July 25, 2007—Drywall and soy-based polyurethane!
Another misty morning at the property. The plasterers had come and put the first coat of plaster on the guest house. The scratch coat, as it is called, was soaking wet still. But you can now start to get a good idea of what the finished cottage will look like, since the color value will be close to this gray.

In the barn, the drywall crew was hard at work putting up sheet rock and taping. If you look closely in these pictures, you can see the cut pieces of tape hanging from the electrical wires ready to use.

The space looks much as it will when it is finally painted. I think I am going to just paint it white and use the furnishings to add color. The feel of the space is so light and airy that I don’t want to weigh it down with a lot of color.

Of course I reserve the right to change my mind.

They were almost finished when I slipped in to take these pictures. You can see the section on the right where they still need to put up the last sheets.
Downstairs looks good too. We have a problem there though. Because of the big garage door, this space qualifies as a garage, the drywall ceiling code for which is different than a dwelling ceiling. Therefore, we will need to make some kind of addition to the ceiling, but we haven’t determined what yet.
Looking west in the downstairs of the barn, again you can see the tape hanging from the open electrical wires.

Outside, the fog was mysterious. It looks quite grim in this photo, but it was actually about 67 degrees, almost warm.

This picture is looking northwest from the driveway.

My assistant is working on rip-rap in the gully, so I was climbing through the grass looking for stray rocks and took this picture of the cottage and barn from above.

We have so many rocks—anytime we dig, rocks are always a problem. Now, because we are not excavating anything, we have used up all our rocks and need more. I hate the idea of buying some, but it may come to that.

By late morning the sun began to come out and the scratch coat on the cottage was drying out. You can’t see in this picture, but it has scratches in it—which I imagine is why it is called the scratch coat. Next will go on the brown coat.

By the middle of the afternoon, the drywall was complete and left to dry.

Here is one more picture of my studio space completed.

Looking toward my office space, I am appreciating the afternoon light in the studio.

I still need to pick out light fixtures, but I never remember to talk to the electrician about it.

Click here to see insulation installed!  
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