January 16, 2008—Ready for the roofers . . .

The masons are supposed to start on the fireplace on Monday. We have been waffling between two fireplace designs—a southwest style “kiva” fireplace, or a more traditional design.

We had designed the traditional version in case it was cheaper to build, but the mason thinks they both will be about the same; so we decided to go with our original intention and use the kiva style.

The fireplace will not take up the whole space in that alcove, there will be about a foot on the right side that will not be used. It will be walled in in the living room and possibly knocked out outside for a log niche.

Once the framing was complete on the shower, Kai realized that the pocket door for the master bath toilet room would not fit.

This stems from an error in the drawings. Originally there was to be a swing door on the toilet room, but I did not like that because I wanted the wall space that it was going to swing against for towel rods. When the pocket door was drawn into the plans, not enough space was allowed for it to slide open completely.

Today when Abe was here, he and I and Kai discussed what to do. Kai thinks that they can move the framing for the wall on the right over three-quarters of an inch and with that and some other finagling, we can get a 28" door in.

Looking through my dressing room, closet, Jim’s dressing room and into Jim’s office, you can see some white rolls, which are the first of the Tyvek. For those of you who saw the cottage and barn get wrapped in Tyvek, this process will be a little different.

On the cottage, Kai wrapped the whole building and then installed the windows, so there were a few days where the whole cottage was completely wrapped in Tyvek with no openings.

Because of the wind, Kai will do the house a section at a time and then install the windows before he moves on to the next section. This way, each window will be securely installed in the Tyvek and sealed with all the tape as he goes.

Here is a stack of tar for the roof. As Jim says, there will be one of those smelly tar melters at the site for a few days, starting tomorrow.
Here is an arty picture of the tar rounds. It isn’t as arty as I thought it would be, though.
Taken from the road coming up from the pond, this shot gives you a little different perspective of the front of the house. Again, can I say how much I like the lowered height of the front wall? When it gets its little tin roof, it is going to look so terrific.

Some exciting news about General Debris. He is going on a trip! The San Jose Museum of Art has asked me to lend the General to them for a show starting in April. They will come and get him and bring him home in October. It sounds like a very cool show and I am so happy for Nemo Gould who is the General’s creator.

His Silverness may need a little work before the show, though. When I plugged him in to demonstrate his many charms to Abe, nothing happened. Either the outlet is not working—which I doubt—or the rain has damaged some of the General’s wiring.

Also, sadly, his manly appendage is quite rusty. Any guy that I have taken up the stairs is first entranced with the sculpture, then comments on the rustiness of his “unit.”

He does have an alternate appendage which is much more impressive—and made from unrustable aluminum—however I seem to have misplaced it.

I had it in a shoe box and was keeping it in the cottage. I was concerned that it would be swiped from there so I put it in a safer place—which I, of course, now cannot find. I have got to locate it before the General goes on his trip so he can have some much needed enhancement surgery. It’s all just so sad . . .

I took these pictures from the road as I was leaving the site. Please note that I did not leave any earlier than I normally do, it is just getting light later—thank goodness!
I was hoping that this shot would show the oak trees we planted around the gully in the foreground, but they are too wispy to show. There are actually 5 of them . Maybe when they leaf out we will be able to see them better.
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