I’m just floored–and that’s a very good thing!

Week 1 of Cannon Wood’s work on the floors is done and all I have to say is, WOW! How wow? Let me show you, starting with the walk leading to the front door. Before, it was just plain concrete:

Notice the plain concrete of the entry porch too. But now it looks like this.

And this (and all of the other exterior pictures), are before the final sealer is put on, which will bring out the colors even more.

When Cannon’s wife Susan and son Jacob were working on the entry porch a few days ago, it looked like this.

The colors are being put on with sponges, not unlike the faux finishes that were so popular on interior walls a few years ago. In this case, the result is a faux slate. The darker color borders panels of lighter “stones.”

So how did they get those grout lines between the individual “stones?” Before the color and texture coats were put down, Cannon and family put down a white coat and carefully laid in tape. The tape lines are the faint gray and yellow lines you can see here on the south patio.

Then they put down the texture coat of cement, then the colors, and finally carefully removed the tape, so the “stones” actually present a raised surface about the “grout,” as if they were real stones.

As you can see, we used the expansion joints in the concrete to define the borders between the panels. They’re such big and blatant lines that this was the best way to integrate them into the overall design. There are a few small places on the west patio where we couldn’t do this but for the vast majority of all three exteriors, we could.

Speaking of the west patio, it started just like the others: plain gray concrete. Here, Susan and Jacob are again coloring the borders.

And the pre-sealer result looks like this:

There are a few “stones” that look a bit too pink to me, so Cannon’s going to touch them up before the sealer goes on. I don’t have a good shot of it but these colors really integrate well with the landscaping stone and the grasses beyond as well when seen from inside.

Now let’s go inside.

Just like the patios, the interior floors have mostly been just plain gray concrete, except where the tile has been put down. Here’s the great room (you can’t see much of the floor)…

…and here’s the kitchen before the counter tops went in.

The interior floor is going to be built up in layers, so what I’m about to show you are the first two. Here’s the dining room and great room, layer 1:

And layer 2:

Kitchen layer 1:

And layer 2:

Now, this light blue color is a kind of base coat. The final floor will be MUCH darker. Cannon brought a sample board but it didn’t photograph well, so you’ll just have to wait to see where we’re headed. Even so, with this sky blue color the cabinets are already starting to “pop.” This coming week, more magic will happen.

Finally, let’s go back outside one more time. One of my cow’s-tongue prickly pear cacti bloomed on Friday.

And it’s putting out new pads too. It’ll be even happier when summer Monsoon rains start in July.

Save