The Tree at All Decked Out

Awhile back, I told you that God deposited a tree on the lower deck at All Decked Out. I guess He thought it wasn't "all decked out" enough! Anyway, I promised you some pictures of the tree, so here they are.

This was our first view of the tree, as we stood in front, on the side closest to the main road.


When we drove on down Village Loop and looked back up at All Decked Out, this is what we saw. The tree was estimated to be about 70 feet tall and probably weighed about 2 tons. Notice the light-colored board under the lower deck. This is part of the reinforcing we had done in April 2008. Our tree man said this is what saved the deck, the hot tub, and possibly the whole cabin.


After surveying the exterior, we went down to the lower deck to take a look.


There it is - up close and personal! It's about a foot in diameter.


So what to do! Fortunately, Darren (our neighbor) came to the rescue again. He told us he knew a tree guy who could take the tree off the deck. Within a few days, Jerry and Darren showed up. Jerry tied everything off, ran a rope up to another tree on our corner, then through a pulley system over to a tree across the street. Then he just winched it up off the deck so he could cut it up and drop it.


When they were finished, the tree was down the hill in pieces. Our drain pipe was still intact, and there was no additional damage.


A few days later, we had the deck guy (Ray) come back with his structural engineer. They checked everything over and found NO structural damage. God is good! So we just have to fix the privacy screen and a little corner of the gutter. Apparently, the tree just laid over on the side of the cabin, then slid down the eave, clipped the gutter, and came to rest gently on the lower deck railing.

Oh - one other piece. The same windstorm that brought down the tree also took a bunch of shingles off the roof. I'm meeting our insurance adjuster on Wednesday to see what they will cover. Then we'll proceed with repairs and All Decked Out will once again be not QUITE so "all decked out!"

Moving the sofa sleeper

We promised we would show you how we moved the sofa sleeper from the Bonus Room to the Tower Room at Smoky Mountain Tower. It happened, only due to the hard work and expertise of our three friends, Darren, Mark and Jerry.

If you've ever moved one of these beasts, you know what a job it is. But the first thing Mark and Darren did was to remove the springs mechanism. That significantly lightened the load - but not the bulk!

We first tried to take it UP the two flights of stairs. But it soon became obvious that wasn't going to work. So these three brave souls took it DOWN on flight to the main floor and out through the sunroom to the hot tub deck. Jerry had a bunch of ropes (he's our tree guy, and we'll tell you more about that next time). The three guys used the ropes (and their strength) to literally hoist the sofa sleeper up to the top deck, then carried it in the door and set it up.

Here's Mark on the sunroom roof - the first leg of the hoist.


With Mark pushing below and Jerry & Darren (not in picture) pulling from the top deck, up it came!


Then Darren (left) and Mark carried it into the Tower Room and put it back together.


Of course, I (Dave) was taking the pictures, so I obviously wasn't much help. But we did buy a brand new mattress for the sofa sleeper later in the day, and I hauled that up 4 flights and installed it. So now we have a great new place for relaxation - and sleeping - all the way up in the Tower.

It's official - Smoky Mountain Tower is now 3 bedrooms!

Yes, we now have three full bedrooms, plus the Tower Room. Remember the Bonus Room, with the queen sofa-sleeper?


Well, take a look at the new Queen Bonus Room!


This room now features a new queen bed set, a new wide-screen TV and really pretty TV cabinet. And we're not finished. We expect to add some additional furniture to provide room for guests' clothes and personal belongings. We've already given the room some privacy by adding vertical blinds in the doorway.

It's not perfect. Guests will have to go up or down to a bathroom. So while we're advertising 3 bedrooms, we really have two private bedrooms, a "bonus bedroom" and the sofa-sleeper in the tower. Here's what the Tower Room now looks like.


If you've been to Smoky Mountain Tower, you're probably wondering how we EVER got the sofa sleeper up the steps. Check back in a couple of days and we'll show you how we did it.

But the bottom line is that we can now sleep up to 8 people at Smoky Mountain Tower. And one other thing: several guests have asked for a TV in the main floor King Bedroom Suite. Well, your wish has been granted. Smoky Mountain Tower now has TVs in EVERY BEDROOM, plus the living room. And all of them are connected to Cable TV, so you get at least 70 channels. We expect to have DVD and/or VCR players also in at least 2 of the bedrooms.

