I can has lumber?

Today we got a delivery of a bunch of lumber for the bead cottage. It wasn't delivered by crane, but by moffett, a kind of piggy-back forklift. It was kind of fun. I'd like to drive around town in one of these things.

After the delivery came, I met my mom, sister and niece at the Backroom for dinner and then my sister, niece and I went to the NH FisherCats game. It was a beautiful evening. And it satisfied my jones for some baseball during this baseball-free week.

The view from our seats:


Sarah and Elizabeth sharing an ice cream:
A very excited fan:I left around 9:30. I was hoping to see the moon rise over centerfield, but the moon didn't cooperate. It rose behind the stands instead.

Weekend

We had a great weekend. Sunday we went to Fenway again. This time the Red Sox won! Yippee! And now they are at the top of their division at the All-Star break. That totally rocks. It was a gorgeous day-- nice and warm if a little humid but there was such a refreshing breeze it blew away the stickiness. This was the view from my seat:
Notice anything missing? Like maybe the batter? The catcher? The home plate umpire? I had the perfect non-view of home plate. If I leaned forward to where my nose was almost touching the person in front of me, I could almost see a righty batter. Forget about trying to see a lefty. It kind of stunk, but I felt fortunate to be there in the crowd anyway. It was a lot of fun.

Manny went into the wall again during a pitching change. This is him coming out.
(I deleted a big whine here about the all-star break and about west coast road trips)

As far as the bead cottage goes, there won't be too much progress this week as Keith and Charlie have to work on some other projects before building starts here. I do hear that we may get some lumber drops, though. They might be blog-worthy. Maybe they'll use a crane.

Well slab man Steve has come and gone. I was considering placing some beads in the slab but couldn't make up my mind. I didn't want to mar the perfect finish. It was so smooth and nice. When Steve left for lunch I went out there and tested the slab and even if I wanted to there was no way to put a bead in. That stuff was like a rock already. It's too bad because I had the perfect beads to place in there. They were beads with sayings like "joy" and "dream" and "create" -- perfect for a bead cottage.

This morning slab man Steve showed up along with another cement mixer to pour the slab. It was pretty exciting to watch. Here's the cement being poured into the forge area:


Even Barney was fascinated with the goings-on:

Here's a close-up of the cement pouring out:

And the almost-finished product (slab man Steve had run out for coffee so I snapped a pic):

This morning Keith put up our new canine containment system. We tested it out and it works! No dogs escaped. Until the filling in of the foundation, the hills of sand plus a wheelbarrow and a couple of sawhorses worked to contain the beasts. After the hills were flattened we were forced to break out the leashes. This would be fine if we had normal dogs, but Barney will not do anything on a leash. Anything. It's a nightmare when we travel with them, and we cancelled our plans to bring the dogs to Bar Harbor pretty much for that reason. You have to wonder what goes through these dogs' heads. You know?

So I came home from my nail appointment and there was a Slab Man in the driveway, taking a look around. He told me they'd be back tomorrow to put in the slab.

Oh it's a beautiful day and no one is around so I'm sneaking off to the garage to make some beads.

I took these pictures seconds before a storm blew up, so it was quite dark out. The excavating - or filling in - is finished. The foundation is completely filled up and ready for the cement slab. Here's the typical shot I've been taking:

And a close up of the bead shop area. the forge is straight ahead and the storage area is to the left.


And a shot from the porch. The dark dirt is new topsoil and the lighter area is where the patio is going to be.

And then I had to run inside because it was thundering.

Yesterday, the insulation guys came and sprayed the foundation with a coat of this icky black gooey stuff. Then they insulated the foundation with baby blue styrofoam boards. The boards are scored to allow the water to drain.

When I came outside to take pictures, I saw a sock that was left in the foundation (I later found out this sock was Artie the plumber's sock. This was not the sock he was wearing - I asked. He was using it to wipe up the PVC glue he was using on the conduit) and that gave me an idea. I threw a bunch of beads into the foundation to be sealed in forever. I always end up with a ton of extra beads that aren't good enough to sell or are experiments and I finally figured out what to do with them. Here's one:
This morning the man from the excavators came over to mark where to fill the foundation and he told us that the Indian people he has worked for put gems in their foundations. Cool! They also fly their house plans to India to have them blessed. I didn't get my plans blessed and now I wish I had.

So here they are backfilling the foundation. I got the stinkeye from a couple of the people - especially Mr. Bosnia - but that didn't stop me from watching them. I love watching machines at work. I just wish they needed a crane.

They are almost finished. They just have to back fill the studio room.

Bead Cottage it is

The other day Keith asked me what we are going to call the new building, because he said they wanted to call it the same thing. He and Charlie have been calling it the "bead shop and forge" in all the documents and technical stuff. I told him I didn't know what we were going to call it. For a while I was calling it the Bead Hut and sometimes the Bead Shed and of course here I was calling it the Bead Cottage. I have been going around and around with different names in my head for the last few weeks, not knowing what to pick.

Last night my friend Amy emailed me and told me she liked that I was calling it the Bead Cottage. Yay! One vote for the Bead Cottage!

Then this evening, my mother told me how much she likes the name Bead Cottage! Double yay! Another vote for the Bead Cottage!

So Bead Cottage it is!