Galvanized Garage

I have always liked the speckled, shimmery surface of galvanized metal, starting with the old watering can my father used when I was a child (and which I still have).  So, when John suggested covering the garage walls with galvanized sheet metal, I was all in favor.  Not only is it pretty, and rich with vintage charm, but it seems very practical compared to drywall.  I imagine the inevitable scuffs and bruises that have made our drywalled garage walls look dingy in the past, will be all but invisible here.

Out in the garden house we have decided to leave the the beams and metal ceiling exposed in the raised roof area.  It ties in nicely with the exterior details and keeps the space looking like the workshop/potting shed/ kiln room it is meant to be.

In the main house, the drywall installation is transforming a shell into a room. Exciting progress!

And the guest house suddenly feels very cozy.

All in all, it's becoming much easier to imagine actually living here!



View from the Commons

 

Here is the view of our construction site from the commons area across the street. 

Our house is situated in the middle of a long, skinny peninsula, shaped like the boot of Italy.

When we first trekked out here in the spring of 2006, high bouncing along a muddy rutted path, in the rain,  through a Texas style thorny thicket, we were glad we were in the salesman's SUV!  Somehow, between the tangled trees and briers, we managed to find the small white lot markers, matched their numbers to the development map, and found the one lot on open water that would also face the common ground: beautiful water views in both directions!

Today there is a road, but I kind of miss the wildness of that first encounter.

A love this grassy path down our property line.

The path runs past the guest house and the mysterious mini-hill (someday there will be grading...), and down to the boat house.

From the deck of the boat house, the property does still look pretty untamed.  I cannot wait to prune those trees and rescue them from swathes of poison oak.

From the boat, we love the way the silver of the roofs catch the light! I don't think we'll have any problem finding our way home.

Texas Wildflowers

The amazing Texas wildflower display continues to unfold week by week. The rains came at just the right time it seems, because the Blue Bonnet carpet along the roadsides is fuller than ever, and there are new flowers adding to the display.

 This is a Texas Wine Cup (Callirhoe involucrata) a hardy native perennial.  The blooms close up at night and then reopen during the day until they are polinated, after which they stay closed.  Wine Cups disappear in the high heat of summer, but return to bloom in February through July.

I love these gorgeous spikes of deep red topped with hot pink!  This is Red Clover (Trifolium incarnatum), an annual European native that has naturalized in the States.

I've had difficulty identifying this pretty yellow flower - my best guess is some type of Hawks Beard?  Does anybody recognise it?  I think I need some more books...

Lake House Construction

 Progress continues out at the lake. Tubs have appeared in the guest house.  There is more wiring all over the place, and the insulation foam is making a very puffy appearance.

Here is the studio with its new inner coating.  It looks like they'll have to shave it down in order to get the drywall in place... 

High Water!

The rains at the end of March caused a dramatic surge in the lake levels, and the lake went from low to high, and then higher, and then over the top, cresting our seawall.  Our builder sent this photo on March 22.  The seawall is under water, and the boat house looks like it's afloat!

Today the water is still above the "full pool" level of 315 feet, but it has dropped back down below our seawall.

The house is coming steadily along.  We broke ground seven months ago, and hope to have the project completed in three more.  The electrician is finishing up this week, along with the people who are putting in the TV, security and computer wiring.

The stone masons are doing a great job.  The work under the balcony supports is beautiful.

They are now working the area that runs next to the garden house.

The garden house is so cute.  Once the windows arrive and are installed, the stucco walls and metal roof will be next.  The garden house is comprised of two unconnected rooms.  The front room is narrow and designed to house the boat trailer.  The back room is larger and overlooks the lake with three big windows.  It will hold our garden equipment, a work sink and a kiln.

And the whaler is finally in it's new home!

Texas Wildflowers

Our weather has been warm and wet and lovely.  The earliest Texas wildflowers are continuing to emerge in unmown fields and uncultivated meadows.  The queen, Lupinus texensis, the Texas Bluebonnet is now a dense blanket of blue along I45.

Texas has five official state flowers and all of them are Bluebonnets!

Bluebonnets prefer well-drained soil which is why they are particularly happy on gently rolling hillsides in full sun. They are easy to grow if the seeds are planted in the fall (September / October), allowing them to germinate while the weather is still warm.  They will be barely visible, but their massive root structures will develop during the cold winter months, ready to support their sudden and robust growth in the spring.

The bright whirligig blossoms of Texas Paintbrush (Castilleja indivisa) is another Texas native that prefers well-drained soil and lots of sun.  This member of the figwort family is more difficult to cultivate than Bluebonnets - 40% success rate compared to 60%, but worth the effort for anyone who loves Texas native plants.

