Stone
I really had no idea what stone I'd finally end up with. Below is the photo I've shown everyone from the beginning, of the look I wanted. I wanted smooth--worn from ages of wind and weather--gray stone, with heavy mortar (called German smear) in a slightly warmer color. Skip, the builder, got samples of several stones. They were all what I'd call 'typical'--rough, more white or tan than gray. Since that seemed to be the closest I was going to come to my vision, I settled on one. Then one day stone arrived, and it was very different from what I thought I'd agreed to. It was huge slabs of limestone--some eight feet long--quarried in Indiana. Evidently my lack of enthusiasm had shown through, and Skip was determined to come closer to what I had in mind. But I couldn't imagine what they'd do with these slabs. This is just one of many loads. I was told that Victor (a short, but solid Ukrainian) was the genius of loc...