Circle B Ranch: SEATING THE CABINET

Howdy Y'All!

We've had another week of weather trying to decide if it wants to be cold, wet or warm. We were told that Texas winters are basically warm, but this winter has been sort of a bust in that regard. However, I guess we shouldn't complain given the winter our eastern brethren are experiencing! (They're all moving to Florida soon.)

Back at the ranch, things are kinda moseying along. We've also had some 'do overs' after discovering a couple of small issues that needed to be corrected. To make a long story short, we had to add another layer of sheetrock to one side of the main fireplace wall to even out the misalignment of the fireplace insert. No big deal, but it just means a repaint and delay in the faux treatment that Jan is putting on that wall. Both sides are now even, and looks the way it should.

Re-facing the left side of the fireplace wall.

If you remember from the last post, our Faux Lady, Shelley, was off and running with the Dining Room ceiling. Unfortunately, about halfway through she noticed that the ceiling wasn't 'skinned' in the manner she had specified, and 'ribs' of plaster were showing through; re-enter the Sheetrock Guys to re-float and apply a proper skin coat to the groin vault ceiling. This establishes the right base so that Shelley can apply the various coats of color to achieve a cathedral ceiling look that Jan wants.

Re-plastering the DR ceiling as a base coat (again!).

This week also marked the beginning of the installation of all of the cabinets in the house. Once these are installed, the painters will come in to do the final finish work, and at that point the Granite Guys come out to measure for all of the granite tops that we have selected slabs for. Once that is finished, the Cabinet Guys will return to do all of the fine tuning of each of the cabinets, doors, shelving, and drawers. We're told that things start to move pretty quickly from this point on. We'll see. At any rate, cabinet installation is an 'enabler' for lots of other things to happen quickly.

Lower Kitchen and cooktop cabinets.

Oven, refrigerator and coffee bar Kitchen cabinets.

Center island in main kitchen.

Corbels for main kitchen island.

Larger view of the complete kitchen.

First phase of the Prep Kitchen installation (different color).

Second phase of Prep Kitchen installation.

The picture below is the third phase of the process. What remains now is for our Faux Lady, Shelley, to antique and glaze the 'white' cabinets.

One side of the Master Bathroom cabinet install (Jan's).

Moving outside again, the eternal rock program continues. Somehow I think we have created an entitlement program for the Stone Guys. Thankfully, we can all see the light at the end of the tunnel as they are literally starting to round the corner (sorry for the pun) on this job.

The big parts of the patio are completed, and now the focus is to finish the detail work as soon as possible (like yesterday). We have to make sure that they balance speed with continued quality.

Great Room and Breakfast Area exterior view.

Finally rocking the fireplace exterior!

Completed arch walkway to the Office and Master Bedroom.

Mendocino feeling very good about his work!

Patio fireplace minus the hearth and mantle.

This week also marked the beginning of the electrical work to get power to the house from our main panel. Time to fire up lights, air conditioning and heating compressors, wine room compressor (yes!!), and be able to test appliances. This will also allow us to power the water pumps to bring water into the house. Of course, we first have to have water in the tank to make that happen :-).

220' power line trench from the power panel to the main house.

The Cement Guys are also readying the Motor Court to pour the first part of the driveway next week.

Leveling and compacting the fill dirt in the Motor Court.

But Wait, There's More!

This last weekend we had the chance to visit the San Antonio Rodeo with our ranch neighbors, but lest we bore you with a bunch of pics, here's one from the calf herding event.