Day 136 - Golden Arches

Work is progressing on building our outdoor living space. The forms have been fabricated to brace the rock when building the arches across the back porch.  The bottom part of the columns have rock placed up close to the level where the arches will begin their curve.

Partially rocked column

Three arches go across the back

Awaiting arch feature

The wooden arches are sitting in the garage ready for the masons to do their artistry. In addition to the three arches across the back, the sides of the porch will also have archways.

Forms for Arches

The big news is the installation of the interior fireplace mechanical parts and refractory.  The masons will now be able to place the rock up to the ceiling.  This fireplace will have a log set and burn propane gas - it is not a wood burning fireplace.  We aren't sure we like the chimney cap in the third photo, so it may be changed out soon.

Before getting "Stoned"

The red brick will be painted black

Questionable Chimney Cap

Bruce is out on the site today, so I hope to share some more progress photos this evening.

Day 130 - Lots of Progress

Lots of work has been done on the house - I promise!!!!  The long absence of a blog post does not mean progress came to a halt, but rather the "bloggist" hit a kind of wall.  Life goes on while a house is being being built - good things and bad things happen.  Sometimes it just takes a little while to process thoughts......and writing does not come easy for some.  So, with a more ordered mind - here's the news.

The Water Tank

James has been working hard on constructing the water tanks for our rainwater collection system.  He should have the job done before the end of June.  Here's the short version of constructing the metal tank: The top ring of the tank is placed on top of the concrete ring, the cap of the cistern is placed over the top ring, that assembly is jacked up, and the bottom ring is inserted to complete the structure.

Top Ring and Cap

Complete First Tank and Second Tank Ring

Tank Viewed from Future Pool Location

Exterior Stonework

The masons have been working hard every day doing their artistry of laying stone.  Almost all of the outside basic work has been completed.  Today we watched the guys tossing the stones around like they were apples.  Amazing.  The next big projects are the two stone fireplaces and the arches on the porches.

Creating the arches over the two curved windows in the front of the house took a number of steps.  It will be great fun to watch the rear porch arches created.

Note Wood Structure Across Window

Note Larger Rocks Supporting the Rocks Forming the Arch

Wider View

Completed Arch Left Window

Completed Arch Right Window

We chose a simple stone exterior, so the masons have laid a clean line of stone above and below the windows and around the garage doors.

Window Above Garage

Around Garage Door

Garage Window

Bruce's Study Window

How about some more shots of the great work by the masons????  It is really starting to look like home.

Coping - the Architectural Kind

The "ceiling" of the porches is covered with wood pieces called "coping."  The front coping has been installed for some time and the back porch coping was installed this week.  Coping covers the wires for the recessed lighting and speakers.  I'm ready for wine and a few tunes on the back porch right now!!!

Installing the Coping

Putting in the Last Piece

Completed Coping

 Wallboard

We were excited to see stacks of wallboard arrive at the house.   A number of tasks need to be completed before the wallboard goes up, but just seeing it on site means we are not too far away from having interior walls.  It will be really exciting to get this step accomplished.

Wallboard

And More Wallboard!

So, that's all the news for today folks.  Much more to report in the coming days!!!!

Day 119 - Stones and Storms

It will take a lot of stone to finish the outside of the house and the trucks just keep on bringing the loads of limestone from Cobra Stone, our supplier.

Delivered Stone

Variety in Delivered Stone

It seems funny to have stone delivered when our property is so rocky with many loose pieces scattered around in the dirt.  However, using fieldstone is quite a bit more expensive because of the labor to gather it. ( And we're definitely not interested in doing that job ourselves!)

Field Stone

We had a rain storm move through here a few days ago that gave a new look to our stone.  It is amazing how much the dust obscured the color of the stone.

Wet Stone on Left and Dry Stone on Upper Right

And the rain really brought out the color of the stone on the walls.  Before losing the dust the colors were very muted and now are much more defined.

Garage Wall

Front Entry

Note the Plumb Line on the Edge

Front Garage Wall

The wind with the rain storm was strong enough to bring down one of the small oak trees in the area behind the pool house and the rain left a good demonstration of the trench between the two cisterns.

R.I.P. Little Oak

Equalization trench

We ended the week with a casual visit from neighbors............we are very lucky to moving to a wonderful neighborhood!!!!

Jerry and Bruce Chilling at the End of the Week

Day 116 - Up the Wall

New materials for the fireplaces showed up on the build site today.  Most of it was pretty easy to imagine being used in a fireplace construction....but what the heck is this stuff??????

Here are some shots of the other items delivered today....can't wait to see the fireplaces!!

Concrete Brick

Refractory Brick for Outside Fireplace

 The masons continued to put stone on the walls as far as they can reach without scaffolds.  At their present rate of working, the basic stonework should be done by sometime next week.  These guys are real artists in placing the stones and mixing the colors to achieve a uniform look over the whole house.  Notice the red tape and plastic protecting the windows from the mortar.

Red Protective Tape

Back Porch by Pool/Powder Bath door

Corner of Master Laundry Room

Great Room Wall

While the masons worked on the house, our rainwater man James, started laying the beginning of the bottom part of the structure for one of the cisterns.  Here are some action shots of James putting in the framework to create an 8 inch wide perimeter circle to be filled with cement to form the ring upon which the walls of the cistern will rest.

Rainwater Expert at Work!!!

See the shallow trench in the photo below?  The water level equalization pipe will be laid in this trench to keep the water levels equal between the two huge cisterns.

Equalization Trench

One side of form for concrete ring

Sand to brace the metal forms

It is going to be a lot of fun to watch James build these structures.

Furry Friend of the Day

Skeeter, the feral kitty you have met before, decided to venture into our apartment and make herself at home under the coffee table.  She didn't stay long, but she's really starting to be more comfortable with the big creatures who give her food!!!!

Visiting Skeeter