This collection of wildflowers filled a field just outside of Corsicana.  Along with the Texas Bluebonnets and Texas Paintbrush, I found yellow Tickseed (Coreopsis gigantea) and curling tendrils of Bush Vetchling (Lathyrus eucosmus), a member of the pea family.

It was windy out at the lake on Saturday, kicking up sprays of water along the seawall.  The lake is way up.  A full pool is 315.00 feet, and the level today is 314.21 feet. 

Out at the building site the doors we found last fall have been installed.  My next job is to find appropriate hardware for them.

Calves, Wall Flowers & Crowpoison

Spring is here with it's warmth, rain, nippy wind, budding trees & baby calves.

We spotted "Little Red" in a field near Eureka, and were able to catch this photo before his mother hustled him away. Those are some pretty cute ears...

The first wildflowers have made an appearance in the empty lots around our construction site.

This is a drift of yellow Wall Flowers under a stand of Mesquite trees.  There are myriad types of wallflowers, but I believe this particular one is commonly know as Shy Wallflower (Erysimum inconspicuum). 

Wallflowers are members of the Mustard family along with Sweet Rocket, Watercress, Broccoli & Cauliflower. It's a native biennial, and like all the Mustards it has four petals arranged like an X, and six stamens (4 tall & 2 short). Wallflowers like disturbed soil (of which we have plenty) because it dries out quickly in the sun.

This tiny beauty has the unfortunate name of Crowpoison (Nothoscordum bivalve).  I was unable to find any reason for this name, but I think it's wise to assume it is poisonous.  Since I am particularly fond of crows, I'll think I'll stick with it's other and still not very charming name: False Garlic.  This pretty little bulb is a member of the Lily family.  Note: it does not smell like garlic or onions.  One of the earliest wildflowers, it often blooms again in the fall.

Out at the house, the ClimateMaster Tranquility 27 has been installed with a massive amount of silvery ductwork.

It snakes from the attic area by the studio, across the main house, over the dog trot and into the guest house, promising to provide all our living areas with heat and cooling.

The balcony supports are complete, and we are looking forward to having the railings in place.

The garden house, located next to the garage, is under construction.

The stone masons are still working hard.

And the boat house is finished and ready to go!

Texas Limestone

Limestone has been a popular building material for very long time.  It was used for the gleaming white facing on the great pyramid at Giza; it was used to build medieval churches in England and to construct sturdy Tuscan farmhouses; and it is the classic choice for Texas regional architecture. 

Limestone, which is white in its purest form, comes in a variety of soft colors from greys and blues to rusty brown.  We selected a light creamy color, quarried to the southwest of Fort Worth in Granbury, Texas. Here it is going up on the guest house.   These are fairly small blocks, tumbled to create more irregular edges and an older look.

Once the roof was on, the rest of the windows could be installed.  They are fiberglass on the outside, but wood on the inside, so our builder was very careful to protect them from the elements.

Now that the windows are in place, the stone can go up.  We have mapped the location for all the electrical outlets and fixtures, and we have the outdoor faucet taps in place.  Progress!

The pad for the potting shed has been poured next to the garage.

And the lake is still rising!!  The beach is gone.

Vintage Hankie Quilt

My vintage hankie quilt is finally complete!

I started collecting vintage hankies a year or so ago simply because I was so taken with the charming graphics.  But what does one do with a growing stack of hankies other than moon over them every once in a while?  I finally decided that twelve hankies, carefully mounted, would make a pretty throw for the lake house.  To begin, I assembled a group featuring a shade of aqua or light turquoise somewhere in the design.

Then I measured to find the largest hankie so that I could determine how big the backing squares would need to be.  Continuing the whole repurposing theme, I tore up an old white sheet to make twelve 18 inch squares. 

The next step was carefully cutting two-sided Pellon to size, centering each hankie on its square of white sheeting, and then ironing it in place.  Most of these hankies required detailed ironing because so many of them had elaborately cut edges.  Once attached, I hand stitched around the edges of each hankie to be certain they would wash and wear without curling up or unpeeling.

Then I stitched the squares together.  At this point I could have hand quilted the throw, but I decided instead to have it machine quilted.  A local quilt shop provided me with the name of a professional machine quilter, and so I was lucky enough to meet LaDonna of One Stitch at a Time Quilts.

LaDonna was a wealth of information and help, guiding me in how much backing and edging to buy, the best type of filler, and most importantly: where the quilting should go.

This is her giant longarm quilting machine.  I delivered the quilt top, the edging fabric and the backing fabric to LaDonna.  She assembled the layers and quilted them together.  The most elaborate stitching is between the hankies rather than on top of them.  When the quilting was done, LaDonna created the edge binding and attached it to the front side.  After picking up the quilt, I turned the edge binding under and used a hidden stitch on the back to complete the project.

The final result is so pretty!  I love being able to see these vintage hankies on display.

 I'm starting work on another hankie throw (!), this one in red and blue.