Hurry Up And Wait!

July 6th to July 28th, 2009
Construction Phase 4

"Find your center and build from there." ~ Margaret Merrill

Let's see. So far we are waiting on the side doors and transoms... therefore, waiting on the finishing of the brick, part of the decking, the inside trim, the inside flooring... and the cousins are coming to do the inside trim. Every day... "did they get here yet? No?" Sigh. Oh, well... at least the patio guys can go on and get all the stone done. Right?

First they put down this layer of yellow sand and then started with the stones, in a random pattern. The stones have varying degrees of cinnamon and gray with a little beige. They started building the edges of the rose garden and the curved benches. We had discussed with the stone guy the possibility of putting lights under the lip of the benches and in the edge of the patio. I thought he said he could get them for us as did the contractor.... but he thought we were getting them. So when it came time to put them in, they had not even been ordered. After a few days of back and forth, I got tough and told him to do it and do it quick. So most of the patio was done... but the lights... oh, yes... they ran out of stone as well. So again, we were in waiting mode.

Not to be put too far behind... the contractor started in with the interior beadboard installation... that only took a couple of days. The painter came back and stained the beadboard and then put the semigloss finish on it as well as the fir cross beam in the ceiling. And we waited.

While we waited it rained..... and our rose garden became a soupy swampy mess. The water wouldn't drain... at all. Stephen arrived.... to all the waiting. He is not as patient as I am. The contractor thought he could fix the rose garden problem by drilling down into the clay and by filling the holes with marble chips..........but it didn't work. It looked dry on top if it didn't rain for a few days but Dad would go out and check with a stick each day and it was still mud. At this point, I had no idea as to how we were going to get this fixed.

Still trying to plow ahead, they finished up the stairs of the deck and I did finally get the hot tub put in place, not hooked up but put in place. Those transoms better get here.... David and Rick arrive in a couple of days!

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