Slab day!

Today is the day THIS gets installed in our kitchen.

New Brick Walk

When Andrew was a teenager and in his early 20's, he worked as a brickie. He was trained primarily by Doug Diebolt. They worked together at the Cedar Street Gallery (411 Cedar St). where the circular brick courtyard still exists. Then Andrew had the good luck to work from Roy Rydell's designs as a subcontractor for a landscaper named Kermit Carter. Then he landed Manuel Santana as a client, to do concentric circular brick paving at his art studio on Santana Lane in Aptos. 

He also worked at Manuel's restaurant in San Juan Bautista, Jardines de San Juan. For this job there was always a lunch included each day, during which Manny would sketch designs on paper place mats about the afternoon's work. The drawings would be taken a few feet away to the work site, and Manny would draw circles with a stick in the sand Andrew had prepared for the bricks. He considers this one of the high points of his career.

For years, since we tore out the old, rotten archway, our house has lacked a proper entry. There was an old flagstone path lost under the dirt, which had to be removed.  By chance, we had 600 bricks procured for a different project, but with wet weather coming, the front walk took priority. 

The design was created by drawing with sticks in the sand, as Andrew was trained. 5/8 plywood cut into 4 inch strips and laminated together was used as a form that could be curved. The walkway has a gentle slope to conform to the terrain and allow drainage to one side, where a trench was dug, and broken bricks from the job were placed as a french drain. Along the way it rained once or twice, and we got to see the system in action. 

A lot of work went into getting it to this point, where the ground is leveled and almost ready for bricks.

 The last course...

It's done!

This directional marker was set into the old patio, so we saved it and used a compass to reset it. 

Mooka pointing North.

Of course, who could resist adding some baubles and trinkets?

Deck Complete

I was wrong and he didn't actually finish it later that day. It took until yesterday, but it's done.

Deck Makeover

The cabin had an old deck that was rotten and nearing the end of its days, so before working on the siding and windows, it was demolition time.


At this stage the entire deck was flexing up and down as Andrew whomped on it with his Jesus bar.


We decided to replace it with a simple landing and stairs instead—obviously a lot cheaper, but also more fire safe, a big concern for us after last summer. Two friend/carpenters, Dragan and Stefan, helped at crucial points along the way.

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He sealed the wood with soybean oil sealer, which is a lot less toxic (and smells better) than standard wood sealer.



For the railing, we used the same authentic grape stakes that we've been using elsewhere for fencing (an idea gleaned from the neighbors across the road).






It will probably be completed later today, but the carps switched gears and are working on the barn now.

Open-Air Living

Over the last month we've been replacing all the windows in our house. Andrew warned me this would be a long, arduous process, but it has exceeded all expectations.

Here we have the basement windows removed. Upstairs, two new windows have been installed on the left.


The view from the inside:


Kind of nice...until it rains.

The kitchen window being removed:


An example of the new windows, though still without trim:

The Bathroom is Done*

Andrew finished tiling and grouting the bathroom counter.




I helped him at key moments of extreme need, which in the parlance of one of Andrew's tilesetting mentors, Ray Bobby, is also known as tweaking.

Tweaking is a state of mind in which the tilesetter is encountering any or all of the following crises: mud is sticking to tool handles, mud is sticking to his hands (gloves having been jerked off in frustration), tools are dirty, mud is going off and needs attention, he is becoming overheated and adjustments are needed to the lighting or possibly a fan plugged in, a piece is not fitting or other pieces are falling off, the color is wrong (this happens more with mosaic guys), it's lunchtime or past 3 pm. To bring a tilesetter back to a normal state of mind once tweaking occurs is possible, but requires determination and swift action.

* “Done” is a metaphor for “done”, a time when the grout will be the same color on all the walls and floor. If you look at the picture carefully you can see that we started out with a sandy color, but it was very light once it dried. We should have done a mock-up. Luckily Andrew said it's okay, and that we can add more grout in a new color and it won't hurt anything. To go from a light color to darker is easy, but the other way around is more problematic. He is adding a layer of Sedona Red over it. Then we must seal it before it can actually be used with carefree abandon.

Grout day

I know, it does seem like posts are disappearing and reappearing mysteriously around here. I can explain. We have a really good reason for all this. We decided to start using our real names. Stage fright? Perhaps. Sorry for any confusion this might be causing your brain. We should be back to normal soon.

Meanwhile, here are some pictures from the day when Mario grouted the shower. The color we chose is called Sand Dune.







Up next... grout sealing! And then finish plumbing! Okay, maybe not.

Final setting day on the shower

Altogether an amazing day.






Leftover mud becomes a fish.








On Saturday Mario is coming back to grout.

Huge thank you to Wes, Mario, and Matt. We love it!