THE AGONY and THE ECSTASY

Howdy Y'all!

The Ecstasy - Here we are, sitting on beautiful Lake Sammamish (across from Seattle) with our wonderful and close friends, Gene and Beth Morel, at their home enjoying the fabulous sunny weather, lounging in shorts, and drinking tasty cocktails with umbrellas. What a life!

Okay, maybe not so warm and sunny, but beautiful anyway.

We decided to take a trip to Seattle to visit the Morels, and then spend Christmas week with Macenzie and Beau. We had to dig deep in the storage closets to find cold weather coats to go over the shorts and flip flops (standard Texas attire).

Back at the ranch - the Agony (sometimes) - we continue to hope for substantial progress on the house. The stone masons finally cycled back on Thursday morning (supposedly now there until the completion of the stone work), and picked up where they left off. It probably wasn't the best timing for us to leave with the rock work finally underway, but when we made the flight reservations to Seattle we forgot to check with the masons to see if it fit into their schedule :-).

The difficulty with the stonework is that it is an imprecise process - it really relies literally on the 'artistry' of the stone mason's eye in combining the work of nature's randomness, as to the stone's color and texture, to assemble the stone in a manner that appears random but really has a discernible pattern. Add to that the need to stack and mortar it properly, and you end up with a fairly cool skill set. Anyone can stack stone, but who can make it look like it belongs there?

Powder Room and Media Room exteriors

Walling in the Master Bath and closets

Moving inside we saw the preliminary assembly of the Cantera stone fireplace that was pieces and parts the previous week. The fireplace guys still have some additional finishing and facing work to complete after the mortar sets and the stone dries, but we are happy with the initial look.

The fireplace is only 5 feet tall; Jan shrunk.

The painters also showed up and started the tedious task of caulking each and every seam in the windows, baseboards, and closet shelving. Amazingly, four guys moved through the house in the space of two days. Behind them, another crew arrived and started the process of staining all of the woodwork. This is a six-step process that involves staining, staining again, sealing, sanding, and applying two lacquer coats. We aren't there, so we're hoping it looks good when we get back, and matches the colors they were left with.

Beginning the door staining process.

First pass finished on the doors. Next step - restaining.

Staining the trim, baseboards, and crown moulding.

While all of this is going on inside, the pool guys have been busy finalizing the deck area to begin pouring concrete next week. A couple of the issues we had were to make sure that the lower deck was graded high enough to eliminate any water intrusion from the surrounding grassland, and to ensure that we ran the properly sized sleeves under the concrete for future irrigation needs. All of this stuff gets lost in the noise when everyone is working to meet deadlines. Thankfully, the pool project manager is pretty attentive to the details.

Framing the steps from the pool deck to the lower level.

Lower deck. Steps are being formed to the left of the picture.

Same lower pool deck with more road base and steps.

Six months after purchasing the Wine Room door, it was finally delivered and installed. Of course, this is the beginning of the final steps in outfitting the most important room in the house. Might need to put a microwave and TV in there as well.

Wine Room door at the showroom.

Installed in the wall - finally!!

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

Jan and I want to wish all of you the Merriest of Christmas', and all of the blessings of the New Year. Best wishes to your families, and travel safe during the Holiday Season!

That's all for now. See ya later!

- John and Jan - 

STILL THERE!

Howdy Y'all!

Yup, the stone pile is still there. The masons were supposed to show up two Mondays ago, but didn't. Then we had three days of heavy rain, which eliminated any exterior work. The rain devolved into sub 40 degree damp weather, which also eliminates the possibility of mortar drying properly. Then, along came Thanksgiving Week and everyone is off preparing for Turkey Day. Which brings us to the present, and still no stone on the house. We now have a lottery going and taking bets on which week of the calendar the stone work will actually begin!

Still there!

LATE BREAKING UPDATE!

Just as we were about to post another therapeutic rant in the blog about the missing Waldo stone masons, guess who showed up yesterday? The masons arrived yesterday morning and immediately set to work putting up (and taking down) a test wall for us to look at and review our options as to color match, mortar depth, and spacing. It is a process that takes some back and forth until the masons get a sense of what you want in the look of the stone placement. It is never perfect because the stone is not 'painted', has variations based on when and where it was quarried, and what batch was delivered compared to the original stone example. But then, that is part of the beauty of Mother Nature, and the experience of the stone masons. (We're so touchy-feely these days.)

Two of our four new best friends - Waldo Chavez and Waldo Martinez

Part of the difficulty of this house is the large number of arches that have to be constructed of stone, metal and wood. Stretched, or wide radius, arches are particularly difficult because of the weight that has to be supported across a long span (where are the Roman aqueduct builders when we need them?). We had to laugh listening to the mason supervisor and project manager casting about disparaging remarks regarding "architects and their grand drawings". Unfortunately, we weren't aware of this issue when the plans were discussed or we would have simplified them. But, at the end of the 'walkabout', the challenges were addressed with good solutions, and no changes to the plans.

Laying the first course on the powder room turret.

Working the side wall of the entrance.

It is pretty fascinating watching these guys study a wall, pick out the different color stone, chip off the right amount of rock to fit the pattern, and then set it in place accurately. Of all of the craftsmen working on a stone-exteriored home, besides the trim carpenters, these guys truly have the "look" of the house in their hands. 

The following pics show wet mortar which will dry to a very light color (Texas Tan), and mortar joints which still need to be brushed. All in all, a good look with what Nature has to offer us. (More touchy-feely.)

Finally losing the 'green' look.

Rough look after a couple of hours.

Meanwhile….back inside, the trim carpenters have been busy working on the crown moulding and window trim in designated rooms. Jan and I complicated things by moving to a three-part crown moulding rather than the one piece designated in the plan. We felt the high ceilings needed something more substantial, and this was validated by the expert opinion of our ranch neighbors. Thankfully, the carpenters are a really good team that accommodate our changes without any complaints. 

Crown moulding in the Prep/Utility kitchen.

Finished trim on the Kitchen windows and ceiling (almost).

Ceiling trim on three walls. Fourth wall is rock.

Finished Dining Room window trim.

We also saw the arrival this week of the first pieces of the Cantera stone fireplace surround for the Great Room. This is a multi-piece fireplace hand-carved in Mexico to the dimensions of our particular requirements. Sounds really special, but they are fairly common in this area.

Outer leg stands for the fireplace mantle.

Work continues on laying the decking around the pool area. This week has consisted of mostly moving road base for the fill, framing the contour areas, and laying out the frames for the steps down from the main patio. Once again, it is hard for us to visualize the finished results, but it will be nice not to look at dirt any longer. The pool deck will be raised to within five inches of the covered patio and will cover the remaining open area seen in this pic.

Filling in the gap with roadbase for the beams.

View from the other side.

Framing the stairs on the side of the pool.

Framing the lower patio and fire pit area. Fire pit is at the end of the curved area.

And, last but not least, some additional work was done on laying the collection pipe in for the water system. The upright pipe stands will connect to the roof downspouts, and then to the main line into the water collection tank.

Water collection main line to the tank.

That's all for now. See ya later.
- John and Jan -