What did we do while other people were putting insulation in our house? Congratulate each other that we weren't doing it. SOO nice to skip that particular horrible job.
Neal also set up the next phase by doing a sheetrock take-off and special ordering 4 1/2' x 12' sheets. What? 4 1/2' x 12'? Thanks to one of our building officials, we found out that such a thing is available. That means that our 9' ceilings will have only one seam for Neal to tape and mud.
It also meant that we needed help to unload the monster sheets! Luckily for me, I have tendonitis in one elbow, and am not helping with heavy loads. Thank you Steven, Kreg, Kenny, and the guys from Sunset for doing my heavy work.
Then, in true Neal fashion, he decided to do the fresco work in the Studio guest room. We put on a gypsum base coat four years ago, and the room has waited for the fresco top coat since then.
Neal dug in to a progression of samples on boards, coming up with the final sketch of pear blossoms that is on the dresser in this photo:
On the left wall, the white paper is his "cartoon"- the traditional way of transferring a full-size image to a wall to be frescoed. First he mixes the lime plaster (white sand and lime putty), sprays the wall with water, then trowels on the impasto:
Then he waits. And waits. For 4-6 hours, he waits for the plaster to set up to a consistency that will allow him to work. He tacks up the cartoon (which has tiny holes tracing the image), and pounces colored chalk through the holes on to the wall. This is his outline when applying the pigment.
Then using a stick to stabilize his hand, he paints the image. He managed to do two entire repeats before the next phase of the sheetrock installation started. GORGEOUS.
The next phase was a visitor: nephew Matthew arrives! We adore Matt - he stepped off the plane directly into our tile showroom blitz, and clearly has the Anderson genes for design. Not to mention the Borgersen/Anderson charm!
Second stop on our off-island errand running: the safety shop, to buy Matt a respirator. Oh, what fun.
Here's the very first sheet of sheet rock going up. Note the stylin' respirators.
Three days later, all of our ceilings now have rock. Incredible, really. We so appreciate you Matt!!
