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.