No Star Wars Pun Here

Rose doesn’t travel well, but she loves being at the ranch, especially when she gets lovin’s from the crew. Stella looks over the arroyo, which is now much steeper and deeper than before the rains. She looks like she wants to jump in, but she’s too smart to do that again. Stella loves her Fribby. You can tell by all the slobbers on it.

The rug is finished except for the glass tile border. Jaime is an artist in more than one way. He painted these piggies on a scrap of plywood while camping out here at the ranch to save on fuel. Tile is going up on the fireplace.

This little piggy went to market

This little piggy stayed home

Jaime has continued making progress on all the tile work. He has basically finished the “rug” in the entry way and has started putting the tile up around the fireplace. All of the tile Suna chose has fossils embedded, so we should always be able to find new interesting things on the walls and floor.

The stone she chose for the exterior walls is also chock full of fossils. Most of them are little snail shells that look like rattlesnake rattles, so, of course, we had to have them. The quarry guys even call the layer of limestone from which the rock comes the rattlesnake layer.

I knew that you were supposed to start in the middle of the floor with tile, but I didn’t know (although I should have) you also start tile walls halfway up. Jaime put a 1x4 on the wall to have a level surface to mount the first course of the fireplace tile. With that course being level, all the rest should be level, too. And the courses of partial tiles will be at the top and bottom where they will be less apparent.

In weather news, it’s been dry enough long enough for the arroyo to drain down to a trickle. The sides have fallen in and washed away, making it a little dangerous to walk too close to the edge. It might cave and carry you with it. Stella probably isn’t heavy enough to cause a problem, but I call her away from the edge anyway.

All of the ponds are still full to capacity, so any further rain will cause more flooding. But the good news is we’re set for summer.

A Tile Rug?

This retaining wall should help us keep the HVAC units level over time. It will also make a nice raised bed garden.

Jaime may wish he hadn’t suggested a tile rug in the entry way.

Jaime continues to work on tiling the ground floor at the ranch house. I’m impressed. The Versailles pattern Suna picked out is difficult at best. But he has also managed to continue it seamlessly around all of the obstacles I mentioned before.

Suna and Jaime came up with an interesting idea to make the pattern even more difficult. Jaime will use some large format tile to make a tile “rug” in the middle of the entry way. We even have enough leftover tile of a from the master bath to make a decorative border. And now we’re buying some glass tile to make a second border. I’m sure it will all be beautiful when it’s done.

By the way, all of the tile in the house is Travertine, which I want to call “turpentine” for some reason.

Outside, the HVAC heat exchangers have been installed. Raul built a retaining wall around them, so we should be able to keep them level once we bring in more dirt and relevel them once.

 

Another Ranch House Update

Jaime lays tile in the Versailles pattern, a really complex pattern made up of several different sized tiles.

Have I mentioned that Stella loves water? And look! The pond is full. The red gate pops and echoes the red trim on the house and garage.

Jaime figured out how to put down the Versailles pattern on the tile that will continue throughout the downstairs. It’s very intricate, and he has to break it to wrap around the bar, the island, the kitchen wall, and the stairway wall. For each item he breaks around, he has to make the pattern align correctly in the middle of the other side.

Frank has begun laying the bamboo flooring upstairs. He’s starting in the master bedroom and will carry the pattern down the hall to the landing. The stairs will also be clad in bamboo. Suna picked a rich chocolate color.

The crown molding is up. It makes a tremendous difference in how finished the house looks. There was enough left over molding that we ended up with crown in the toilet stall. Fancy!

Suna took advantage of a break in the weather to paint the entry gates red. They look really good now that they match the trim on the house and garage.