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.