We never got around to building the deck. After experiencing the wind, bugs and country critters, we decided that bringing outdoors to the indoors was the best way to enjoy our “backyard”. So early February, construction began on our new sunroom as well as a number of other smaller modifications to our home.
After the foundation walls were poured and the forms removed, they discovered that the plans had been misread for what needed to be attached at the corners. The repairs took longer than the initial set up as concrete had to be removed while leaving the rebar in place and additional reinforcement added. A week of nice weather was wasted.
The existing stucco had to be removed in the places where the new construction would attach to the house. Since rain was possible, the process was done leaving the wire and paper in place until the new pieces would connect. This procedure was a lot slower than what would have been done if it was summer and no chance of rain for weeks.
In early March, the windows and exterior doors were delivered, so things could get closed up as quickly as possible. But a major series of storms were predicted, so plastic wrapping in an effort to protect the construction from the elements.
The winds were stronger than the plastic and things got rather damp.
The winds overnight with the last of that series were strong enough to tip over the port-a-potty.
Another area for the remodel was the deck off the master bedroom. We decided that it should be enclosed and an extension of the bedroom. Do the stucco was removed and the surfaces prepared for the changes.
As the process continued and three of the windows are in place it is beginning to see the room taking shape.
By late March the new room has been closed in from the outside.
I wish I had taken a photo of the rough piece of citrine from which this gem was cut. When I purchased the rough, I was looking for material that I could use for concave faceting. It was during of one of my false re-starts for faceting and I don’t remember if I thought I would saw the rough into multiple pieces or use it for a single stone. When the time finally came last fall that I took it out of the drawer for faceting, I ended up preforming it to be a single rectangular cushion stone. Other than knowing that I would use the OMF machine to put concave facets on the pavilion, I had no idea how I would cut it. It got dopped along with ten or so other stones. They got cut. This one sat there being big and intimidating. Another ten or so stones were dopped and cut and the big citrine still had not touched the faceting laps. It was now the new year and I decided that I could no longer allow that stone to intimidate me.
