I arrived at the property this morning quite early. It seemed like the sun was going to come out and dry everything out. Then water started evaporating and turning into fog and it became very misty and cold.

The roofing contractor arrived and he, Kai and I went up on the roof to survey the territory. I got so distracted by the mist-making process, that I couldn’t pay attention to anything else and I caught some great pictures of it in progress.

Here you see the sun rapidly creating fog. This was about 8:45 am.

The mist was rising so quickly that it went from sunny and warm to misty, cold and damp in about 15 minutes and stayed that way for the rest of the day.

Here is a shot of the huge slide to our north with mist rising from the hills. You can also see our new metal gate by the shed.

From the vantage point of the roof, you get a better idea about how massive this slide is. All that dirt slid into the creek. Last year and the year before, the County did a huge mitigation on it because the dirt was flowing into storm drain systems.

I had my weekly off-site meeting with my contractor and then met with the designer from the tile contractor to look at stone for the counter tops. We have decided to consider stone because—although it is more expensive than tile—the installation cost is lower. If we get the right stone, we think we can do it within our budget.

We saw this limestone which is very close in tone to the wall color of the kitchen. It is really beautiful, with white, fossilized shells embedded in it. The downside is that it is porous and will stain. It can be sealed, but will need to be resealed often.

I like the way it looks a lot because with all the color we have going in the house, we want something rather monotone and bland on the counter. A very dramatic stone would be too much with all the other color elements. I am concerned about the maintenance issue though.

Here is some green granite we are considering for the dining room hutch buffet counter. It is very pretty and goes quite well with both the stain color and the painted trim.

We are planning to have the hutch painted the same color as the window and door trim so it doesn’t stand out too much. The windows will be the drama in the dining room along with the tin chandelier.

I find it interesting that this stone is very similar to that of my mother’s dining room hutch, which I modeled this one after.

Here is some possible stone for the master bathroom. This is tumbled travertine and looks very dusty when dry. If you want, you can have it sealed to give it a more polished look. To simulate that, the sales person used a spray bottle of water.

I don’t know if we will go forward with this combo—it depends on the price we can get and what else I see—but it certainly is very pretty.

Here is the house as I left. There was no sunset, just a gradual graying out. The house looked pretty ghostly in the gloom.

There will be no post for Friday as I have an important meeting and won’t be able to visit the site. There is a January garden page started though, just click on Garden to view it.