We found a house plan we liked in 1994 and were able to see the house built to that plan in Tennessee a couple of years later through a strange coincidence that I won't go into here. (It belongs to the Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner in Columbia, TN) I spent the next few years writing specs for every detail of the house and finding the perfect contractor! He builds a top-quality house and took my tight specs and made it better than them! It has really been almost painless, thanks to his skills and insight. He is a true craftsman from the "old school" .
The house has 3000 square feet of finished space on two floors and a
2000 square foot unfinished basement. I had him put up the partition
wall studs but not finish them. That will be my project over
the next few months (years?). My hamshack/workshop will be
the first finished! Until then I will operate from the bonus room
over the kitchen. I had the
tower base erected at the time the driveway concrete was poured.
It is a 70 foot self-supporting aluminum tower that I will guy for extra
safety since we sit on top of a 1600 foot ridge with a clear vista in all
directions. On a clear day you can see Atlanta, but who wants to?
! ?
I call it Radio Nirvana because it is such a great radio location. I now have room to try all sorts of antenna designs, something I have always found interesting and challenging. I am also going to build my "Big Bertha" amplifier with three 3-500Z's in parallel. I have been collecting parts for it for years.
I am really enjoying life in the slow-lane. Jasper reminds me
of Newport, Tennessee where I grew up, with some very nice folks who take
the time to be helpful to a stranger. Very low crime rates here and
traffic problems practically non-existant, at least compared to I-75/85
through Atlanta! We miss our Marietta friends but get down there
once or twice a week for the time being. We have a contract on our
old house and as soon as the remaining structural problems are fixed beginning
next
week we will close on it around September 21st. That will be
a BIG burden lifted! It seems that I left lots of things unrepaired
over the 25 years we lived there, most of which I was unaware of.
I will keep you posted on my progress with "Studio 'A'," as my dad used to call my hamshack in the mid-fifties, when you and I were both new hams! I have collected some top-notch test and calibration equipment over the past few years anticipating the day when I could do lots of designing/building/tinkering, etc. I can hardly wait to get started!