Creative concrete

As we work our way around the back of the house we continue to design and work out details of the various parts. It's the same way we did the front and sides of the house. Today, Peter did  the last of the wall plaster work. That leaves only a little rock work along the bottom to finish things off. 

One area we needed something imaginative was around the dog door. The door needed a roof over it to prevent water splashing in. Peter came up with the idea of building a miniature version of our patio. Yesterday we fastened in the steel framework and shingled the roof. Today Peter did the surrounding plasterwork and the rocks along the bottom of the wall. I'll be designing a faux round window and trim which will be routed in one piece. We'll paint it up and then install it. The tree trunk supports will then be sculpted in place after the concrete deck is poured.

It's all a bit over the top but in good fun. Why not?

-grampa dan

Have a heart

The theme of our house on the outside is hearts. Many are hidden and subtle, carved into the trees and rock work. Once noticed, however,they are obvious and abundant. The trim has literally thousands of hearts routed into the accent centers. Even these from a distance look like a subtle pattern, painted and glazed various shades of brown and blending into the woodwork. But at each intersection of the large 8" wide trim a larger heart will be installed. And for good measure we'll paint each of those hearts bright pink as per special request by Janis.

We'll be creating scores of heart shaped blocks for the task. This pile represents about one third of them.

Each day more pieces are added to our giant jigsaw puzzle, bringing it ever closer to completion.

-grampa dan

Peter on the roof.

It was Peter's first day back on the job and we've been saving lots of work - just for him. Today he was to begin finishing off the dormer window trim which we had prepainted. I had also carefully measured and cut it to fit so it was just a matter of fitting it into place. In the next days he'll staple the lath into place around the windows and then we'll plaster and carve in the final 'wood' trim. A few days later, after the concrete has finished curing we can finish off the paint. The first dormer window looks fabulous already.

One dormer down - three to go!

Good to have you back and close to home Peter!

-grampa dan