July 30, 2008—Trusses & more plaster

I liked the rafters on the veranda so much, that I wondered if we should forget roofing it and just use it as trellis. I had asked Kai if he could lay out the plywood left over from the floor protection on top of the veranda rafters to see what it would look like closed in. I also wanted to assess the difference in the light inside the house.

When I got to the site, I went around the house to take a look. I do like it better covered and the change in light inside is quite minimal.

They had also started to put up the lattillas on the brackets as you can see if you look above the veranda roof. (I thought I had a good close-up of them, but evidently I did not get one.)

They had just done this one section, because when Kai put up the first set of latillas, he realized that they needed to be closer than we had thought, which means we will need to send for some more in order to have enough for all the shades. He wanted to get my take on whether we should do that or space them further apart.

I liked them closer, so we will send for some more, along with the replacement column for the courtyard.

Here is another view of the veranda with the plywood on the rafters. It isn’t quite covered completely on this end, but you can get the idea anyway.

The plasterers had put the initial coat of plaster on the slab insulation. It looks better already, although it will get a color coat on top of this coat, to match the walls.

The slab insulation will help keep heat or cold in the slab. If we are heating it, we don’t want the heat to leak out the edges if that can be prevented. The slab is also insulated underneath for the same reason.

The plasterers also fixed the list in the chimney. Kai had carefully measured from the center of the fireplace and figured out the exact amount to add in order to straighten out the lean, so they had specific instructions and did a great job.

I had wondered how they got the cuts between the picture rail and the plaster so perfect. Kai told me that they plastered right over the picture rail—saving hours of effort to make it look seamless.

They also cleaned up the very bottom of the range hood between the plaster and the tile.

Meanwhile, the painters were busy glazing the walls in our master bedroom.

I had had this vision of a warm white walls which were mottled like old plaster. I have been buying this French magazine called Côte Sud for years, which is one of three regional magazines about decor in France, this one concentrating the south of France. Every month, it has photos of beautiful old plaster walls and I had gotten this idea from looking at them. I am sure my painters hate me for all my idiotic ideas, but they just faithfully try to make it look like I want, and so far, it is coming together wonderfully.

The glazing is quite tricky because it is difficult to put it on without creating lines. When you put it on you have to do it in sections. You have to feather each section into the next or the join between them show up as a line and sometimes the overlap is just too apparent.

The walls do look great where the lines are not too strong and the painters are quite patient about redoing it until it looks right.
Kai and his assistant were working hard to get the trusses for the porch roof finished and installed. Here he is, balancing on one.
By the end of the day, all trusses had been installed.
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