Front Chimney Completed

A milestone for the hybrid building process, finishing the second chimney marks the completion of the  structural masonry aspect of the Daulton House and the beginning of the conventional construction phase.

Chattahoochee

Floating the Chattahoochee with family and friends.  3 hours between Powers Landing and Paces Ferry.       We've made three different trips down the river this summer with 4 year old and 1 year old in tow.  Jeff Craven took this shot of me doing a back layout off one of the cliffs along the river. The camera is one of the more recent Sony Cyber Shots —14 Mpx with 10x optical zoom, and a burst mode that takes several images back to back as you hold the shutter button down.

Library Fireplace

Living Room Fireplace

Split Brick Herring Bone Fire Box.

Apprentice Abelino and Mason Benito.

Weekend Away — Lake Oconee, GA

Topping Out First Chimney

Chimney construction viewed through front porch window.

Masons Alejandro and Francisco capping the chimney with portland cement. After building the two fireplaces and stepping the flues into alignment for the ceramic flue liners, I was able to turn the chimney construction over to these fellows. It took them three or four days to raise. Note that no point of the chimney shaft is less than that of a structural double brick wall.

Mason Benito beginning the herringbone firebrick pattern in the formal fireplace hosted by the Living and Dining Rooms. This fireplace will have the cast stone mantel face with decorative metal slip featured in an earlier post (May 11th, 2010).

Raising First Chimney

Antonio hoisting mortar via rope and pulley. Chimneys can be logistically challenging, but with the proper "know how" and equipment, difficulty and hazard are kept at a minimum.

Scaffolding assembled and stocked with brick.

Beginning Living Room Fireplace

Apprentice Hugo striking the joints of the reverse corbelling along the exterior base of the Living Room Fireplace. The masonry firebox shown above represents the rough massing of the fireplace which will be lined with decorative fire brick and faced with cast stone.

Rough Floor height established and Gas line installed.

Laying out gas line installation.

Grist Mill Ruins/Athens, GA

Remnants of a grist mill damn flanking side of stream.

While walking with my family along a creek close to Faust Farm Rd. in Crawford (just outside of Athens, GA), we came across the ruins of what appeared to be a grist mill. The stack stone foundation and damn were both made up of massive blocks that must have been hoisted into place using a primitive crane similar to a gin pole by my best guess. The damn was a hundred yards or so upstream and the topography between the two structures revealed the flume run. Though I have no expertise in this area, I believe this was a pre-civil war operation. It appears to now be on private property — there is no marker or sign indicting historical management. I have contacted the Athens Historical Society (AHS) to see what might be on record.