Busy, Busy Day

On the 13th Tom & Mandy tackled the back patio. We're (don't you just love it when I include myself in this manual labor thing & all I'm actually doing is playing with an 11 month old & shopping?) going to stone the upper & lower back patio walls & the front porch. They are starting on the lower back patio & neither one has tackled this type of project before. So this is a good starting point.On the 13th they stapled up all of the felt paper & a small section of the lath.That's the screen mesh that goes on top of the felt.
Then we took a break-life happens.
Come Monday, Danny's here to help (he has Monday's off & loves his sister), Mandy comes to work & brings Eva, she also brings with her a 4 week old kitten that she rescued from a burned out building next door to her. Mandy is bottle feeding him (we think it's a him) until he's weaned & trying to talk Dan (along with everyone else) into adopting him. Don't hesitate to speak up if you're intrested. Dan is wavering, the kitten sells itself, a phone call to Louise has Dan refocused.
Mandy & Dan name the kitty Frankie-after old blue eyes himself-never saw such a coal black kitten with such intense blue eyes.
Who me? Never even touched it, much less picked it up! You'd be proud Aunt Cruella Deville.

Tom's here, "Can we get to work...?" OK, OK, we're movin..

Mandy sorted & arranged stone pieces, laid them out like fitting together pieces of a puzzle, for the size wall they were starting with (a 10' x 3 1/2' section) on the ground.

Dan stapled the remainder of the lath (which is the screen mesh that the mortar is applied to & holds the stones in place) onto the felt, it was an all day process & the constant hammering of the staple gun & the compressor kicking on & off -well, I'll be honest-at times I thought about shooting a staple or two thru him. Doesn't the picture of him kinda remind you of Hannibal Lecter?

Tom & Mandy mixed up the type S mortar (don't know if you care, but he specifically said type S mortar-so that's what I type). We had an unusually warm late summer day, the stones Mandy had been sorting were quite sun heated, along with the black felt paper, not to mention all the heat enclosed in the patio area since it's a southern exposure.
The application of the stone begins & they maybe get about 8 stones applied. It's too hot, the mortar is setting up too fast , it's drying before the stones adhere...call it quits & start fresh tomorrow-projected to be cool & damp.

In the mean time Coop & Larry are here starting the siding. That's Right-They Are Really Here!! They have installed the fascia & soffit around the garage & part of the side of the house.

While all that was going on, Tom's brother Jim was here helping to hook up the electric. We have lights, it's just that they're limited & my concern as the sun sets earlier & earlier is that we'll begin living like the farmers of old , rising & setting with the sun. At least we know we now have exterior lighting for the front porch. Prior to this we had one porch light that was a beacon to the pizza delivery guy. All we had to say was "on the side of our old house pull into the stoned driveway & knock on the door with the one side light."

In addition, the contractor that Erie hired to finish the trim work on window #5 was here to
assess the work. He'll be back tomorrow to start the job.Gene is his name, nice guy, about 55 or so, also wants to bid on the siding job. That's another story.
But then again, aren't they all?