This is just a small part of what we got done last week. We'll keep telling you about more things in the days to come. Meanwhile, if you have any more suggestions or questions, please be sure to leave a comment here or write us at Dave@SmokyMountainTower.com.

Another short preview - this week in Gatlinburg

We're back in Gatlinburg, but we can't post pictures because my poor old 10-year-old laptop won't cooperate. But we'll give you a quick update:

All Decked Out - the tree is off the deck and there is no structural damage. We had a structural engineer look at it yesterday and he said all is well. We have very minimal damage to repair but everything (including the hot tub) is still working.

Smoky Mountain Tower - we did it! We moved the hide-a-bed yesterday, and we even were able to get a good deal on a new queen bed set for the Bonus Room. Wait til you see how we moved the hide-a-bed!

We stayed an extra day in Gatlinburg because we thought we'd be snowed in this morning. Turns out that we only got a dusting. But we're using the extra day to get a bunch of stuff done on the new Bonus Bedroom - like painting the room.

Check back later this week for all the details!

A preview of next week in Gatlinburg

We had hoped to post a message a couple of days ago from Gatlinburg. We were only there for 24 hours, primarily to take down Christmas decorations. There is news! But a couple of things have stopped me from posting. So, rather than go any more days without a message, I'll give you a preview of what we hope to be able to show you next week.

First, All Decked Out has been REALLY "all decked out" - with a 70-foot tree on the deck. They had high winds in Gatlinburg a couple of weeks ago and we just found out that God deposited one of His trees on the lower deck. Here's the tree while it was still standing (the one on the right with the red arrow pointing to it:


The tree has now been removed and we hope to be able to show you pictures next week of both the tree on the deck and the removal process. There's quite a story associated with this, so stay tuned.............

Secondly, Smoky Mountain Tower. We're going back to Gatlinburg tomorrow (Sunday, 1/24). If everything works out, we plan to move the sofa-sleeper from the Bonus Room up to the Tower Room. If you've ever moved a sofa-sleeper, you know it's not an easy task. We have some strong guys coming to help, so please pray for safety for everybody - and for a successful move.

If it works, we then plan to make the Bonus Room into a bedroom. That means Smoky Mountain Tower will sleep 8 people - a 25% increase in sleeping space. Somebody will have to share a bathroom, but we know our guests will work that out.

We plan to post pictures of everything next Tuesday night or Wednesday, so please check back to find out what happened.

Snow at All Decked Out

There has been quite a bit of snow in the mountains over Gatlinburg this winter. Traveling conditions aren't always the best when it snows, but roads are usually cleared pretty quickly. And when the sun comes out, it's a spectacular winter wonderland. So we thought you might like to see how beautiful it is around All Decked Out after a snowfall. Take a look!

Here's All Decked Out in the snow and sunshine.


The trees from the back deck are really beautiful.


This is across the street in front of our neighbors, Mike and Sally West.


As you can see, it's quite a sight. We hope you'll join us at All Decked Out this winter for great scenes like these. You can book your winter vacation at www.SmokiesRentDirect.com/availability.

Tower Room at Smoky Mountain Tower

We're still trying to figure out the best use of the Tower Room at Smoky Mountain Tower. These are our latest photos.

This view looks west, toward Ober Gatlinburg. You can see the exercise machine on the left, a little rolling table and the washer/dryer area.


Moving to the right, you can see the washer and dryer, plus the half bath and sink area. On the far right are the steps coming up from downstairs.


Keep on moving right. You can see a little closet door - that's the Tower Room heat pump. Then there's the TV, the door out to the deck, and our "Gazelle" exercise machine.


I'll tell you what we're thinking, but we don't know if it's possible. We'd like to move the queen sofa-sleeper from the Bonus Room up to the Tower Room. If we can do it (it's really heavy), we would then put a queen bed in the Bonus Room, and put vertical blinds over the doorway for privacy. That would provide room for 2 more people to sleep, although they'd have to share a bathroom.

What do you think? We'd love to hear from you about this - just write to Dave@SmokyMountainTower.com. Thanks!