Day 78 - There is NO turning back now.....Take a look!

So this is what progress is ALL about!! I am sooo excited.  It is difficult because I am having some problems getting the masons on board with what I want but the product is AMAZING.  Here is the "before" picture when we just finished the brick porch last week...

And this is the next day with the stone porch...
We used Crab Orchard with Blue Stone edging..I am so proud!!

The next day was the single granite column to the right...now don't be SHOCKED like I was...It looks really really BIG....
So I lost a whole night's sleep over this column, kicking myself for going with a square size larger than the other ones...Was the death of me for 24 hours.

Awaking to a new day, it was time to start the other 2 full columns that tie into the arch.  There was ONE BIG mistake...I specifically went over the "look" I wanted with the mason and the head guy, taking them to my "dream granite facade" home in the 'hood....

And they ordered the stone promising me that it was the stone in the picture above......10 tons of granite gets dumped into my driveway and guess what,

There was maybe 2 orange stones in the entire tonage!!  They started to put up the granite while I was away at work, came home at lunch and had a heart attack because it was ALL gray!  So after a helter skelter, carrie moment, where all the hispanic men stopped working and waited for my next move, I pulled myself together and got them to give me phone numbers of stone yards in atlanta. Now one might ask, "Where is the guy you are paying to do your stone work?"  Great question, and the answer is who the h_ll knows????  Got him on the phone, tod him this is not what I want and he starts to argue with me.  I hang up and make my calls.  Within 3 hours I locate a stone yard with aged orangey-yellow granite and off I drive in my Golf to pick some up!  Due to the weight I could only put 4 pieces in my car but it was enough to make the 2 arch columns...we are half way done...

 

The special colored pieces are hard to see in this picture and with the thick unprepared mortar joints, but it makes a HUGE difference.  The Mexicans think I am LOCO but at least I make them laugh.  The word "uptight" does not even exist in the Mexican language!! Not in their nature to be uptight!!

So as you can imagine, it is 11 at night and I am 3 vodka/cranberries into my evening, recollecting the days' events and having a good laugh at my day.  It will be beautiful I KNOW but it might just kill me too! If nothing else I learned some new spanish cuss words today!!!  Always helpful in my line of work!!

Tomorrow the arch goes in and my other hand selected rocks arrive.  Hopefully the lead mason dude will show up so I can give him a peace of my mind!!  I will post more "after pics" tomorrow.  We also foam insulated the whole upstairs...we are ready for sheet rock on Friday.  More pics to come..