The Framery: Building With My Dad

When I was little, I spent a lot of time on cabin job sites with my dad.

Dad wasn't building cabins for other people. He was building his own, and building a business. I would tag along while he worked, spending my days playing outside on the property while he built around me.

At the time, it was just normal life. I didn't realize I was watching him create something that would eventually become such a big part of my own life.

And I definitely didn't know that one day I would be back on a cabin job site with him, except this time, we would be building one together.

That has been one of the most special parts of creating The Framery.

I usually come to Dad with an idea of what I want something to look or feel like, and then the two of us figure out how to make it happen. Some of the most meaningful parts of The Framery quite literally came from him. He milled the tulip poplar we used inside, and we worked together to bring in the natural materials and details that make the cabin feel like it belongs here.

The building already had a life before us. Before it became The Framery, it was an artist's framing shed here in Gatlinburg's Arts & Crafts Community. We bought it off-market from the artist's family, and I wanted to preserve what made it special rather than erase it and start over.

In a way, that feels fitting for what The Framery has become for our family too.

When I was a little girl, I played on Dad's job sites while he built his cabins.

Now I'm an adult, building cabins of my own, and Dad is right there doing it with me.

And these days, there's usually another little girl running around the job site.

My daughter comes with me now. She plays while we work, much like I did when I was her age. She doesn't know yet that there's anything particularly special about it. To her, it's probably just normal life too.

That's the part that gets me.

There are now three generations of us on these job sites. Dad, me, and my little girl. I get to create something I love alongside the person I first watched do it, while my daughter grows up watching us.

Maybe someday she'll realize how much of her childhood was spent in the middle of all of this, too.

There are so many details I love about The Framery. The black walnut four-poster bed, the antique chandelier, the stained glass, the mountain laurel and rhododendron railings, and the wood my dad milled with his own hands.

But when I look around that cabin, I don't think I'll ever see just those things.

I'll see my dad.

I'll see myself as a little girl playing while he worked.

And I'll see my own little girl doing the same thing all these years later.

The Framery is part of Wildmere, but it also feels like a little piece of our family's story.

And getting to build it together has meant more to me than I ever expected.