August 1 , 2007—the propane tank arrives

Here is our new 5oo gallon propane tank in its hole. Lawrence, who will be in charge next week because Kai is going on vacation, is down in the hole with the tank. He is quite a big guy, which gives you some idea of the scale of the hole.

By the time this picture was taken, the inspector had come and given us an OK to bury it (with one minor change which the propane company made this afternoon.)

We had decided to go with one of the companies which services our neighbors to save wear and tear on the road, and had thought to get a 1000 gallon tank, but were talked into this smaller tank by the company we chose.

One interesting thing which shows better in this view, is the way the soil rainbows from black to almost yellow as you get deeper into the hole. You can also get an idea of how heavy the clay is. As you can see, this hole was more carved than dug. The back wall of the hole looks like a cut through a package of modeling clay.

The drywall is complete. Here is a shot in the cottage looking from the living room into the bedroom. You can also see through the bathroom doors into the bedroom.

I decided not to have them put texture over the drywall, because I really hate textured walls. I am hoping that a very heavy primer and flat paint will cover the imperfections on the walls. I hope I haven’t made a huge mistake!

Standing in the same place where I took the previous photo, here is one of the kitchen wall and laundry closet. The laundry closet, which seemed fairly innocuous before, now rather looms into the room. I am hoping that when the fridge is in and the cabinets, it will all make more sense.

I am very happy with the floor plan for this cottage, not one bit of wasted space, and with the attic storage, it will be very comfortable.

 
Standing in the kitchen, here is the living room and front door. I am going to start playing with the paint colors on Friday to see how they look. They are very vibrant colors and I hope they don’t make the space feel too crowded, but I will wait until I see the samples up on the walls.
Here is a shot from the bedroom looking into the living room. You can see that there is quite a good-sized closet in this room. We have a trundle bed and two brand new Airflex McCrosky mattresses for it. As soon as this building is done, we plan to furnish it so we can camp here from time to time while the big house is being built.
I put this picture in because as you can see, the skylights have not been finished inside the frames. Kai says that he wants to finish them with wood trim rather than box them in with drywall. I really didn’t understand what he was saying because I always thought they would be finished with wood. Thank goodness he came to the same conclusion, I don’t think I would like drywall trim.

They have the second coat of plaster on the guest cottage and Kai’s crew is wetting it down every day to help it cure slowly. I actually like the gray, kind of, although the final plaster coat will match the barn in color.

I am getting awning strips made to stretch between the barn and cottage. They will hook onto both buildings and hopefully because they are independent pieces, the wind will blow between them. This should be completed by the end of next week, so we will see how they work then.

Also by the end of next week, the grading should be finished and the pile of gravel in the foreground spread on the driveway up to the barn.

I took this shot standing on the big rock by the road down to the pond. You get a better idea how big the pile of gravel is from this view.

From the road down below, even in bright light, the buildings now blend in to the landscape so that they are almost invisible. I am very pleased about that since neither Jim nor I want to be very noticeable from below.

Here is a better view of the rip-rap my assistant has been putting in the gully by the house pad. Most of the rocks we gathered last Friday have been placed and we are going to need a lot more.

There were a lot of rocks in the dirt from the propane tank hole, and hopefully when they bury it, they will set the rocks aside for us. I will see when I go up on Friday.

 
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