Walls that look like walls!

Well, we are getting closer all the time. George still says he thinks we'll be in the end of March. I think that's optimistic, but not by a lot. After a few 70 degree days, trees budding out, some flowers blooming, and big signs of spring, we have SNOW probably down to 2000 or 2500 ft elevation. Love it.

The small changes to a couple of door areas and the bigger change to the fireplace have been re-done, and the texturing has been done.

It's been a crazy week. On Wednesday, I thought I had a day "off" in the sense of nothing on the have to do list, though there was quite a bit on the need to do list. Then George called to say that the company that does the trim wood had gone ahead and cut the trim for around doors. We had been supposed to select the style and size of trim first. Oops. So, I called Scottie who was in Visalia and made arrangements to meet to drive to Porterville to pick trim. That day. ASAP. Didn't get done what I wanted and Scottie had to skip his bike ride.

Oh - check out this great view of Eagle's nest. That's the view from my kitchen window, the one above the sink, and it's also what you see from our front porch. With that in mind. . . .

We've come to the conclusion that we will need
a retaining wall on the West side of the house, essentially the "down" side. We talked about railroad ties, but don't like the look with our house. We talked about those fake "rock" things that stack and make walls, but don't really care for them. We both really like natural rock walls in a stacked,
not a mortared, style.

Fortunately, we had met Bob Kellogg, rock man extraordinaire, who came to the site to check things out. He can do a 65 foot long wall, about 4 feet high, for us for a cost we can manage. It's something we hadn't planned on, but it's one of those things that really needs to be done now, while some other things, maybe a garden shed or various parts of landscaping, can wait 'till later.
These are some of the rocks Bob will use. Part of them came out of Sequoia National Park, when Bob was re-building various walls that had become unsafe. So, we are getting some historic rocks.
On the other hand, maybe all rocks are historic.

Anyway, Friday, again I'd planned a down day, we learned about problems with our flooring choices. Back to Porterville we went to re-select. Guess this is just a week when I'm not destined to rest. For me that equates to a fibromyalgia flare and pain and lack of sleep, and escalation of the pain, and more lack of sleep.
I got into jammies at 4 PM today (Friday) and absolutely determined to take it easy tonight and tomorrow. I'm even leaving this as a "draft" overnight and finishing it tomorrow! How's that for good thinking?



So, back at it, and we've got texture on the walls courtesy of these two guys. And, miracle of all, they cleaned up after themselves! It's a first on the job site.



The cabinet shop is supposed to fax me a sketch of their plan on Monday. George is to drop off a color chart for the stucco. We've got our basic color ideas for both inside and out, but need to be sure we can do what we want with the top and have it work OK with the stucco. So, that's for next week.


And, of course, I can't close out without a photo of Scottie, he'd be heartbroken. This is the latest.

Still didn't sleep well last night.
I've asked Scottie to sleep in the back room tonight so I can have a night without snoring. Give me a neurontin for pain and a couple of tylenol PM, maybe a warm dog or two, and I'm hoping for SLEEP.