Nearly Natick

  Well, I haven't posted in awhile and it feels good to be sitting at the home computer again.  Damon and I have been working down in Natick, Massachusetts for the last two weeks. Natick, most famous for its unusually large Mall.

The enormous and unnavigable...

yet architecturally sound, with its art installations and modernist curves...

Natick Mall.

  Not so, the Red Roof Inn, where we have chosen to stay. The roof is not red and the traffic outside the room is relentless...

  The staff is freindly enough, but you don't really ever see them after you check in. The rooms are relatively clean, if not sparse and tend toward being on the insanely hot side. We turned the heat completely off at night and it still felt like it was 80 degrees or more. I suspect there might be a fiery chasm beneath the building that heats the place with geothermal gases and possibly punishes the souls of the wicked.

  The job itself is just a few miles from the motel and sits on a little pond/lake near the Wayland town line.

  The job is Kurt Snyder's of Stonescapes and we are all grateful for the work. I mean, no one really wants to drive to Natick and stay away from their family for a week at a time, but it's work in the winter and anything is better than being unemployed.
  The stonework is a round-rock veneer with 3/8 joints and there seems to be alot of it. Stone veneer on the house was completed by the previous masons and so we are trying to match that work, which is often difficult. Eveyone's styles vary and all masons follow different rules as to what is stylistically acceptable.

  My work around the pipes...

  Damon's work around the corner...

  Kurt and Nate working on the stairs...

  The twelve-inch short wall...

  Nate, Mike Fitz, Damon and I picking rock...

  And of course, no stay out of town is complete without a visit to the local hot-spots, which on this particular night was the Samba Steak and Sushi House in Framingham. The hibachi chef put on a marvelous culinary show and the food was excellent. Kurt was also nice enough to cover the entire bill, which is saying something when drinking masons are involved.

  Grateful for the work, but glad to be home.

Are You Going To Scarborough Job?

  So, we finally started the big Scarborough job.  We didn't waste any time getting our tent-shanties set up and heated.  I overheard one of the carpenters saying, "Man, they've got a whole little city set up in there."

  And indeed, we do. Complete with chiseling tables, rock shelves, microwaves, grinding boxes with exhaust fans, propane heaters, and kegs of beer.  Well, no beer, but everything else.  Here Richard Ware(wolf) is hammering away at one the tables I built.  I made his a bit taller than the rest, as he is like eight feet tall.

  And of course, there is Danny Harrington:

  And Damon:

  As you can see, we are doing a stone veneer on the foundation, so everyone is working on their knees for awhile.  I have been out back putting together a mock-up for the chimney, so the owners can check it out when they come in next week.

  The edges will have to be softened and "tweaked" before the stones are mortared in, but that is the basic idea.

Boothbay Veneer

  Damon and I finished the wall in the front of the house yesterday.  I have to say, I was satisfied with our work. We both were. We are pretty harsh critics, especially of our own product; but that little wall looks damn good, if I do say so myself.

Veneer Wall

  Damon and I have been working on an outdoor veneered wall in Boothbay, using the same stones that were used to build the fireplace. It's nice stone, which makes the building that much easier. All of this stone, by the way is coming from Lance Carlezon's quarry in Winsor. I stopped by there the other day and was amazed by the beauty of the place, the sheer quantity of raw material, and the amount of work Lance himself has put into the place.  Sometime this week, I am going to go back up to the lot and take some photos. I'll post them, along with Lance's contact info, if anyone is interested in stone.

Mantle

  The mantle is up and a few stones of the upper section. Dan is bringing the indoor crane he had build specifically for this project, as the beam and chain-fall will take us no higher.

The Top of the Heap

  This top stone will come down and become the starting point for the rest of the stack, as we take what we have thus far constructed down to Boothbay and install it. A simple red level-line drawn across the face will let us know where to properly position it on the ground.

Fire

  Here are a few shots of me using the acetylene torch to "thermal" the exposed cut edges of the stones to give them a more natural look. Soon after these shots were taken I tripped, fell onto the torch, and became engulfed in flames.  Now, much like the stones, I too have a "more natural look".

With Some Help From The GMC

  Dan, Damon, and I have been out in Pittston this week continuing the fabrication. The persistent cold has made for some chilly mornings, but the structure is coming along. This section is all veneer that will be above the fireplace, so the stones sitting on the ground will actually be six feet high when we install them down south.

Ready For The Mantle

The Last Lintel

We finally put up the last lintel yesterday, after much measuring, hoisting up and down, and notching out the right-hand jam stone. The notching was particularly tedious because it had to be done with a grinder, instead of a rock saw, which would have filled the entire house with dust and carbon-monoxide and incurred the wrath of carpenters and electricians alike. We hear enough complaining from them as it is, about our noise and our dust and rocks always in the way. Still, we are not loathed nearly as much as the insulation guys. Everyone hates them and the clouds of noxious particulate matter they create. Yesterday I said to Garrett, the head insulator, "You know, I used to think we were the most despised people on every job site, but I was wrong. Now I realize it is you. Everybody hates you."

  "Yes," he said. "It is true."
  It goes on my list of jobs I don't want to do: roofer, insulator. There. There's my list.

The First Lintel In Place

  The first lintel is set, along with the adjoining stones around the top. It was not a walk in the park. I sure hope it gets easier as we get higher. Oh wait, that isn't possible.

Last Jam

  There it is, the last jam stone. This one was particularly difficult because we had to make a three-dimensional cardboard template, which we used in Pittston to fabricate the stone. It fits perfectly now, but that was not without hours of adjustment grinding and taking the stone up and down and worrying that it was not going to work. As it stands, we still have to cut the top down and notch out for the lintel, but at least it's up.

Fabricating The Upper Reaches

 Out in Pittston for the last few days with Damon and Mark, fabricating the upper portion of the chimney. There is much more completed, however, than shown in the photo. I waited till the end of the day and by then, half of the stones were removed from the structure for pinning and adjustment.

Wall Tie

 We are using a new kind of wall tie, or at least one I have never seen. So far, they seem extremely rugged and effective.

Looks Like They Have Been Busy

  Joel has been out in Pittston this week working on fabricating the upper portion of the fireplace. He sent me some photos yesterday evening. Nice tall corner, guys.

First Stones Going Up On The Fireplace

  Last week we dismantled the fireplace at Dan's shop and transported it all down to the jobsite in Boothbay, where we rolled them up long ramps on PVC rollers and into the house. It was daunting, due to some of the stones' rather large size and awkward shapes, and at times I suspected the twenty foot aluminum ramp was going to collapse beneath the weight, but the process went smoothly and free of catastrophe.

  The first stones really started to go into place yesterday. We set up staging on either side of the chimney and ran a ten foot I-beam, from which we hung the chain-fall. Dan picked up a handy little set of "dogs" that you actually insert into 4" x 5/8" holes drilled at 45% angles in the top of the stone--the chain pulling up on these two simultaneously enables us to pick the rock up and move it around without any fear of it falling. I marvel at the simple genius of it all day long.