November Already? I'm Feeling Behind...

I don't know what it is about this time of year.  I always feel like I have a million things left to do and not enough time to do them.

I did manage to add some more trim to the house.

When I get the porch and pillars done I'll add the trim there.

Speaking of the porch and pillars... that was the next thing I worked on.  I made a template out of cardboard and made supports from bass wood.

Then I stained the wood with Minwax Ebony and Rustoleums Weathered Grey afterward.  It made the wood dark without being brown.  I'm trying to keep the cool colors on the outside of the house.

Here it is in place against the house.

I made a little step as well, about the same size as the original, because otherwise you're stepping up a foot to get to the porch and that's not realistic.

They're not glued together yet, just sitting for now.  I wanted to add the stone before I glued them together.

A little finagling and I got the stone on.

Ceramcoat to protect the stones and then some mortar, and I glued the step to the porch.  It's not perfect but I still like how it looks.  Of course I forgot to take a picture of that step.

Instead I started on the columns.  I wanted the stone to go about four feet up the columns and then the lip and tapered wooden column would start.  I'm still figuring out the engineering for those tapered columns but I did get the stone on the bases.

The ceramcoat is still drying on the columns so no mortar yet.  You can see a bit of the mortar on the porch and step though.

I need to make the cap/lip to the stone columns and study a few pictures of craftsman houses to figure out what sort of detailing I'll need on the tapered portions.  

So far so good though... that stone takes forever and drives me more than a little batty but I'm pretty much done with it.

Have a great rest of your weekend everyone!

Now where's my to do list...