The black bamboo screen

Plans are for the area behind the tea house to be filled with black bamboo as a screen. This is a critical component to the design, both as a way to create some privacy in the space and to (hopefully) alleviate some of the neighborhood opposition to the design. Black bamboo reaches heights of 12 ft, and the top of the steel beams are about 15 ft, so some of it will be visible to the neighbors. But this is really the best we can do.

We get egged

We found several eggs smashed on our car this morning. While it might have been a random incident, it is also quite possible one of the neighbors is expressing his/her displeasure over the tea house. David said that he has had projects egged in the past (forcing him to get a restraining order). We hope it doesn't go that far.

Meeting with landscaper

Today we met with a landscaper to discuss planting around the teahouse. The area has become quite muddy due to the tractor driving around in wet weather. The tentative plans are for meandering stone path through a black bamboo forest. The area in front of the tea house will be a carpet of small dark stones. This all depends on what kind of estimate he comes up with, of course.

More complaints from Neighbors

I got this email from Henry this afternoon about the neighbor behind us complaining about the project. All I can say is "ouch" and hope it doesn't get worse than this. Of course it wasn't helpful that Henry tied his tarp to the neighbors fence. We hope they will learn to love it in time.

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Andy,

For your information:

We were working on the T house project this morning.

The neighbor immediately to the back of the house came over and talked with my guys about 10 minutes before I arrived.

She asked them to take off the cords tying the tarp to the fence at the rear property line.

My guy told her that I was going to be there shortly and that could she wait to speak with me.

She replied that if they didn't remove the ties that she would.

At which point my guys said "no problem" and promptly moved the ties.

During the course of them moving the ties, she took the opportunity to tell them how much she did not like the project.

After hearing this story, I went over to the house and knocked on the door, but no one answered.



Henry

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January 1st photos

The storm blew the tarp off from the tea house yesterday, so we could take some photos today. The doors are installed, but there is no glass in the windows yet, and all the metal cladding needs to be added.


Some interior details. The steel pole (left) will be covered in mahogany like the one one on the right. The ceiling structure will eventually be finished in maple. The openings for the floor lights can be seen in the bottom right picture.

Tea house under construction - blowing in the wind