Week 76 (First blocks of the 31st course)

In construction photos by Michael Tiemann

Well, I didn’t see that coming…we lost two full days to weather, and yet the West saw the placement of the first few blocks of the 31st course.  Though the other main walls have a long way to go to catch up, seeing one wall attain this height makes for a real sense of progress.  But to get there, first the scaffolding had to go up.

Last week we saw the scaffolding lying in the grass:

By the end of Monday, here were the remains:

scaffoldingremains.jpg

Everything else went up to make a third level all around:

scaffoldingnorthview.jpg

And inside:

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And the other side:

scaffoldingeastwall.jpg

And then…nothing for two days.

Fortunately the weather broke our way Thursday and Friday, and here is the result of those two days of work, inside:

westupperdiffusioncourse30.jpg

and outside:

westaccentscourse28.jpg

Here’s more of an overview:

westviewcourse28.jpg

Now that we’ve reached the bottom course of the windows, we need some special blocks to frame the windows.  A mason brings these special blocks one at a time from the field:

oneatatime.jpg

And now the block, one polished face/two polished ends, is put into place:

houseviewcourse31.jpg

In the above you can see two things: (1) the masons measuring carefully to ensure that the blocks defining the window frame are properly placed, and (2) the fact that the windows are at the approximate eye-level of a person standing on the porch of the house.  This means it will be possible to see through the clerestory windows, giving the Music Room an air of transparency, despite its massively thick walls. I can’t wait to see that effect!

The block, in its final position:

onefacetwoends.jpg

Let’s hope that the forecast of good weather next week holds and that a second wall can rise up to this level (or at least get a good running start)…