One last peek in the attic before the 'slate' roof goes on.

Yesterday we finished painting and aging the chimney bricks. Today we completed the last of the sculpted concrete work on the facia boards and gable ends in the upper area over the pub. Peter & Sarah did the bulk of the carving. It looks pretty cool! We painted the roof boards dark so any cracks between the faux slate tiles will look good. But the dark boards and dark blue sky really sucked the light from the room, meaning it soaked up all the light in the work place in a hurry. A bright work light cured that in a hurry but threw hard shadows. The final lighting will highlight the chimneys and dimensional signs that will to hang on the overhead beams.

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It's coming together quickly now.

-grampa dan

Week of rapid progress!

With the experienced help of Peter and my other crew members we have made great progress on the London rooftop project in the raised ceiling area of the pub. We finished the framework today as well as the base coats on the chimneys. Tomorrow we prepare for the last of the sculpted concrete work on this stage. By weeks end we will have this part of the project largely finished and the temporary staging will be ready to be removed.  I can hardly wait to see how it will look from the pub below.

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The effect will be truly magical and bring a little of London into the pub for all to enjoy.

-grampa dan

Shopping spree

Today it was at last time to go to town to get Phoebe her new tools. The shopping list was clutched firmly in Phoebe's hand all the way to town. She read it over and over to make sure we didn't miss anything. Her list included (by her choice) tools she was familiar with - tools she had previously borrowed from my tool box. Uncle Peter came along as a special advisor. He knew how to use tools as well as grampa. Inside the store we headed right to the tool section. A small hammer (Phoebe size) immediately grabbed her attention. She dug out the list and in the carefully drawn box beside HAMMER she put in an 'X' - crossing that item off the list. A beautiful set of screwdrivers knocked the next item off the list. The wrench set required more thinking for there was a large selection of shiney wrenches. Then a set of black anodized box end wrenches caught her eye. Grampa liked the price as well. They were perfect! Then it was off to the tool pouch section. After trying on a couple of pouches one cinched up tight enough to not slide over her slender hips. It happened to be bright red too which helped a lot! The last item on her list was the pencils and felt pens, needed for marking and designing her work. A pack of pencils and some bright markers were the last items on her list. As we headed to the cash register she realized she hadn't crossed the last items off nor checked the list to make sure we got it all. I grabbed this picture as she checked.

The next picture, taken a few moments later shows her satisfaction on a job well done.

The hardest part was keeping everything in the bag until we got home. Once everything was in it's place she posed for me as I took this picture.

Her next comment was one I expected...  'Now what are we going to build?'

-grampa dan