Decorative accents were added to the exterior - imitation clay pipes, window trim, door trim, a band across the big blank side wall and bands around the deck supports. Everything was given it's brown coat and now sits, curing and waiting for the final coat which will likely have to wait now that we are having rain. 5 days of pretty steady rain, including one exciting hail storm, is a welcome wetting to the grove. The fresh rain washes out the alkali and other deposits that build up from using well water and the county water.

The dry wallers have completed hanging the sheets and are almost finished with taping and mud. The bullnose has been applied and while the walls look nice, the house is a total mess of goopy dry wall clumps on the floors, garbage everywhere. Our dumpster is sorely undersized for this part of the job and we have to fill it and then wait a week to have it emptied. Tomorrow our floors will be scraped to remove residual grout from the old tile. By the end of the week the dry wall will be done and the guys will start installing the finish carpentry.

Today at Trader Joe's I dropped a glass jar of enchilada sauce. I placed it in the cart but the child gizmo was up leaving big holes in the cart through which the jar slid, crashing on the floor. All I heard was a thud but when I looked around I saw that 5 or 6 people were looking at the floor and the spreading pool of red. The experience was telling about how much I'm really hearing.

After spending two hours with the kitchen designer at DixieLine I went on to the Mexican Tile Store where I discussed our quest for a particular design with the owner. He was helpful but tried to steer me to a matte finish tile which I didn't like but had to agree was an almost-match for the tile in the book I'm trying to copy. I brought home 3 samples which we are assessing.