Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A sand painting for tourists (mass produced) from Galeria Ortega (next door to Ortega's Weaving Shop) in Chimayó, New Mexico.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

Yet more netsukes.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A candle. It's on a plate that is bright green under a black light like a 1955 plate that Poss gave us. Uranium?

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

Nesting turtles (from Poss).

 The smallest one's head is MIA.

Here they are all nested together.

Renovation, Part 8

Last time we saw our new concrete whose release agent had been hosed off. It's a nice color but a bit dull. It needed one more technique applied to it. It got a sealant that makes it glossy and richer.

Before being washed and sealed:

After:

And what it looks like today with the stucco repaired, the paint touched up and the sun shining:

Next project: The fence!

As I've pointed out before, the oleanders are dying of oleander leaf scorch. There's a hedge of oleanders running between the neighbors' driveway and and our chain-link fence. When those oleanders are dead there is going to be nothing to block the world's view of our side yard. It's got our trash bins, a tool shed, gas and electric meters and other assorted stuff. We don't want those things to be what people see when they approach our house. Besides, we now have a vast area where we might want to have a nice, private, candle-lit dinner in the great outdoors.

So we had a fence put up as part of this project. You've seen the beginnings of it earlier. The day after they sealed the concrete they came back and put up most of the fence.

The huge gate came later and Jerry sealed the wood.

Matt, the foreman, gave us a cable to pull on to open the gate's latch.

We have a secluded place to relax and watch the hummingbirds.

The gate is wide enough to let their tractor back in if we need to have more work done!

The caps to the septic tank's two-way cleanout got stained to blend in with the walk.

Weeks and weeks after all this work was done Matt finally came back and installed some grates over the vents that let the house breathe. They're below the walk and we didn't want to have to keep cleaning leaves and other junk out of them.

We moved our compost bins out of the way before all this started. We got a new composter from Costco and put it on some of the pavers that were taken out of the front yard at the beginning of the project.

It seems to be doing a much better job composting our yard and kitchen waste than our old ones. I didn't get around to turning them. This one makes turning the pile so much easier!

We are still seeing a lot of bare dirt around this new walk. We have another project ahead of us.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

Some mystery turtle hooks.

These came in the mail a few days ago. No note.
We haven't decided where they're going to be hung.

Renovation, Part 7

The day after they poured the concrete we got to look at things more closely.

We got to see the side of the house for the first time.

You'll notice (you probably already noticed last time) that the surface of the concrete isn't your normal, broom finish. We wanted a finish that is more attractive. So we had them stamp a stone finish onto our walks.

We also wanted something prettier than your basic concrete color. They gave us a card with samples of all the colors available. The card listed three grades of colors. The foreman told us that all the colors were the same price. That didn't seem right but we chose a bold red from the highest grade of colors. It turned out that we were right in thinking that it would be more expensive. The owner of the company convinced us that the color probably would be a bit too bold and we didn't want to have the added expense. So we went for a less bold (and less expensive) color.

The stamping process uses a "release agent" that adds more color and depth to the surface. It lets the stamps be removed from the concrete without lifting any of the concrete with it. As I recall, we didn't choose the release agent's color until just before they poured. I had no idea what was involved and I couldn't visualize how this new choice was going to affect the final product. I let Jerry figure this one out.

This batch of pictures show the fresh concrete with the release agent not yet washed off.

In addition to the stamps for the stonelike surface, they have other decorative stamps. Like turtles! (The page with the turtle stamps is currently showing only the stamps and not the end result. But you don't need that missing picture.)

Let's look at a turtle. Here's a close-up of one of the turtles stamped in this project.

This one is at the beginning of the walk from the garage to the front door. The release agent hasn't been washed off so it looks kind of chalky. You can see another of the turtles in this picture from the last edition (just below the cuidado tape).

The next day they washed the release agent off the walks.

That didn't improve the appearance a lot.

Here's a view of the above turtle after it got its bath.

Remember our two-way cleanout? Here it is (well, its caps) after it got washed.

There's still an oleander down there at the end of the walk. What is its fate?