January 25, 2008—Drenching rain!

Kai’s laborer had nailed up some temporary “doors” in the arch between the dining and living rooms to help keep the living room dryer.

I had thought that in the future—when we could afford it—we would get doors made for this arch, but looking at this picture, I realize how huge the swing of these doors would be. I don’t think we will ever do it after all. If we need to have it close, we can put up a curtain on one side, but for now, no doors and no curtain.

Here is another view of our courtyard lake. One thing of interest is our little pop-out, which is finally framed in.

One of the irritating things about our current house is the number of trips you must take down the little back stair, through the back door, up the little stair to the patio with each load to set a table or serve a meal. The window in this pop-out will be the only sash window in the house, raising to act as a pass-through to the courtyard.

What’s more, there is going to be a little counter inside—with a light above it—to set your utensils and dishes on. Below the counter will be our vegetable cooler, with a screen to the outside, so we can keep produce and bread cool without putting them in the fridge.

I have found that you really can’t leave anything—even place mats—outside overnight, because it gets dirty from dust in the air very quickly. I wanted to make sure that it was as convenient to use the courtyard for eating as the little table we will have in the family room. Jim and I put a lot of thought into how we wanted this to work, and time will tell if our planning pans out.

Here is a closer look at the pop-out. It does impinge on the spaciousness of the covered walkway a bit, but hopefully, its usefulness will more than make up for that.

The top of the pop-out is sloped because it will come up to the level of the walkway roof.

The scupper from the high living room roof was dripping onto the foyer roof making a lot of racket. In the plans, it shows a drainpipe there—thank goodness! I don’t think I would want to listen to that noise every time it rains!

One good thing that happened is that I got to see our canale at work. It’s hard to see in this photo because of the low resolution, but despite the very heavy rain, the water was dripping straight off the canale onto the ground.

Kai and Abe have been concerned that water would shoot out of the canale when it was raining heavily and missing the drain below. I thought that we could just contour the driveway in front of it so that no matter where it spouted to, the water would flow toward the drain. It looks like this will not be that important. My supposition is that the canale does not drain a large enough area of the roof to gather enough water to produce a shooting stream, even in a heavy rain like today’s.

Evidence of the storm: the porta-potty blew over! I am so glad that I have a real toilet now! Kai said that he would move it over by the carport after the storm ends. (I have to say that the view from the cottage living room is much nicer without it.)

General Debris bows to the inevitable. Even he is cowed by the rain.

I talked to the sculptor, Nemo Gould, who can’t believe that he is bent over. As he says, the General’s waist is a “friggin’ spring off of a VW Jetta”. It just goes to show you. Even car springs are not infallible.

We think that he has pulled some wires out with his bow and I will try to get him inside next week when I have help.

There is one block in the retaining wall behind the cottage and barn with a chipped corner. It is in the exact middle of the wall between the two buildings. I remember when the wall was built, I noticed it after the next course went on and it was too late to remove. Now it is acting as a drain for the entire wall during a rain. The mystery of the water behind the barn and cottage is solved!

We are planning some additional area drains behind the barn and cottage when it dries out a little, but will have to keep this “drain” in the wall in mind.

Here is a shot of the final form for the range hood. If you can visualize it covered in smooth, creamy plaster, you will get a good idea of what we will end up with.
For a bonus page on the cottage decor, click here  
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