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It has been so dry here and the weird thing is that we
get rain all around us. I took this photo of big rain falling one mile
away across Little Lagoon onto West Beach. We got the clouds, dark,
thunder, lighting...everything but the rain. Meanwhile I have been using
the well water to run sprinklers after the men quit for the day. |
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| Juan is working to place the blocks into our window
openings that the window sills will sit on. He is in the south end
of the house that already has trusses and roof decking. |
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The blocks in front of the stairs are getting marked to be cut to the
correct angle to follow the degree of the stairs. |
Rain keeps going all around us and totally
skipping us. This is a huge storm that merited TV and radio beeps. but it
poured everywhere but our little stretch of Fort Morgan Road.
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| The osprey hangs our near us
a lot. Here he is all wet and trying to dry off in the wind. He would
hold his wings in different positions to get 'full coverage'. |
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As you can see, we have a lot of trash concrete to get rid of. Mike has
been pretty much piling it all together. These big cow patty looking
things are where the concrete mixer trucks cleaned out their
excess mix on our property. While it was still wet, the men stuck bent
pieces of rebar into them so they would have handles to lift with
in the end. |
 The wall in front of the double staircase has been
stacked, marked for cutting, cut and re-stacked. Now the angle of the top
of the wall is the same as the stairs themselves. A solid cap block will
go along the top once the cavity has been back-filled with concrete. I
asked Mike what would keep the runny concrete mixture from seeking the
lowest point and flowing out of the lower part of the wall. He told me
that they would cut sections of cement board and epoxy them to the flat,
top surface and remove them later, before the cap blocks are installed.
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| We were suppose to
have a row of decorative banding in our blocks just below the windows on
this end of the house. In their enthusiasm to stack blocks, the men
forgot to use those special blocks that had the detail molding into
them. As a result, we are going to have to add the detail on as an appliqué.
These concrete pieces have come over from the DacArt plant to be used as
that horizontal row. |
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The steps into the front door have been formed up using inexpensive
concrete masonry units. The enclosed area of porch, directly in front of
the door is filled completely with sand. We have only gotten three of
our DacArt steps that sit on top of the CMU's. We can get rid of some of
the smaller concrete scraps in this hollow area under the stairs.
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| The three large panels between
the windows in the master bedroom have been formed up around in order to
pour some fill concrete into the space between the wall and the panels.
It is gonna look like ordinary grey concrete and will need to be coated
w/ a mix to have the same tone as the blocks. |
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| Late July--We made a
big push to finish the concrete acid stain designs on the frieze for the
'tower' part of the house. It is not really a tower but it is taller
than the southern sections, so the workers call it that and it makes it
quick to distinguish where on the house one is talking about. |
It was hot and buggy early in the morning, but
Dave helped and we spent 2 days finishing the last blocks that needed the
concrete acid stain designs on them.
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I used the same stencils to trace out my
pencil lines on the blocks. I had to look up at the blocks that had
already been stacked to see where the design left off so I could be sure
that they would match.
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The workmen had made
little signs to tell me where the rows would go on the building. This
one says "Top south corner east wall and has an arrow to show the
direction. |
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| We are suppose to get some
decorative parts that go above the panels between the windows. This is
why I stopped the acid stain scroll design, since that should be covered
by the applied design work.
We now have to have an inspection and
then have the concrete pump truck come out again to back-fill the top
rows before we add the cornice blocks.
I told one of the men today that I want
the hot pink tape stretched across the grass areas again. The concrete
truck and the pump truck love to back up over my grass. Those heavy
trucks can kill it really quickly. Plus if it has rained recently, their
tires make terrible ruts. |
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