Steel Bones and Concrete Flesh

So the wall is really done this time. Here it is in its final glorious concrete shape:



Those stylish horizontal stripes were left by the edges of the forms and if you look at the wall really closely, as I do each time I hug it, you see the grain of the wood used to make the forms delicately impressed upon its surface. Basically, the wall looks like it was made from perfectly square petrified logs. There is a certain strength and beauty in this that some people simply do not appreciate (you know who you are) and since the forms were removed, these individuals, whom I shall not identify, want something, anything, to cover up this vast and intricately textured concrete river tumbling down our future back yard. It's a good thing that the stripes come out horizontal. The last thing a 10' wall needs is to look taller and more slender.

As to covering it, you can guess where I come out on that, but in the spirit of helping, I made a few suggestions. I stopped making suggestions after my perfectly reasonable idea of having some of the neighborhood hoodlums come over and tag it for us was met with icy silence. The leading contender at the moment is Stucco, but I have not given up on my infinity pool/hot tub combination with a cascading waterfall down the lower wall. As soon as our structural engineer stops rocking back and forth in the fetal position, I can ask him about adding a diving board on the roof.

So enough with the wall already. let's look at some other stuff that's been going on.

The next items that start going in will be the giant steel beams that will hold the house steady in the wind and other forces trying to send it down into Noe valley. Here are the plates and bolts that will be connected to the beams when they show up next week:






I am hoping we get to see some of those beams next week.

Another activity that has picked up speed over the last week is framing. In the wall photo above you can see the framing for the sliding door that will separate the family/media room from the mini dungeon. There has also been framing on the sides



and floors.



The 2x4 lying on the floor shows the planned wall at the boundary of the family/media room.

And now, just for the heck of it, here's another gratuitous view of the wall:



Hey, I love this stuff. And I am not the only one.

Let's hope the steel with distract me from all this beautiful concrete.