Tea House Furnishings

I dug a path to the tea house today, and Sara was able to take out the Zabuton sitting pads that she made on the weekend (material from Ikea).

The tea set (from Beijing) is sitting on the return grill that Henry made in November. The grill spacing is a little too large, as you can see down into the space below where all the mechanical hardware is located.

 

 

The tea house in winter

Yesterday's storm left 2 feet of snow in the DC area. These are the first pictures of the tea house in the snow. Now it appears to be sitting directly in the snow.  We will dig a path to it tomorrow.

     

  

Snow caps along the fence.

  

Layers of steel and snow.

 

    

   

Passed the Inspection

We've been trying for the past 2 weeks to get the final occupancy approval from the county (Who would have thought that you needed an occupancy permit for a tea house?).  There were a number of hurdles: The wanted an entrance light. In fact they wanted the entire "path" lighted.  We found this really ironic. The stepping stone path around the back of the tea house is somewhat symbolic, and one could more easily walk across the lawn from the (well lit) patio to the entrance.  So we dutifully went out and bought some solar powered lights to satisfy the county.  On cloudy fall days, there is only enough power to keep them on for about an hour, but we figured this would satisfy the county.

However, this turned out not to be the major problem.   As it turns out, when one puts in a request for an inspection, you never know which inspector will show up. And each one has their own ideas as to how to apply the code. So we failed the first inspection last week because he didn't like our metal and steel stairs. We had no way to predict this, because this particular inspector had never been here before.   But David, being an old hand at this business, suggested that we just try again. So Henry met the inspector yesterday, and we seem to have passed (I have know idea if there were any flying colors).  So now we can legally "occupy" the tea house.

We hope to meet Henry tomorrow to settle the bill and get the key (it's been locked for the past several weeks) and the remote control for the heating and cooling system.   Thus ends the first part of our journey.  

But we will be back. This blog will continue with future events at the tea house, and observations of seasonal changes within the garden.   Thanks to all of you who have been following (so far from 37 states and 41 countries). We will be back. We'll try to get some pictures on the next day of good weather.

Tree work

The trees above the tea house have been shedding large branches. One of them landed on the edge of the roof and caused some minor damage. So we called the tree guys who have been removing some of the branches. These trees are on the neighbors property behind us. They are the ones we sent the "dear neighbors" letter to last winter. We never heard back from them, so we assume we need to deal with their trees ourselves.

 

Photo shoot

David and his photographer (Paul) spent the day photographing the tea house today. They were here at least 10 hours, capturing the tea house in all the possible lighting conditions, from mid-morning until after sunset. The following photographs give some idea as to what Paul had captured while he was here. His photos of David's work will be published later this year, and you can pre-order your copy from Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/David-Jameson-Architect/dp/1864703563/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254278732&sr=1-1

 

 

 

David found the model, Sharon, to provide a human scale.  She did a great job of holding the same pose for more than an hour.

Nearing completion

Much activity has taken place during the last two weeks. David  wants to try to get the teahouse into his book which is going to press in a week or so. So Henry has worked hard to get  it closer to completion, and Mark has finished the landscaping.

The floor is  now in place, but unfinished. The big vent in the middle is the heating/AC return. It will be covered by some kind of finer metal screen. A bronze finish would probably be best. We wish it wasn't so large, but the idea is to have the heating or cooling along the outer perimeter, and return in the middle. The space under the floor will be conditioned air, designed to make the floor warm on cold winter nights. The floor is made of fir ends. It is an unusual floor material, but was often used in factory or warehouse floors in the 19th century. It creates some interesting grain patterns and can stand up to extreme conditions.

A heating vent and floor light up close. The light will have a glass covering flush with the floor. All of the lighting is in the floor and shines on the ceiling.

 

The entrance: Note the different materials. The door is made of mahogany, the  ledge is covered in bronze, the upper step is  painted steel, and the  lower step is painted concrete.

 

Side view of the entrance steps.

 

 The entrance path as it rounds the corner:

 

The path from the patio to the tea house.  We struggled with how to arrange the steppers to make the needed curve. David came by one morning and figured it out in a few minutes.

 

The patio was removed during the landscaping because the level of the yard was raised about 6 inches. My neighbor, Rafael, found me a bricklayer, Jose, to put the patio back in place. He did a better job than when I installed it 10 years ago.

 

The return of the architect

David returned from vacation this past week and wanted some changes. Some we like and other we didn't agree to.  He feels that the Seneca gravel is too dark to be able to get the floating effect of the tea house. Mark brought a sample of some off white gravel yesterday, but we felt it wasn't quite right. In fact, I think that while a lighter stone will contrast more with the base of the tea house, it will also allow you to see more clearly that the base does in fact touch the ground at the center. With the red gravel, the line between the tea house and the stone is someone blurred. And if you catch it in the early morning sun, you can get some light underneath. These photos were taken around 11 a.m. today, and there would be even more light below if they were taken a couple of hours earlier.

David also wanted the path to be less straight, so that it meanders through the bamboo (which will eventually fill in much of the space) as seen below. The stones will be set into the gravel this week.  

