Charlie and Susan had used the Coventry builders list to locate a local builder and then proceeded through word of mouth to select builder James Trussell. The first week in April, the Thistle’s foundation was dug and tarred. By June the rough framing and the weather tight shell was complete. Then the whole Thistle family joined in to complete the project. Charlie and Susan would arrange weekends together with their 3 grown children and their families at the log cabin and do projects. Charlie wired the house himself, Susan did the staining and varnishing; the kids helped hang all the tongue and groove walls and ceilings and Charlie’s brothers showed up to help with the railings.   Doing the interior themselves really allowed Charlie and Susan to make their home special, they placed a nice large, custom support beam in the house that they had locally milled. Charlie went down to a small mill shop in Rumney New Hampshire and told the owner what he was looking for. The owner said “No problem, I can do that for you come back around 5 and I will have it ready”. Sure enough at 5pm Charlie had is 20-foot support  ready to go. Charlie was so happy that he chose to work locally, not only did he manage to get a custom milled support beam for a whopping $75.00 the guy that he had hired to do the excavating, still had his equipment on the property so when they showed up with the 600 pound beam and no idea how to get it into place, the guy said “Hey I can lift it up for you with the shovel on the excavator.”

“This was the best experience of my life” says Charlie “I would do it all over again in a heartbeat, everything just came together perfectly, because I worked locally with well recommended people, they showed up when they were suppose to. The house sits perfectly on the lot next to the river we just wouldn’t change a thing”

Charlie and Susan’s favorite room is the living area; they love to look up into the loft and out the front window onto the river’s edge. In honor of the building project, The Thistles’ organized in August the “Pemi Fest” Where the whole family showed up with campers and tents to camp out on the river using the cabin as the home base.