the house that papaw built

Tumblin Waters

steps to back patio

water wheel memories

recycled steel

I don't know exactly when Buddy's dad started construction on this place, but I imagine an idea and rough draft for a retirement/mountain cabin was in his mind long before the actual ground was broken. They found this little peace of heaven back in the 1950s, acres of wilderness with a creek running through it.

Tumblin' Waters was built with construction materials left over from jobs over the years, he could tell you exactly which job everything came from. Once he started working on it, it was a never-ending job… is a house ever finished? He would always find something to work on or something new to begin.

He loved to work with his hands and build things. Even after the diabetes attacked his kidneys he didn't stop working, in between dialysis visits he built the back patio with flat stones, he was so weak he would sit on an upside down 5-gallon bucket to fit the stones together just right.

This past Saturday we walked through the snow down to feed the neighbor's cat while she was out of town. Memories flooded in as I captured these scenes of the house that Papaw built. The steps going up to the back patio, his last project, the stone pillars where the waterwheel used to be, the handrail made from J-shaped steel rebars.

At first not sure why he was on my mind, it took me a while to figure out, has it really been 14 years since we last saw that smiling face, the one that we last saw on the day before Valentines in 1996. Great memories, we miss you Papaw.