Sanctuary blues and stormy skies to match. Shares needed.

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

This was the sky at dawn this morning. It is, in part, the same combination of colors that we've been busy painting on the walls of our sanctuary space. I am going much heavier on the dark blue than on the silvery light, obviously:

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

But up close, it's remarkably more like the clouds than you'd expect. Unfortunately, the silver undercoat makes close-ups impossible; something about its reflective capabilities turns the blue to a cold steel gray.

Speaking of the silver, in addition to edging what you see there (both ceiling/wall seam and wall corners), Wings saved my neck by sponging the silver onto the unreachable parts of the stairwell walls. Here's the east wall, which I began and stopped when it got beyond my reach:

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

You can sort of see where I left off and he picked it up, because it is almost impossible to pick up the exact same rhythm after stopping, even with the same person doing it. In this case, he was also using a different sponge, the silver having solidified the old one beyond cleaning, and so given that — and the bizarre angles required of him — it's remarkably close. It'll also get [mostly] covered with the darker blue that will be sponged off, so any variance is entirely manageable.

Here's the other stairwell wall, on the west side:

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

I'm referring, obviously, to the narrow little wall between the blue and white, the one with the silver on it. I held my breath pretty much the whole time he was doing both, given that it was via stepladders on a makeshift scaffold of sorts. I may have to suck it up and do the dark blue myself, but that will go much faster, and maybe I can do it without harming myself due to terminal clumsiness. The white wall, incidentally, will not be blue; it's going to be a combination of all the metallics in a sort of earthy channeling of the light, one to match up with the mica-infused plaster that will edge either side of it. [When you walk into the house, the first thing you see is the stairwell to the left, with that wall fully visible, and the plastered wall to the right.]

The crews are coming back tomorrow. It's supposed to rain all week (I'll believe it when it happens, but whatever), and so Sherm and his guys are supposedly going to be available to us to try to finish the bancos and all the rest of the interior plaster this week (Tony and Reynaldo have a lot of woodwork to occupy them, including interior door frames). We are able to do this thanks to, well less a family friend than a friend who is family who made it possible today, and a couple of other dear friends who added in smaller amounts, so labor is largely handled for the week. Which doesn't mean we won't be right back here next week; it's endless, and so is the stress that accompanies it. The guys keep telling us that everyone runs into the wall of constant expense at this point, but "everyone" else builds with a home construction loan to cover this stuff, and the stress of trying to do it as we go is really grinding us both down. We still need to make sales consistently, and we really, really need shares. The rest is all cut and paste; 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. A note here: I really do dislike Home Depot, but they have a terrific tile that would work for pretty much the entire downstairs (except the bathroom) that's less than a third of the price of a lot of what's comparable from Lowe's. It's the kind of thing that we can't rationalize spending so much more on, given the differential, and so I'll be adding Home Depot gift cards to the wishlist, too, much as it pains me. [Okay, so I just checked; you can only buy Home Depot gift cards through their own company site, so they're not going to be on the Amazon wishlist. Think of it as a virtual virtual wishlist.]

As always lately, I have more work this evening, and I have to get on it. 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.