Today we started welding the structure for the Dayna Brooke Park sign. Jeff had the difficult task of cutting and fitting the many angled pieces of tubing for the frame. He did a great job. The structure has to withstand the forces of lifting from an attachment point on the trunk plus the vibrations of the fifteen hundred kilometre truck ride out to the park. By day's end we were on to the beginnings of the pencil rod armature. It's going to be a pretty little tree!
A bird in hand...
The theme of the exterior of our house is hearts. Thousands of hearts of all sizes are routed into the trim. The east side of the house has no windows and is extra tall because the ground falls away in that area. To break up the vast space we added pillars to the rock work. Dimensional panels in the pillars feature a pattern hearts of course.
As we begin to add detail to Becke's modular home we have similar challenges. The ground on the east (back) side of her home slopes down rapidly, making for a long and tall wall. Like the house we will do rock work on the bottom portion and like the house it will have dimensional panels in it. Since Becke is an avid birder, birds are a fitting theme. Peter came up with a design and we are in the process of routing the fifteen panels in two sizes as required. There is one pillar on each corner plus seven more along the back side. Peter and the crew are busy adding the plywood backing for the skirting. Well add horizontal boards to this portion to match the upper walls. The concrete will be covered in hand sculpted rock work (like the house) with the pillars breaking up the long expanse.
A long time coming
When we first moved to our property in 2003 one of the first things we tackled was the footing and retaining wall for our fence. We worked on the project while we waited for the building permit to be issued for our shop. When the permit was acquired we abandoned the fencing project and concentrated on building the shop. That project took a little more than a year. Much more time was spent creating the rolling landscape of the yard and eventually the new house was started which took a few more years to finish. After that we did a bunch more landscaping.
Last year at last we began work on the fence once more. It was a big project, especially in the method we chose. We first ended up the steel structure, followed by miles of pencil rod. Galvanized lath was attached and then we began the hand sculpting of each board. Much of that work was completed last year. Much of our time this year was spent reshaping the yard and putting in Becke's modular home but we started on the fence once more when things slowed down. Tomorrow, at last the final glazes will go onto the neighbour's side of the two hundred and twenty-five foot fence. Then we start painting our side. Good things are worth waiting for. :)
