lowes, Home Depot and Walmart to support the local economy by purchasing everything from faucet inserts to night-lights to laundry soap to a new charcoal grill!

We've got more to tell you - about flowers and trees and ... yes, bears. So please keep watching for the latest news from Gatlinburg.