Like Weeks 8 and 9, all of November disappears beneath rain delays, flooding and then more rain. A week off for Thanksgiving travel doesn't help the pace of construction, either. You can see more flooding in the courtyard to get an idea of just how wet it has been.
The water around the house site is looking pretty muddy from all the rain runoff, mostly from the neighbor's poorly-planned landscaping work. I think half of her property must have run off into my water. I could probably catch catfish from my living room at this point...
On with the construction! Lintel beams are placed above doors and windows to support the weight of the blocks in the wall overhead. Here, by standing quarter blocks on end, filling them up with cement and putting some rebar in, I make my own lintel beams for some of the windows which don't require the bigger lintel blocks I use elsewhere.
Mama wants a stove closet, mama gets a stove closet. We have a massive, antique O'Keefe & Meritt stove which will go in this closet, which is made to help contain the stove's heat. I have metal strapping along the inside walls to support spice shelves. Above the closet is the outlet for the range hood fan.
A side view of the stove closet. Eventually, I will put a solid copper sheet on top of the closet for the range hood. We will be using a lot of copper accents throughout the house. You've got to love a building material that is easy to work with, relatively cheap and looks good even after a pummeling with a ball peen hammer. Although I'm referring to copper, I guess the description applies to me, also...
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Next week's installment: All in all it's just another block in the Wall Click HERE

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