Steven met early Friday with Ron and …

• Mauricio, “cement landscaper,” to discuss clearing the brush, rock and gravel where the new third bay of the garage will be built; building forms for the new garage foundation and pouring the cement; using the same Bobcat to take out the existing patio off the kitchen — and lowering that grade to prevent water from flowing into the house; and taking up part of the existing walk in front of the house, to be replaced with concrete pavers and a new path to the front door.
• Julian Roman of Romans Tile, to discuss tile setting, which is scheduled to begin Wednesday, 14 October.

Ron and Steven talked about the estimates for glass doors in the bathrooms — and walked off potential alternates in bath 2 and the master bath. More to come as we work through details.

And they talked through drainage and gutters around the house.

Steven and Mark Rehberg from Ranserve convened their weekly update meeting by phone — everything from budget to timeline to next steps.

After noon, Steven met Jacquela — who took the afternoon off from work — at a stone fabricator to consider possible countertop options for the pantry hallway — and wife and husband ate lunch together. How civilized.

Back at the house, Steven met separately late Friday with Jeff Cisneros from Davey Trees to discuss how to properly raise the canopy on the oak in the back of the house to ensure it clears the new garage bay — and continues to thrive. Jeff will compute the cost of this work — and the boxing of ornamental grasses that we will attempt to save and replant when construction is finished. Jeff will also review phase 2 of the trimming of the oaks planned for the front and side yards — it is time to cut the branches back off the roof and away from the house.

One observation — Steven spent the entire day at the house, working out of the garage on his Yoga notebook computer, tethered by cell phone to the Internet, powered by extension cord. Eight hours. Proof it is possible.