You pretty well captured what it’s like. It’s been landscaping/hardscaping questions, fireplace materials, stain colors, mirror sizes/design/placement, and a handful of other things this week. And we still need to sort out food, music, table settings, (some) of the flowers, cake ribbon color/design, and a number of other things there. We have everyone booked at least. Just have to figure out what to do with them.
Unfortunately for the house, we have a design for the fireplace facing that they just can’t seem to source any material for. I started building some panels to do some very basic textured plasterwork over. It’s not a bad project by any means, but one I’d rather have to not do. It was a saving grace when we found out the fireplace doesn’t have to be completely done for the bank or city to let us move in. I can push that project off a few weeks.
But I have some photos now. If all the backordered stuff comes in this week, we could actually be a week away from completion. (Which means moving in about 2 weeks, and wedding in about 4…)
Something of a mini tour. Still a bit to be done, but it’s getting there.
I’ll start at the kitchen, since this is the whole reason we built a house rather than bought/renovated one. It has a sliding window for access to the patio/grill/wok cooking area. Then looks out into the dining and living room area.
Besides the master suite, there’s my office, a guest bedroom with ensuite bath, the laundry room, and a bedroom if we ever decide to actually settle down and start a family.
Of course there’s also the obligatory space in the back of the garage for the gym. (And some weird ductwork I may have them rework):
@LoRez, it just keeps getting better! I adore the pantry, and your master bath is gorgeous. I can’t even talk about the bedroom anymore because of the jealousy. Although I content myself that I look out on some extreme loveliness through my cheap, boxy-ass bedroom windows. And that soon I’ll at least have a second small closet so that my clothes aren’t hung in the middle of the room on a portable rack from Bed Bath and Beyond.
I like the pendants over the island - those are new since last time, right? Hold on, let me scroll…okay, yes, they are. I really like them. We hung ours too low over the island, and need to move them. (Well, Kevin does. I just sit around throwing out advices.) As it is now, if we’re standing on either side, or have company and some of us are sitting and some standing, they’re right in our way. But now we’re painting the outside (have help with that, thank God) and getting ready to start the screened porch (no help, cue sad face).
@SkyzykS , those are incredible! I can imagine you must be proud - they’re like forever testaments to your skill and effort. Is that you standing in the foreground of the top pic? Thank you so much for sharing them.
Back when I was dating - upthread, lol - I went out with a guy who did high end timber work - so exposed beams and framing in beautiful buildings. It was really cool to look at his work. Something I’ve seen many times but had never focused on until then.
Thank you. That is me in the foreground. I was going to caption it “Hi Em!” but I was just so happy to get the ccp function to work. Compound bends and precise fit up are just another day, but figuring out these new techy things is nuts!
I guess there is a bit of pride in the craftsmanship, but its buffered with humility too. All of the work has a story behind it, and its nice to be part of it. That first pic is part of a set for the rebuilding of St. Kateri in southern Illinois, which was completely destroyed by a tornado. The whole congregation helped in the reconstruction, and we exchanged photos and communicated throughout the whole process. That takes it from the realm of just another job in the shop to being part of something much bigger than any one part of it.
The other pics were following in the footsteps. Built in 1909, they had become weathered to the point of needing replaced. The glazier brought in a section of the original, which was used to replicate the proportions and profile. It also served as a reminder of the craftsman that came before us, and an inspiration to honor their hard work by doing our best. You never know. Some guys in a shop might be looking at a section of that 100 years from now saying “Oh, look at this! That’s how they did it back in the day…”. Fortunately, those ones went to a small town that I drive through to go fishing sometimes, so I can stop by and check them out in person.
@SkyzykS That’s some beautiful work. I have a lot of respect and admiration both for the work itself, but also that you’re part of a tradition of skilled craftsmanship that literally spans millennia. And that you’re building things that should last a number of generations.
I don’t really have that in my field, and nothing I build even lasts more than a handful of years. Now that I’m doing iPhone stuff, I’ll be lucky if anything I do is still around 5 years from now.
For the most part, the closest I can get is via the stuff I purchase. My wedding ring is currently being made by a metalsmith who forges his own pattern welded steels. In the house, we’re having our fireplace hearth and mantel cut from local volcanic basalt, and our porch is framed with douglas fir timbers.
But none of that compares to the fact that this is what you do.
Dude! You’re a pioneer of the digital era! Maybe not Wozniak, but hell, it takes a long time and a lot of man(brain) power to launch an era. Guys like you are fleshing out language and formats that have changed the world and will continue to do so ad infinitum. Those first couple of Apples were just the zygote of what is now barely an infant, and there is no telling what it will grow into a hundred (or thousand) years from now.
But thanks. I’m really not used to this kind of response or recognition.
LoRez, I see what you do as being essentially the same as this. Skyz is right, you’re a part of something larger, doing work that will eventually be historic. I had a neighbor briefly in Austin who worked way back in the day with Steve Jobs on some small component whose name and function I’ve forgotten and probably never really understood. Anyway, I was a complete fangirl over the whole thing. He was part of a technological revolution! So are you.
Maybe I tend to feel this way because it’s so necessary to the work I do. Particularly in my work with kids, I need to believe that some of the seeds I plant will grow later and that my work has ripple effects that I’ll never see. Yours does, too.
Hey everyone! Does anyone happen to know (even, perhaps, the pollo loco himself) if AngryChicken still posts here? Or if anyone happens to stay in contact with him anymore?
