A little respite, and more sanctuary blues. Shares needed.

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

Today was the first day in more than a week that we had no one — no one — here in our faces today. It was like a mini-vacation, just Wings and me, with the place to ourselves for once. Originally, Sherm and his crew were going to be here to work on the interior plaster, but we all forgot what today was, which was the local high school graduation, so they bumped their work to tomorrow and Monday, and we canceled the other two folks. Tomorrow will be crazy-busy here again, with Philip bringing two more guys on his exterior crew (for a total of nine), and Sherm with his two guys. 

It'll be crazy-busy for us, too. I got those two additional walls in my writing refuge painted today, but that's only the base color coat. Tomorrow, Wings will do the ceiling while I'm sponging on the metallic coat (my custom mix of silver and pearlescent white). Monday for the dark blue sponge-off top coat. But there's a catch: Two of the other walls are in the stairwell (one partly; the other fully), and because we've changed our minds on the back wall of the stairwell, I have to be able to tape that off before I can do even the base color. I can't do that until our regular crew is back on Tuesday; Tony's promised to build me a quick-and-dirty scaffold for my stairwell work. But I need to get the walls that include windows and doors done so that he can finish casing them, and since one of those walls (the east one) extends into the stairwell, I've had to stop partway along and will have to do all three coats, leave an area just primed, and then go back to it later. And cross my fingers and pray that I can make the patterns random enough to match.

This is an incredibly expensive weekend here, not because of any celebrating of the legal holiday, but because of the cost of all the plaster work inside and out. We'll be writing one big check tomorrow, and then more on Monday. And while what's going on now represents a huge step in the whole process, it's only that — a step. We've got a long way to go to be able to live in it, which means that we continue to need consistent daily shares. Here are all the links:

• First, to donate, the PayPal link is here. 
• Second, for sales (which we really need to make, and I'll be highlighting some of his high-end stuff on the site this week), the link to Wings's site (preferably with a testimonial, if you have some of his work), because sales are gonna keep this thing rolling. 
• And finally, the link to our wishlist (which badly needs updating), with an emphasis on the Lowe's gift cards, because those are what will help us pay for all the stuff that will make this place liveable, like a water heater and flooring and so forth. 

As I've also been saying, we need to make some sales, and sales of some of Wings's bigger-ticket items would go a very, very long way toward this phase (the most expensive of the entire process, unfortunately). We've been blessed with a couple of sales this week, and today I posted the first of some of Wings's newest work, completed only today. Tomorrow, I'll be posting another piece (one more fabulous yet that I freely admit to coveting, but it's meant for someone else), and also some new micaceous pottery by a member of his extended family. Please watch for both posts and share them; his new work in particular is pretty spectacular. For now, I have more work to do yet tonight, plus dinner to fix. Many thanks and much love to everyone.



All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.