End of Week 21

The interior finishes are starting to go in. Yesterday, "Cowboy" was able to put wood flooring on almost every room in the house. There are four rooms on the first floor where they were able to save all or part of the original oak floor. In one of these, they were able to tooth the new with the old. At some point, they will all be sanded then finished to have the same appearance.

One more thing that has begun is the fireplace stone. The upper part will have stacked stones that match the outside chimney. The surround and hearth will be made of slabs of Pennsylvania sandstone. This natural material has slight veins of rusty orange which should work well with the range of color above it.

We are gradually whittling down the list of decisions. This past week, I met with Michael and Todd to locate shelving and hanging rods in the closets. I guess most people have more exotic requests than Carrie and me - as it took much less time than Michael had allowed. The other thing that was decided last week is the door hardware that will be a lever-type and brushed nickel that will match other metalic items in the house.

One other meeting that took place on Thursday was with Preston Dalrymple who is designing the landscape plan. He and I have worked together for many years and discovered that we grew up a few blocks from each other in Paducah, Kentucky. The current plan (that will be posted at some point) shows most of the back yard with no grass to cut and a mixture of vegetable beds and aromatic flowers. Ours is a small back yard and half of it is shaded by the large oaks and half is full sun. That will allow a variety of plant material and interesting places made around them.

The front yard will see the most change. Along the street, I've asked that a wall and steps be created to deal with the 5' of slope from the house to the street. The wall will also be set back a bit from the property line to allow a parking space or two. At present, our narrow street makes it hard to find a convenient place for a guest to park. We will also realign the sidewalk from the driveway so the approach is a bit less acute. Preston suggested that we keep the are in front of the house fairly simple to match the contemporary lines of the house. His thought along that eastern face is a large bed of ferns. That sounds interesting to me.

This coming week, the roofer is scheduled to arrive and start the copper paneling - assuming the weather finally cooperates. This and the garage door (also scheduled to arrive this week) are the most obvious things remaining to be done to the outside. Michael said the next two weeks will see lots of progress - then it will appear to slow down again as they start doing more detail work.

We'll see how much they can get done before the neighborhood tour on April 25 - that includes our house and 6 others on our street. It won't be a finished product, but we agreed to participate. I know people are curious. It will also be a chance to meet some of the neighbors.