Trying to cut down an 80 ft. dead tree, 24 inch diameter, was not easy. It will make lots of fire wood for June Lake.

Well, the old tree finally went over in the dark. After 10 hours of chopping, Wes and Tom were so surprised when it went they were speechless and forgot to yell 'Timber!!'

A great visit with Wes and Ginnie at June Lake.

Pictures from the last few days. The terra cotta floor in the kitchen in a herring bone pattern. A view of the bath tub tile in the guest bath. They pored the outside concrete in the area between the garage and living room, also built the low wall separating it from the front door area. The long curved step on the beach works well as a step or a sitting bench. The steps will remain colored concrete, the deck will be stone tiles as will the other area.

A few pics from June Lake with the cousins - Hayden,Sadie and Eva. They loved their water backpacks. Eva would wade in any water - no matter how cold!

Saturday morning and the painters are there - along with the plaster men doing the garage. The outdoor stairway is finished to the room over the garage and a shot of the bathroom

Sadie and Hayden went to the puppet show last week at Balboa Park.  Sadie got her Ernie puppet to take home!

When you build a house your have to have your crews work sequentially.  Like the painters have to stain and varnish the kitchen and bath cabinets before the floors go in.  The painters have too many other jobs they scheduled and the cabinets are not done and monday they want to start the floors. The painters say they will have full crews work on sat and sun to get it done.  I'll go over there tomorrow morning and see if they are there.  Thankfully, we have an excellent foreman, Dan, who keeps on top of everyone.  The whole house is now complete with a color stucco coat, they do the garage next week.  WE have having the hardest time deciding on what to do with the driveway.  Scaffolding comes down as soon as the garage has a finish stucco color, then we start the outside areas, stone,concret,planters - we have to decided like now!

The plaster isn't dry yet and it looks funny.  I couldn't wait to take a picture, they had just put it on and closed for the day.  Today I'll get another picture of it and see if it lightens some.  It is a 'Santa Barbara' finish, smooth, like an interior wall.  The color is an antique cream color, hopefully it will have variations in the color caused from the 'burnishing' technique of applying it.

Just a couple of pictures today of the kitchen. I try to take pictures on the weekend without workers in the way.  Kitchen is ready for staining and granite tops. Tomorrow starts the outside color stucco coat.  I hope the color looks like the sample.  Bathrooms are in tile process, but mostly covered up so pictures must wait.

These are pictures from last week. We have precast concrete trim going around the house, capping the walls, around the front door, etc. The beam shot is the bedroom, we have primer on the walls.

Time to add more new pictures. This was Tom at June Lake with his new chain saw!

Here is one of the 12 stone thresholds for the exterior doors. They have started the scratch and brown coats of stucco on the garage, next the house. 

Here is the infloor heating in the living room, ready for concrete pour over it.

Hayden is an old hand at this now. Grandpa showed him where the handle was to pull the plane around. Hayden with his bug eyes, getting ready to take Sadie and Lala for a ride in the Breezy.

This was Sadie's first trip to the airplane hangar. She wanted it all, get in and fly away! Grandpa has to watch carefully as they both explore his beloved airplanes. I wonder if they know how lucky they are?

Butterfly Day

Every year the Wild Animal Park has a 2-4 week period when you can visit the Butterfly House. It is so popular we waited 1 1.2 hours, even in the rain.  It was worth it, Hayden loves them. Having just hatched his own last week at home and sadly released it in the sunshine - he was wondering if he would see "Flutter" there with the other butterflies.