Landscape

Much to my surprise, the landscapers arrived Tuesday with Bobcat in tow. Seemingly, though the weather has been below freezing, the moisture content of the soil is low enough (10 days after a big storm) that moving dirt is no problem. I was pleased to see Jake the landscaper (not Jake the carpenter) back at work. I met him while staying in Taos over a year ago and Jake was scaping the neighbor’s land. Between then and now he had severe heart problems, but has changed his lifestyle and is able to work again. Great guy and very good worker and crew leader.

Today he got started moving all my dirt around, some of it up against the house to promote drainage, some of it into berms in strategic and artistic locations, other movement just to mix sand and clay. While all this dirt-moving went on outside, inside we were discussing tile around the countertop. I laid out the tile for Ule to set, and there was not as much as we had planned. So a conference with the interior designer and Eli (my builder who has a very good eye) determined what to install first, how much more to order (it is special manufacture), and a bunch more details.

We also revised the design of the smaller cabinet doors in the mud room to make the stiles the same size above and below, which alignment will improve their appearance. (The photo shows Ule and Lalo working outside in the snow. The garage is used to assemble and glue the cabinet door frames.) Our original idea to surround the linen closet with the same casing profile that we used around the doors will probably not let us install the hinges. In addition, the tops of the door and the linen closet do not coincide, so having them made of different materials will mask this height difference.After a discussion and trial of materials with which to caulk the bathroom sink, we fell back to white silicone caulking with the glass pencil tile embedded. It looks very nice.

This house is turning out to be more showcase than merely pleasant. Sigh.