Well, it has been a long, crazy process - like a MONTH long - but the chimney is finally done. Poor Aldridge really did not want to hang out on our roof and do this chimney, and he and Luis (our project manager) tried three or four different, less drastic solutions over the past month, but eventually Ben and I just had to put our feet down and say that the stone had to come off and be redone. Nothing could fix the fact that the chimney looked like it was leaning, and our thoughts were confirmed when we went to visit one of our neighbors a couple of weeks ago and she said, "I noticed they started taking the stone on your chimney down, and I was glad. The man who works on my landscaping told me that he thought it was leaning and he wanted to make sure we got a chance to tell you about it." Yes, we are aware. 😄 But it made me feel a little less Karen-y that other people noticed it, too.
Anyway, Aldridge has really been a good sport throughout the process, and I feel really bad that he had to do the whole thing over, but his work looks SO MUCH BETTER than the other guys'.
Stone masonry is an art, and a good stone mason takes such pride in his work. You could 100% tell the difference in the work done by Aldridge (who is a really good stone mason) and the guy he subcontracted (who was more of a concrete guy than a stone mason). So anyway, we are now happy with the chimney, which allowed them to take the scaffolding down today so the roofers can move on with the roof.
We've been held up on moving forward with the inside of the house because, without the roof finished, water still pours in in a couple of places when it rains, and also because WE WERE STILL MISSING A BUNCH OF DOORS. Well, the two missing sets of French doors for the back of the house showed up this week, as did the custom front door (didn't expect that one so soon).
We won't install the front door yet because it's made of wood and glass and could easily get damaged while the stone, concrete, etc., is getting finished up on the front of the house. And we're still missing the custom windows in the living room vault, as well as garage doors (expected in about 3 weeks). But they can board all that up to keep enough moisture out of the house to get moving on insulation and drywall once the dang roof gets finished, so hopefully the roofers will be back this week and get us finished up.
As you can see, the painters have been working as much as they can on getting the outside of the house painted, so we've been trying to move forward in every way possible, but progress has been minimal over the last few weeks.
Next on my agenda is to pick a wood stain to use on the tongue-and-groove porch ceilings, the porch posts and beams, and the interior beams and stair trim. Beyond that, I've got to make sure the same door hardware we used in the last house is still available (for interior and exterior doorknobs, etc.), and then I think I'm pretty much done picking stuff out. Now, I just need to SEE IT ALL IN THE HOUSE. I'm not a patient person, and these last few weeks have been killing me. Let's GO!
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