The Stone is Here!

It's not everyday that you start the morning with a truckful of gravel waking the neighbors (sorry folks). But bright and early the manly-men from Southwest Boulder arrived with their bright yellow truck full of "Graphite Gray".

The DG will crunch-crunch-crunch underfoot, a romantic sound Richard and I are both hooked on, nothing says old-house-garden better! Richard and I were out at the stoneyard Saturday, with Jeff and his crew. Most of the Natural by Design crew are talented masons, and watching them ogle the stone yard like kids in a candy shop made me wish we had 7 homes so we could get them to build projects with everything we loved out there. Southwest offered so much to choose from, and of course just loving something does not always work, the material has to fit the project. While the Owens would have used dirt paths and poured in place cement walkways, we were looking to add a little more "bang", while honoring the period.

In the end, we fell for an amazing stone, a form of bluestone in a green/brown mottled mix that Jeff had never seen before, and the stone people said is very rare. The stone is a type of sandstone, which makes it appropriate to the region, as a "it might have been done back then"...yeah, if the Owens family had unlimited resources....but artistic license is part of the old-house thing, as long as we do not do anything jarring. I have seen too many polished, rainbow granite countertops in otherwise lovely period kitchens. People, let the house tell you what it wants. Mine says "Feed me more money!" Glad to oblige, as long as the green stuff holds out.