Seeing the Stone Through the Scaffolding

3rd Week of October (week's end)

We have been lucky enough to have most of the rain hold off this past week.  When it did rain it was in the evening.  I think only one day the masons were not able to work.  They're getting there.

SW view of the house Facade

It's hard to really get the right effect with all the scaffolding in front of the wall.  But the stonework at the top of the wall appears to be done! All the stone lintels are in place.  I imagine the upper level of scaffolding might come down either Monday or Tuesday.

Facade, head o

We labored over so many of the design details for the house.  I truly believe that some of the best designs are the ones that do not try to do too much, and at first glance might appear simple.  And sometimes its not what you see but what you sense that makes the parts and pieces look right.  The balance of windows to stone was one of those details for us. We see too many houses where the windows are so close together that they make a house facade look clumsy. Too many residential developers use building elements as if they can just pick them out of a catalog without thinking about how they will look in the overall composition of the house.  Someone decides shutters would be nice, but when they are installed they are so close to each other that everything looks crowded.  (And don't get me started on shutters that are not "real", at least in their size.)  We redrew the elevation, changing out window sizes and locations, several times, before we felt good about the "balance" of stone to windows. Of course, in the end some of the sense of balance may be personal aesthetic, but our Facade feels right to me.

View from the Driveway

 There is still stonework left to be done at each side of the main entry door, as well as at the base of the secondary entry stoop.  I think the mason could be onsite for the balance of this coming week.  But no complaints.  He is doing a great job.

Footnote:  One of the materials we final-selected this past week was the slate for the front stoops, steps and sidewalk.  Not sure when that work will happen, but we're getting down these finishing touches!