Progress in August

August is traditionally holiday time in Europe. It's not unusual for businesses to close for the entire month. Naturally, we had some concern that things would slow down a bit on the worksite, but our contractor assured us that work would continue, and he delivered.

The main thing that got finished was the structural work on the bathrooms built into the back garden.

The roof above the bathrooms will be nearly level with the rest of the garden. It will be a patio space with some tables/chairs. The six squares in the picture above will be filled with panels that contain a matrix of small circular glass sidewalk bricks.  This will filter some light into the bathrooms, and add some character to the space above.

On the left of the bathrooms will be stairs leading down to the bar.  The patio will also have stairs connecting to the 1st floor balcony which will be connected to the mezzanine level in the bar by a cast iron catwalk. The effect should create a space with many different environments on different levels.  Hopefully it will also feel bigger then it is.

Inside the house, the workers have been busy cleaning up the masonry work on the walls.  We are going to leave the stones exposed which is not unusual in Porto. I love the look of the stone wall, and seeing it cleaned and finished is really nice. Stone gives a strong feeling of permanence to the space, and the matrix created by the different stone shapes always catches your eye.

When we lived in New York and London, having an exposed brick wall was a sought after feature.  Brick is nice, but this is better!