August 22, Andy’s annual, real, birthday.  Eighty-one.  He requested a meal at Carrabba’s Italian Grill. He also wanted another chocolate pie, which I made last night.  I had made plans to meet with Bill and Pam for lunch at noon.  We left early enough to stop at the house for a quick peek. Most of the debris had been cleared from the front yard.

The tile flooring was done.

I was pleased by the morning light shining in the east window, through the foyer, and into the dining room.  Can you really call it a room when it only has two walls?

Here is a closer look at the front porch columns.  I thought the white mesh was plastic, but today I decided it is metal.

We had a most pleasant dinner, except that my salad was less than satisfactory – limp lettuce.  The company was great and we enjoyed our visit. It was nice to have company for the “real” birthday celebration. Bill had an afternoon activity planned so they did not come home with us for chocolate pie.  We can’t possibly eat all that ourselves, so I took it to the house to share it with the tile setters.  Only two of the five were there, but they enjoyed the pie.

The Russian tile setter rolled out this orange fabric when he finished his pie.

We took a walk around the house outside to see what had been done.  These three wheelbarrows were standing in the yard.  I thought they looked like some yard sculpture arranged like that.

The stucco crew had brought in a good bit of gear.

We finally had a cement mixer for the pile of sand and stucco cement that has been sitting there for a few weeks.

They had already started the job on the wall of the garage by the front door.

Here is another look at all the mesh around the front door awaiting a coat of stucco.

We went back in the front door and I realized that grout had been put on the tile. I guess I wasn’t looking at it when I carried the pie inside.  It looks very nice.  Betsy Gregor had posted a comment that the grout would make a big difference and it does. It is a light gray and goes perfectly with the tile color.

We didn’t stay too long because we needed to get that chocolate pie back in the refrigerator.  I took two slices to our RV neighbors.  The tile setters told us they would get started on the bathroom wall tiles today so we went back to the house in the evening to see what they had done.  They had drained and cleaned the bathtubs and put the orange fabric on the walls.

Our shower stall is also ready for tile.  I am looking forward to this as it has a decorative element.

It was early evening so in addition to checking the flooring in his office, Andy checked out his view of the sunset.  He appeared to be doing some Tai Chi.

The kitchen looks large with no cabinets or appliances.

I do like the wheelbarrow yard art and had to take another picture of it.

The west side of the house has a layer of stucco on it.  There is no texture to it so I suppose they will add more.

This was an odd piece lying in the yard.  I decided that it is scaffolding for applying stucco, turned upside down.