May 21, 23 & 24, 2008—A week’s worth of progress

May 21, 2008

I arrived at the site to find that Kai had cut a hunk off of one of the 12 x 12 beams sitting in front of the cottage to make our mantle-piece. He has left it a little bit longer than the final width so we can see how much we want to trim off of it.

Jim came with me to the site today and while we were looking at the wood, he noticed a knot on the front of the mantle. It was close but not quite centered and he thought it would drive him nuts to look at it like that for the rest of his life. Luckily, Kai had left enough excess on either end so we were able to center the knot and still trim mantle to the correct size.

Here is how the wood looks on the end right now. It will be sanded down and finished, like the ceiling beams, with a matte finish that is almost invisible.

I liked this picture because of the morning light coming through the clerestories. Notice how the beams are covered with paper for ceiling priming and painting.
The ceiling in the kitchen/family room had been primed already.

Kai has also been busy installing the interior doors. Here are two sets of cupboard doors in our back hall. Everyone loves the way they look. I consider this quite a victory given the universal intitial skepticism towards my idea. But all agree that they are gorgeous.

Lying on the floor of the barn next to a stack of latillas are our exterior storm shades. Once the final coat of plaster goes on, they will be installed.
Here you can see the missing piece of beam Kai took for the fireplace.
. . . and just in case you have forgotten how BIG a 12 x 12 beam is, let me refresh your memory.
The ditch for the electrical connection had been filled in, much to my relief. I was worried about getting down to the rose garden over the ditch, but no problem, since it was all filled back in.
Here is the electrical vault on the other side of the road. Glamourous isn’t it? Not!

Late in the afternoon after everyone left, I was taking photos in the house and found one of the doors laying across the hall. It was so windy that the wind was blowing through the back door and stirring up drywall dust all over the house. The door, which had been left propped against the wall in the back hall, had been blown over by the wind and made a ding in the drywall.

I propped some of the sheets of plywood from the stack by the carport over the back door to shut off the wind—which worked quite well.

Here is my makeshift door from the inside. The door which fell over—a very heavy double closet door—I wrestled into the wine room. Thank goodness for all those gym work-outs or I never could have done it.
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