Good news and bad news from Gatlinburg

First, the bad news. Ray Phillips - our contractor for the west wall at Smoky Mountain Tower - called this morning before 7:00 am to discuss the weather. After both of us doing some online and TV checking, we decided that there is too great a chance of wind and rain for the next 3 days. So we have postponed the work. After all, these guys are going to be working about 40-50 feet in the air. It's no use taking chances.

Of course, this really puts us into a tight schedule. We have guests arriving Saturday afternoon. But if everything clears Thursday, Ray thinks he can get the bulk of the exterior work done before then. We still have 3 days open next week, so he can finish up then (if the weather is okay). It's okay. God controls the weather, and He knows what is the right time to get this work done.

Now the good news. If you've ever been to All Decked Out, you know that the glass-top table in the dining room, along with the metal and wicker chairs, really look nice. But the chairs especially are VERY heavy. As we mentioned on our Web site last month, we bought 6 new sturdy wooden chairs that are MUCH easier to move around. We got a really good deal, because we have to put them together. I got the first two done today and took them over to see how they would work with the glass-top table. The answer - not as well as we would like - primarily because of a big metal brace on the table that runs from the center to all 4 corners.

So, we headed to town this afternoon. Here's the good news. We were able to get a really nice table that matches the chairs and can easily seat 8 people around it. We'll start with the 6 chairs, because there are 4 folding chairs in the main bedroom closet, and 4 almost identical wooden chairs in the Family/Game room. And the really nice thing was that the table fit into our van (in keeping with yesterday's post, it fit just 'barely!). Here it is in the van:



I'll get the rest of the chairs put together and everything will be in place by tomorrow or Thursday. And the glass table and chairs? They're all going to a great place in Pigeon Forge called "Sweet Repeats" - a consignment store for furniture and other stuff. They'll put it up for sale for a month or so. If nobody wants it, they donate it to "City of Hope" in Sevierville. So it will definitely find a good home.

More good news. We are replacing the king bed sets in the upper and lower level bedrooms. Those new sets will also be in place in the next couple of days.

Come back later this week for some new All Decked Out photos.