Drying out

Every day the house looks better. But there are some photographic challenges. The scaffolding, for one, is in the way still. And because the color value of the stones is so similar to that of the grout, it's difficult, when there's so much else in the picture, to make them look as distinct from one another as they are to the nondigital eye. So here's a close-up of the two.

Every day the color of the grout improves. Can't wait to see how it continues to evolve across months and years. But I guess I'll have to, eh?

And here's (yet) another shot of the wall. You can see that it's still wet in places at the bottom.

But this picture highlights another issue, which Nicolas has been warning us about also, and which Kristi noticed in one of her recent comments: the new wall makes the verandah look even more atrocious than it did before. Not only this, but there are some structural problems with it. You see, it seems that back in the 30s or so when the thing was made, cement was all the rage. ("The sickness of cement" were Nicolas' words.) After all, cement was a French invention, and was the wonder material of the age. But they didn't have it quite figured out at the time.

They apparently didn't count on the cement they were using to be quite so absorbant. But it is. When it rains, the exposed part of the verandah soaks up the water like a sponge. And therefore in places the iron reinforcement structure has started to rust and expand, making part of the cement crumble, allowing water to actually drip all the way through onto the corridor below. there are only really three spots where this is a problem, but it will only get worse with time. Here's a shot looking up at the balcony ceiling from below:

Also, the cement of the verandah is so heavy that the supporting columns are starting to stress the old stone wall atop which they sit. Also not good.

So what to do?

Well, the obvious answer is to take down the balcony. We'll need to do that. It'll be messy, but not really difficult. None of the verandah roof structure sits on the balcony; it rests on the actual house walls.

So we take down the balcony. Then what? Well, we could simply put up a railing and call it a day. The verandah as it exists now is more than 1000 sq feet anyway. But I like the balcony. First because I like the corridor it creates underneath. Pink columns aside, it's nice to walk down there, and it's a great spot for a bench, and also it'll no doubt provide some welcome shade in the hot bright summertime. Here's an old picture, before Gommie came and we really cut back all the overgrowth, but you get the idea:

But I also want to preserve what we can of the balcony because if we eliminate it we'd also be emilinating the utility of the doorway leading from our future kitchen to the verandah. That doorway, in the absence of the balcony wrapping around the house, would open onto empty space.

So I'm for reconstruction. But not in cement. Something lighter, and more modern. We've been looking at all sorts of materials online, mostly metal grates in dazzling variety. We want something that will be inconspicuous and mildly attractive. I found some really nice grating in bronze, Sarah has found several interesting steel grates, it's not hard to find. And we like the idea ofcombining modern with ancient in our domestic endeavors.

Now, before you say, "that's atrocious," keep in mind some of what this will allow us to do. For a railing around the outside, where the horrible cement wall now stands, we can get something cool. The French are famously good at wrought iron balconies:

or even better, art nouveau:

Wouldnt that be magnificent.

Or, we could get something in nice wood:

...and as we know, wood baconies come in all different flavors:

The possibilities are limitless. Also, we could put a spiral stair down from the kitchen side to the southern garden. At the moment, after all, the only way to get to the car is either through the downstairs bedroom or by walking around the house. Direct access to that garden from the verandah would be nice.

And the final pleasure allowed by fixing the verandah problem: we could finally tile the verandah floor. Moroccan, of course.

Wouldn't that be great?

Anyway, the verandah balcony is not going to fall down immediately, we have some time to properly plan this. Just goes to show, there's always something more to do. But it's all fun!