Looking good

Framing is just about finished. Replaced the beam under the stairwell and chimney. Cut out the window in the mudroom. Things are looking pretty good. Just hope they nail the top of those two studs in the downstairs closet before they drywall them in. That gives something for cousin John to check every time he goes over there.

Stopped by first thing this morning to look at a sample of the old brick veneer that the stonemasons put together. It looked really nice - a cutback mortar between them. But Simon rang me up at lunch and asked me to stop by again. They were doing an excellent job of making it perfect, level, and lined up. Simon was right though - it just didn't look "right". The old bricks had varying thicknesses and lengths, so they had to use a really wide mortar joint to keep things even. We ended up asking them to take it down and rebuild it by just laying it, cutting bricks to whatever odd size they need, and keeping a tight joint. Fortunately they were only about three feet up on the downstairs fireplace veneer, so it wasn't the end of the world. At the end of the day, it looked pretty darn good. The upstairs firebox was also built out during the day.

One other note - the East Tennessee Draft Horse and Mule Association started harvesting the oats from the front field today. They'll be out there Saturday as well.

I did manage to take a video of the cellar downstairs for those who weren't able to crawl down there this past weekend.