Steps, and shares, and a $1,000 match.

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

Halfway through the morning, this is what we had: stairs all the way up to the upper level. Yes, I'm still wobbly on them; Wings and the guys help me up and down. Toney and José took some of the lumber with them at the end of the day; Toney's going to make the railings (and possibly the balusters) at home this weekend. We are already well into this final compound stage of the work, although there's a huge amount left to go.

For now, I've been up to the top a couple of times for photos, and it's . . . amazing. This guy likes it:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

That's the man. No Seinfeld jokes, please.

By day's end, it looked like this:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

You may not notice what's different at first. But they've put the backing on the stairs. They've also framed in the are behind and below them. They've turned that small space into three separate enclosed spaces: on the right, a coat closet for the living room; on the left, a pantry for the kitchen; and beneath the stairs, shelved storage space.

From above, we finally got a really good look at our views — views that neither we nor any else have seen from this spot before:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

That's the view from the front window of our bedroom — from the doors, actually, since it will open onto a balcony-style deck. We're going to take advantage of the morning and midday say and warmth, and it will give us a beautiful cooling cross-draft in the summer.

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

This is the view from the other bedroom window, literally looking out the window frame, facing northeast. It also gives us a clear and constant view of the horses and of Wings's studio, which is useful.

Thanks to the donations of several incredibly generous folks over the last few days, we were able to raise about $1,900 of the $5,300 needed for the materials for the roof, the work that will begin next Monday. That, combined with funds from an unexpected sale, allowed us to order the lumber and waferboard yesterday, to the tune of $2,100. The guys tell us that will, with the exception of a few hundred dollars for incidentals, probably hold them for next week, but at the end of the week, we'll need to order the next round of materials for the roof, which means we need to raise about $3,400 in the meantime. The good news is that there is currently a $1,000 match on offer, which, when met, will put us $2,000 closer to that goal.

So, of course, we still need shares of our YouCaring page via the widgets provided. It's especially helpful if folks share the link via the widget code at the lower right-hand side of the page, which produces this:

We also continue to need shares of Wings's Web site, the sales from which enable us to keep the construction going (as well as pay ordinary bills and the occasional unexpected expense, like today's horse vet visit for Cree, whose founder is flaring with the change in weather). For folks planning to commission holiday gifts, now is the time to get hold of me, because it the creative process takes time: conception, design, execution, delivery. 

Many thanks to everyone who has given us a hand thus far. We are all working at an incredible pace at the moment, trying to get as much done as possible before winter gets here. The roof is next week, plastering the week after, and then we should at least have the house enclosed and the exterior part of it weatherproof. For this weekend, I'll be trying to catch up a little, provided that the pace of the last several days eases off even a tiny bit. On Monday, I should have new photos for everybody.



All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.