The first bar-b-q on the deck.

We decided to celebrate the Memorial Day holiday with a bar-b-que at the house. The deck
outside of the master bedroom seemed the neatest place to do it. We got some scrap OSB
and some roof shingles to use as a base for the bar-b-que to set on. We don't want to
mar our beautiful new deck. It was fun sitting on the deck, having hot dogs and
hamburgers as part of our inaugural bar-b-que.

As to progress on the house, a notable addition was the shower unit in the lower master
bathroom (aka my studio room.) We felt we needed one bathtub/shower in the house and I
was looking for something easy to keep clean so I went with the modular unit. The other
two showers will have tile, with as narrow grout as possible.

What color was that facia?

Once the framing was done, the plywood for the roof was added. Of course it rained some more before the shingles could be put on. So water came in through the various cracks between the plywood sheets. Of course, once the roof was completed it had stopped raining for the season.

In the process of putting on the roof, the facia boards are actually painted first. I guess it's easier to paint when you don't have to worry about keeping the paint off the shingles. So I picked the composition roof color, driftwood and the facia color, Peppercorn Green. My idea is to have the house blend in with the surrounding pine and oak trees. The facia is a medium dark green and the stucco will be a little bit lighter green. The roof is dark grey with speckles of green.

The painters came at the end of the week so that the roofers could get to work at the beginning of the next week. When we came up on the weekend the first thing I noticed was that the facia was chocolate brown. Actually the empty cans showed the color was Royal Brown. Not what I had in mind. Apparently the painters had one house to paint Royal Brown and for some bizarre reason decided that was our color too. So the contractor made them paint the facia again with the correct color at the beginning of the week so the roofing could get done. The plus to this was that we caught it before roofing began and we have two coats of paint on the facia so it's well covered.

The roof was installed pretty quickly. They were a lot faster than the roofers who redo roofs. I really like the color. The green speckles in the composition are drawn out by the facia and surrounding trees. The gray base to the roof color also goes well with the bark of the trees which is a gray brown.

My goal of making the house blend with the trees is really working with the roof. When the plywood on the roof was showing you could see the house from the top of 406 when you turned off of 41. Now with the roof on its pretty hard to see. Once the side of the house is covered with the green stucco it will be nearly impossible to see from the road. Now the only problem is deciding on the color for the stucco. I've tried two chips next to the facia color and they are too bright. I think we'll have to try taking the Peppercorn Green and lightening it a small percentage until we find a color that works.