The roofers have finished and gone back to Eureka California. They did a magnificent job and I recommend them for anyone who needs a dome roofed. It did end up taking 5 weeks and costing a whole lot more than I expected, mostly in materials and labor for re-roofing the existing dome.  It's done, it's beautiful, and it will last at 30 to 40 years.

    The crowning touch is the exterior finial that sits on the apex of the pavilion, Charlie Corda's cast aluminum sculpture consisting of four figures with outstretched arms holding a cut glass crystal. The first photo shows us all on the roof preparing to fasten the piece to the apex... that's Charlie in the purple shirt, Babu in turquoise, Michael and me. Then there's a close up of the piece mounted to the copper cap. and finally a more distant shot.
  

   Another interesting feature is the interior finial whose design I talked about in the last chapter. The photos show two views of the mounted welded steel, black powder coated piece, one taken during the day in which the exterior finial is visible through the glass skylight, and one taken with a flash at night. Th big globe houses a light source that will be controlled by a dimmer. The metal weldment is about three feet long and the globe is 14 inches in diameter.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

  Wes Bogner is doing the exterior painting. He is a careful and methodical worker, spending days quietly on his ladders. It rains in the afternoon now, so he starts working at 6:00 in the morning. He spent a week caulking each joint in the structure... and there are a lot of joints in a 12 sided structure. He's primed all the trim and gotten two coats of California Rustic penetrating stain on the T1-11 siding. You can see the white primed trim that will be painted over in a deep brown color called "Tree Bark", to match the ohana house. The photo also shows the top finial. 

    The front entry framing is complete and here's a picture of Karen standing on the front entry deck. This deck gets wonderful morning sun and will become our breakfast area. The glass lights on either side and above the entry door have been made and installed. We are still waiting for our entry door which was ordered through HPM about 5 weeks ago. There's also a close-up of the entry stoop and stairs. We used the old entry door as the back door leading to the Dome's lanais, shown through the front entry opening in the last photo. Also note the cabinets on both sides of this rear door hall. Additional wall mounted glass faced cabinets will soon be hung above those shown.

    As you see, we've completed the sheetrocking work which was done by Bryan Eckhardt, a thorough and fast worker. Most of the work was in the entry hall and the new bathroom. He also did many repairs to the interior of the dome.

 
 Choosing a contractor for laying the Rocky Mountain Quartsite stone floor was interesting with different contractors recommending very different techniques. We went to see this multi-million dollar home where Charles Ostrowsky and Scott, his helper, had layed about 1000 square feet of this stone as part of a living room that extended out to curved flowing steps around an infinity pool. It was magnificent. Even though his quote to us was $1,000 more than his competitors, we hired him. Charlie cuts the stone so that it fits together with a quarter inch grout line in a completely natural and random fashion. A real young maestro of stone flooring. The following photos show the stones cut and pieced together on the floor of the wing leading to the pavilion and on the bathroom floor. The pieces are fitted but not yet set on a bed of cement. The setting, which will be done this coming week, will bring the various thicknesses up to a fine level grade, then it will be acid washed, sealed, grouted, washed and sealed again. Note Babu and I building the convertable platform in the pavilion in the first photo.
 

         Finaly there's an overall, longer distance shot of the project.