Cynthia and I have had it with living in the rental pit. Ready or not, it is time to move. Sure, we’ll be camping in the new house, but it will be better than living in The Pit. So on the first of August I called our landlady and gave notice for the fifteenth. Then we took stock of what we need to accomplish before we move; windows and doors for starters.

Arimas has been welding up a storm. In just two weeks, among other things, we now have five doors ready to hang. We used 2″ square tubing to make the door frames and used the doorway cutouts from the shipping containers to make the door panels. Here are five doors all primed and ready to hang. We still need to caulk the gap between the frame and the panel and paint them the finish color:

And we have eight windows and eight security bar frames welded and ground smooth, ready for the paint shop:

Additionally, Arimas and I have started the security bars for the bump out in the master bedroom. I am patterning them off the front gate design. This is an important part of preparing to move in because without it, we just wouldn’t be comfortable sleeping in the room at night. This panel still needs the curved pieces that will give it strength and design:

The containers have some tie-strap loops that make a great jig for bending the steel rod. Here is Arimas making a curve:

Two days later there is a roof overhead and the bars are ready for paint:

Arimas is happy with his work. I told him that now he can put “Experienced With Curves” on his business card:

In the meantime, Armando has been working at the front of the house. Remember the M2 foam panels that we put in place a few weeks ago?

Well, there is a very common and quite inexpensive way to sheath a wall, and Cynthia likes it a lot. For a hundred dollars, we bought four yards of similarly-sized rocks. Several men spent a lot of time picking these rocks out of the river. Armando and a helper are busy mortaring the rocks onto the wall, and you can see that Armando is doing his best to keep everything level and similarly-sized:

This is tricky business and looks pretty bad if you do it wrong. The next photo is of a high-end house in town. I don’t like the rock work; compare the left end of the wall with the right end and you will see what I mean. It lacks a cohesion of style and makes me quite nauseous:

Progress:

I had to keep a close eye on Armando because as soon as I would look away, he would get off level. I didn’t want the rock work to look wavy. Finally, in my sleep, I designed a tool for him to use to keep his lines straight. In the morning I made this simple guide:

Now nice and straight:

After setting the stones, Armando uses a sponge and a paint brush to clean and sculpt the mortar joints:

In my free time (ha ha) I’ve cut another window in the guest bedroom:

And have applied some paint to some of the walls. We decided that this house calls for some bold colors, not just white or god forbid beige. Here is the laundry room, kind of a grape-gray (of course your mileage may vary depending on your monitor…).

And plum/violet in the second bedroom:

But wait, there is more. Cynthia and I have gone back and forth on a wall in the master bathroom. We finally decided to use foam panels with painted repello (stucco). With the exception of an electric switch box, here are the panels ready for repello:

Jabo has been on light duty this week. He kept breaking his dew claws (thumbs on his front legs) and it was quite painful for him. So Cynthia took him to the vet who surgically removed the claws. Stitches come out on Sunday, but until then we call him Conehead:

So with about a week left, there is still a lot to do. Next on the list is to finish the windows and hang the doors. Stay tuned and thanks for stopping by.