Porch Steps, Stoops and Fencing

We're still charging along toward our completion date of "sometime this fall"!  :)

All you can do is smile!  

And possibly make plans for eating out at Thanksgiving?  

It's looking splendid and the place was a hubbub of activity this morning when I went out for a meeting with Tom (our GC), Arthur (landscape architect) and Matt (stone mason).   

About a month ago, I threw up my hands 

and officially gave up on my version of  Rubik's cube puzzle 

which was how to tie the diagonally placed garage to the house with a fence

 so that Attagirl had a fenced area to access via the back door.  

I had mulled over the front and side steps and the garage/side door fencing until I was cross-eyed.  

As usual, I knew what I didn't want 

but was having a difficult time putting together all of the pieces of what worked.

Enter Arthur Bartenstein, a local landscape architect 

who came to the rescue. 

He blended elements of my scattered ideas and his own unscattered ones 

to create a cohesive design that seems to actually work.  

There will be some tweaks but here's the general idea .... 

and let me tell you figuring this out was/is harder than it looks!   

When I left Matt and Tom were calculating the stone needed 

for the porch surfaces, treads, risers, pedestals and cheek walls.... 

better them than me!  

Rumor is that the fir rafters for the kitchen ceiling have been shipped from Canada 

and the front door is almost ready to begin the journey from Alabama.

   All points converge in VA!