Henry replaced the broken glass on Friday. I will order some netting to go up on the left side to block any future golf ball attacks, which is my best guess as to the cause of the damage.

 

Landscaping progress

The landscaper made some progress this week.


The lawn is going in:

 And Seneca gravel has been put in around the tea house. The path to the entrance passes through the bamboo around the right side:

To the rear,

And finally to the  the left side (note the still broken glass).

 

The tea house as of Sept 4, 2009 

 

Painted Steel beams and interior finishes

The substantial progress made this past week was overshadowed somewhat by the vandalism incident.  Mario the painter finished painting the beams. The color is meant to match the bronze cladding. The original intention was to use a brown similar to the current Eiffel tower color, but we found it a bit too light.  

 

This picture shows the beam closeup before and after sanding and painting.

 The ceiling is of maple veneer, stained rather darker than we had intended. It seems David Jameson didn't like our plans for a light colored ceiling, and the panels were finished before we found about the color change. We were concerned about lighting in the teahouse, since all the lights are in the floor and will shine onto the ceiling. So we were dependent on a light colored ceiling to lighten up the space at night. Still the color looks good.

The floors of fir end pieces is not yet sanded and stained. I suspect we'll need to go with a dark color, now that the rest of the room is dark.






 How the teahouse looks as of August 29, 2009. The broken glass can be seen to the left of the side door.



 

Tea House Vandalism

The tea house was vandalized last night. It was likely a bb gun, coming from the direction of one of the angry neighbors. You can see the direction that the shot came from in the reflection of the 2nd picture.

Exterior nearing completion

The bronze cladding was finished this week. Mario the painter started to sand and prime the steel beams. They will be painted a bronze color to match the cladding.




Close up of the exterior cladding.

A post yelling email exchange

August 13, 2009



Andy,

I am not sure what has happened to you in the last 24 hours.

Per my response to your phone tirade yesterday, we will be there today to remove the blue tarp. The first wave of the bronze is finished and we will begin the installation of such today.

Our plan is to pack it up this morning and be there mid morning.

As to your neighbors: with the removal of the blue tarp, the only thing they will have to object to is the modern structure itself,
to which they had objections to when the first elements were installed.

As to the timing of this project, please understand that I am not trying to drive you crazy, but merely trying to finish a difficult project under difficult circumstances.
With that in mind, I apologize for the stress and inconvenience that this project has caused you and Sara. But please also understand that this project has caused me considerable stress, both technical and financial.

In spite of the long history of this project, all the elements for completion are ready and we can move forward to complete this. I only ask you to hang on to your last threads of patience for a few days.

Henry

------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 19, 2009


Henry,

Now that you've made some progress and I have calmed down, let me explain things a little further. It had gotten to where I have neighbors knocking on our door in the evening to chew me out about the tarp, which had been in place for nine months. There was no getting across to them that I couldn't simply fire you and find another contractor, and I've been at wits end. So it seemed that yelling really loud was my only option. I don't know if you had intended to come the next day or not. I'm only sorry that things had gotten to the point where I had to do it. When you couple this with the previous long delays, and your past reassurances about how quickly things would go, it added up to more than we have been able to handle.

We do realize that you will very likely lose money on this project. But we have signed a contract, and we did expect that it would be honored in a reasonable time frame. which would have been something much closer to the 12 weeks that was written into the contract.

The exterior bronze looks terrific. Let's get the interior wrapped up.


Andy

Finally

Two nights ago I called Henry and yelled for 10 minutes, including a number of obscenities. It wasn't much fun, but it seems that was the only way to get through to him that time was up. So the next morning they took the tarp down and got back to working on the trim. This allowed the landscapers to come back and start to plant the trees and shrubs.

More Complaints

David and Henry,

You both have pushed me too far. I expect both of you to show up here and resolve this issue. You both owe Sara and I, along with all of our neighbors an apology for the damage you have done to our lives. We won't put up with this any longer. Too much money has been spent, and it has only resulted in our conflicts with the neighbors. I can't believe that 6 years has gone by, and what we have to show for this is a truly ugly blue tarp.

It's hard for me to imagine anymore what it is like to hire a contractor who comes and finishes a job in a professional manner. Do you treat all your clients in this manner????? Please take the tarp down tomorrow first thing in the morning.


Andy

Bethesda Gazette

Henry and David,

I hope you both saw the article in today's Gazette about neighbors complaining about backyard construction:

http://www.gazette.net/stories/08052009/bethnew200940_32530.shtml

I'm concerned that our unfinished project (with that horrible blue tarp) sitting there for nearly a year will eventually find it's way into the news. Why don't we try really hard to make sure this doesn't happen by finishing the project in the next several weeks. I don't think that this is the kind of publicity that either of you are going to want.

Andy

Hung out to dry

It's been a dry suumer and we are still waiting for Henry to return to working on the teahouse. In the past he has told us that it was too cold or wet to work. Is it too dry now?

In the mean time, the fence is mostly finished (but not completely stained), and the holly trees are planted.