Space filler... until I get the cabinet pictures posted later this week. They are custom made by a cabinet maker Ryan has used a lot and are finished in pecan. Stain will be a low VOC, water based something-or-other!
Fred comes by every night at dusk for dinner -- Cat Chow. He's getting ready to show off for one of many females, including 4 albinos, who all live with him at the horse stables 4 blocks away. It's such a hoot... they all think they have the run of the 'hood... and they do. A 7 bird mating display on a neighbor's front lawn two weeks back was sight to behold... as is peacock poop on the deck... :-(
Come July, we'll see if his walnut brain is smart enough to figure out that we've moved a block farther east to the new house.
I posted this for one of our best friends, V. Les Rogers, an artist who paints large oils. He is going to paint a piece that spans one side of that upstairs wall fronting Janine's Pilates studio space. It will be viewable as you enter the front door into the downstairs living area and will frame part of the big space above our open kitchen.
The opening in the middle will have tempered safety glass that allows the cats to dream of what's below when up there! ;-) Also, it will allow the southwest sun from a big casement in the left studio wall above to bathe the space below at the end of the day.
We recently had the American Clay Earth Plaster folks at the house to do a demo for potential customers, as well as for us. We are using their product for all our interior walls and ceilings. They spent their time with us doing test panels, taping and priming part of the kitchen wall, and generally answering anything and everything we wanted to know.
Two other designers and builders were present, along with our drywall guy and the painter, to learn how this product is used. I won't get into the "gritty" application details -- you can see them here -- but suffice to say it's very easy and so much more forgiving than traditional plaster.
We first saw this product last year at the Source Design Center in Santa Fe. It is the most amazing organic wall covering we've ever come across and its warmth and "cool factor" are out of this world. It naturally helps to moderate interior climate by regulating aridity and humidity. It absorbs or releases moisture as the interior humidity changes. No beaded water drops on bathroom walls! It's warm to the touch in winter and cool in summer. There are no VOCs and since the pigment is in the mix, no painting -- with 32 colors at present!
Have some left over? Pour it out on a plastic sheet, allow to dry, then roll up and seal in a pail for future "add water and stir" use. Have a gouge or a hole? Repair and patch over with a damp sponge using the stuff you dried!
We are using Napa Olive throughout the kitchen/dining/living area. It will be a skip trowel, loma finish (like a fine sandpaper). The master suite will be Osage, with a porcelina (polished, leather-like smooth) finish on the walls and loma on the ceiling. Master bath will be Snow Canyon (the base clay color), again with a porcelina finish on the walls and loma on the ceiling. Upstairs studio will be Osage and the bedrooms/bathrooms will be Acacia, with a porcelina wall finish and loma ceilings. Lastly, the media room will be Savannah Moss with a skip trowel, loma finish throughout.
Many thanks again to Croft Elsaesser (developer and co-founder) and Paul Avidon (head of sales and marketing) for their time and expertise in demo'ing this great product at our new home.
I took this shot as the sun was setting about a week ago. It glows right through the Granbury stone chimney cap and looks stunning -- a picture does not do it justice!Three more pics here.
A semi-daily dose of miscellaneous treats that started out detailing the construction of Janine's and my new ICF home. It's now a series of disparate ramblings as they occur.
About Me
Name: Bill Kennedy
Location: Dallas, Texas, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
