February 13 & 15, 2008—Scaffolding arrives

February 13th

I arrived on the site to find more of the daffodils along the driveway had bloomed. What a cheering sight.

We put in several kinds, but they probably won’t bloom at the same time. We will have to wait and see what the others look like. These yellow ones are either King Alfreds or some equivalent and always bloom pretty early.

I had heard from my neighbor that the scaffolding had arrived, because she told me that the truck had a mishap and dumped it on the road.

This is some of the scaffolding from the stucco contractor. They will need more to do the job, but have the rest of their scaffold out on other jobs. When they finish elsewhere, they will bring the rest of the scaffolding they will need for this job and get started.

There are still some high places on the building which need Tyvek so I imagine that Kai is happy to have the scaffolding to walk along rather that just ladders.

Here is the library encased in scaffold.

 

The west side of the guest room, foyer and part of the living room have scaffold around them. This is also one of the areas which still needs Tyvek. You can see how much easier it will be to put the Tyvek up from a walkway than from ladders.
The clerestory windows on this side have special flashing because of the weather exposure. Kai has been waiting for it to be fabricated so can install these windows and won’t put the Tyvek up here until the windows go in.

As you can see, it was very windy today. Our newly installed redwood trees are being blown hard and from a different direction than usual.

Last week, I found one of them lying on the ground—not uprooted—just completely blown over. Their trunks are still so flexible, that they can bend 90°. We have them staked up with cables and stakes—three to a tree—which works pretty well. In that case, one of the stakes had pulled out of the ground and the tree had gone down.

They have tiny new growth on the ends of the branches, so I hope they all make it.

Here is a French door ready to be installed in the family room.

The giant dining room window did get installed on Monday. I am glad I was not around for that! It is definitely not as bright in the rooms with the windows in as with just holes, but hopefully when we get the windows washed it will be better.

We were required to have an anti-glare coating on them by the County—I guess so they don’t shine in the afternoon sun so much—but it does cut down on the clarity of the window.

Here is the view out of the newly-installed master bathroom window.

After drawing a blank for a long time on colors in the master bath, I think I am finally getting some idea of what I want. The tile person has suggested using tumbled travertine in the bathroom and it looks like we will go in that direction. We have selected a warm, creamy white with some peachy-pink and terra cotta accents. I will probably match the paint to work with the marble, perhaps sponging a peachy color over cream. Sponged walls are really out now, but I still like them, so I may buck the trend. We will see.

Here is a very good shot of the way the stain looks on the window jams. I am so happy with it. The interior doors are going to be pine panel doors finished in this same stain.

The wood window and door trim will be painted a darker, more turquoise-y color, which will coordinate with the stain but not try to repeat the same color in paint. So far, I am very happy with the color choices we picked out. I hope I can say the same when the whole thing is finished!

For more about the house, plus cottage pix, and a February 15th update, click here  
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