Tom's Falls Cottage

Tom's Falls Cottage A North Carolina mountain getaway.

We made it up to the cottage this weekend, and worked on a few things. -We added a section of handrail and ran the elec...
01/13/2026

We made it up to the cottage this weekend, and worked on a few things.

-We added a section of handrail and ran the electricity to it.
-Did some leaf raking
-Inspected the water system.

The construction is still ongoing. They are making some major repairs though. They have an entire lane that dips down to the water as they fill in where the road washed away.

Done. The final addition was a gravel path up the side. I am so glad to be finished. It may not be exactly how I pictu...
10/11/2025

Done. The final addition was a gravel path up the side.
I am so glad to be finished. It may not be exactly how I pictured it. But I can come back and make changes later. It's just dirt.

Gravel day! I was recommended larger gravel since this parking area is built on fill dirt. But I hate it. It's very d...
10/10/2025

Gravel day! I was recommended larger gravel since this parking area is built on fill dirt. But I hate it. It's very difficult to walk on. I will probably add some smaller rock in the future. But I'm glad to finally have this thing done.

Reconfiguring the parking area. I was lucky to have Ernie come by with his mini tractor.
10/08/2025

Reconfiguring the parking area. I was lucky to have Ernie come by with his mini tractor.

Fence repair. When they took down the big tree they removed my fence. And they could not put it back because it was rott...
10/05/2025

Fence repair. When they took down the big tree they removed my fence. And they could not put it back because it was rotten. So I replaced a post

Doing a little rot repair today
10/03/2025

Doing a little rot repair today

I'm an idiot. I have the entire parking area spread out beautifully by hand with a wheelbarrow and a shovel. But it se...
09/29/2025

I'm an idiot.

I have the entire parking area spread out beautifully by hand with a wheelbarrow and a shovel. But it seems I have made a tragic mistake. In hindsight it is obvious. I planned to compact the final grade while adding rock. But it seems it is correct to compact every 6 in. So I have done quite a bit of work for nothing. I'll have to scoop it all out and put it all back.

The good news is I don't mind doing that because I hate the way it looks. It looks like an interstate on ramp. And I don't have a good way to feather it out unless I order thousands and thousands of dollars of dirt. So the plan is to punt and scoop out a flat section for parking.

09/26/2025

Somebody stopped in the middle of the road last night at midnight. They were walking around with flashlights looking for something. I couldn't figure out what in the world they were doing.

And now I know.

09/25/2025

The final phase! The whole point of all this work was parking farther up the hill. It looks like it is going to take several more dump truck loads to get the slope right. And even then it feels awkward. As of this moment it looks like an interstate off ramp. So, I'm just going to have to play with it.

I have competing needs, it cant block the neighbors driveway, must allow for drainage, must be semi flat at the top, must be sloped correctly so a car can climb it, confined to a limited area, and be esthetically pleasing.

Handrails are complete! I envisioned the flat area of the switchback like a loading dock for future use. To make that...
09/25/2025

Handrails are complete! I envisioned the flat area of the switchback like a loading dock for future use. To make that happen I made the handrails removable for that section.

I was playing with ideas for the design. I wanted something that stuck with the style of the rest of the walkway. I considered using left over arched rails. While I liked how it reflected the bridge I felt like it compeated with the bridge, and also looked a bit asian in style. So I went with vertical slats to mirror the bridge.

Back at the cottage this week. The utility company took down the large himlock at the corner. While I hate to see such...
09/25/2025

Back at the cottage this week. The utility company took down the large himlock at the corner. While I hate to see such a large old tree removed, it was slowly dying. The bright side is that I did not have to pay to have it cut down. It was within range of falling on the house.

I also did some tree trimming of my own, cutting back limbs that overhang the house.

Part 3: Handrails. I ran out of wood, but have it mostly complete.
09/06/2025

Part 3: Handrails. I ran out of wood, but have it mostly complete.

Address

579 Toms Falls Road
Hendersonville, NC
28792

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