Coloring our world

Today the rain threatened for much of the day so we worked under cover for the most part. The big beams of the patio got their coat of sculpted fiberglass reinforced concrete. That finishes the real high concrete work at last. Little Matthew was busy out by the road welding on the fence. He finished welding the basic fence on the front property line and now is adding the top spikes,

Out on the porch the rest of the crew worked hard at applying more color to the porch beams and trees. The base coats were done by lunch time. Then it was time for the first of the glazes. This area is coming together quickly.

By tomorrow night we should easily have the first glaze done and be well into the second one, perhaps even into the third.

I'll be posting again tomorrow with some updated pictures. Stay tuned...

-grampa dan

A stop on the tour.

The last two days have been busy ones. The upper dormer window sculpting is now complete and ready for paint. With the weather threatening we are concentrating on painting under the porch roof. The crew is working on the third and final coat of paint on the ceiling. The trees are now ready for glazing and the walls are ready for the second coat of blends. Another few days and this end of the house will be complete.

The house looks better each day. And already it does what it was designed to do. We have a test each project needs to pass. Before we are done people must stop and take pictures of our project. That test has been passed a thousand times over already. Today we upped the ante. Today, as we worked a bus pulled up in front and stopped for the passengers to see. The first tour bus. The crew called to each other and passed the word from one to another. We laughed and joked, happy because the 'plan' was working.

-grampa dan

Scaffold gone at last!

Once the painting was done we got out the cutting tools, crow bars and hammers and started dismantling the scaffold. I worked on cutting the top railings into sections and tossing them to the ground while Peter pried up the planks. Then while I cut the supports from the structure flush with the tree, Peter mixed up a batch of fiberglass reinforced concrete to apply as patches over the holes. This was allowed to set up while we ate lunch. When we got back it was ready for carving to match the surrounding tree. It didn't take long to finish the task. In a few days we'll paint the patches and they will blend perfectly into the tree.

Finally we could see the whole house and how everything related to each of the other pieces. It seems to work pretty good. Now I am anxious to put all the soil back around the tree roots and perhaps start in on some landscaping. That will have to wait a little while yet, until the windows are in and all the painting is done.

Tomorrow, we'll be seeing a whole lot more color as the crew returns for one last week before they head back to university. I'm looking forward to a great wek!

-grampa dan