stone work begins!

This was an exciting week; the stone work began.

The whole stone contracting process was an experience. In the end we used Joel, who has good English and is known as Ho-el to his people ("j's" are pronounced as "h's" in spanish)). Joel is a brick mason I've known for a year or two who swears he is an excellent stone mason, although he promptly subbed the work to Eno (Enoc?, Enic? Enen? Ennen? - he told me but his English is rather limited and I'm not real sure exactly what he said). Eno/Enoc/whomever sent a crew and they went at it. Eno, who calls me Senor, did find me today to say I needed to order more mortar. Apparently, Joel gets $1 of the $6 per square foot labor rate for "placing" the work with folks like Eno, which explains why Joel has the nice truck and Eno does the heavy lifting.

Actually, while Eno does some heavy lifting he has a crew of guys who do most of the heavy lifting. And these stones are heavy. The pallet of stone in the picture weighs right at 4,000 pounds. I estimate these stones are, on average, about forty pounds each, which the stone guys chip away at with their rock hammers until they fit together nicely. Looks like brutal work to me.

(And truth be told, Joel does play an important role for he is the one who has insurance, good English and the contacts to get the work. I'm sure all of the guys on the stone crew aspire to be like Joel and drive the nice truck one day).

On the inside the trim work is finished for now. The trim man was ready to go fishing in Florida and wanted to trim the stairs when he returned. He worked 10 days straight except for Sunday, including Saturdays and Memorial Day, so I can't fault him for that. He did a beautiful job. Interior paint is scheduled to start on Monday.

We did finally settle on an exterior color the other day (Sherwin Williams "Warm Stone" for those so interested). The exterior painters will go after the stone is finished.

So, progress is being made.