Finally a new post

I realized that I haven't updated the blog in quite a while, and worse - the way I left it was with a photo of my travertine project on the front porch - halfway finished.

Here's a photo of the finished job (finished back in the early spring).

Below is a photo of the porch before I started the project.

Front Porch Project - Phase 1

This is the front porch and entryway after I've trued up the edges of the step. It wasn't a 90 degree angle and it wasn't square.

During my last week off, I started working on my front porch. I've never liked the surface of our front porch, it was poured concrete and was not very pretty. A couple of years ago, I purchased a couple of large outdoor carpets and put on it and it looked okay.

Last summer, I decided I wanted to put down travertine (a natural stone) for the surface. Summertime is too hot to work outdoors in Florida (for me) and so I put it off. The fall had me working on the boat a lot to prepare for this winter's Bahamas trip, so that left this late winter and spring to do the porch.

First off was buying the Travertine. I needed about 220 sq feet. I could buy it for about 6 bucks a square foot OR if I was willing to buy a whole crate (about 350 square feet), I could get it for 2 bucks a square foot. That was a no brainer, so I bought a crate of Travertine and had it delivered to the house (it weighed 2200 pounds). After I got back from the Atlanta race, I started in on the project.

First up was leveling and truing the surface. Whomever poured the 'upper' part of the porch did a real crappy job of making sure everything was at right angles, so I had to spend a pretty good amount of time preparing the surface and especially getting the edge of the step true. I had decided that rather than butting the tiles where the vertical meets the horizontal at the steps I would put in a nice trim piece that would really make it look custom. This decision cost me about a days worth of prep because the trip piece doesn't span a large area, so the imperfections of the steps had to be fixed.

Then, I decided that I needed some accents in the field tiles, so I looked all over town for what I wanted (pillow glass that matches the color of the front doors) and couldn't find it anywhere. So, I ordered it on the internet.

With all my supplies in hand, I started laying out the tile. This step takes a long time, but make for a good job, so I spent a lot of time making sure everything was laid out perfectly.

With 2 days of driving rain in the middle of the job, it lasted much longer than I wanted, but on Sunday, I finally grouted the 1/16ths inch grout lines and phase one is complete. I now have the MUCH larger area to do that spans the front of the house, but with phase 1 under my belt, I expect that phase 2 will go quite fast (I hope). I have to work through the Martinsville race, so it'll be the first week in April before I get started on it.

The completed "phase one" with the front doors open.

You can see part of the larger porch area here. I'll match the completed area for the main porch during phase 2.

You can see the pillow glass accents pretty good in the larger version of this photo.

Star-Studded Day at the Track in Atlanta

Me and Scott Speed

In this job, I get the opportunity to meet a few 'famous' (or maybe recognizable) people pretty often. Many times, it's a surprise and the opportunity just jumps up in front of you and you have to take it. This was the case today at the Atlanta track.

I left our truck to go out to the catering tent to get some coffee and passed an area in our TV compound where they were shooting a small bit for the race show called 'Racing Chef'. The 'guest' on the show was my favorite driver - Scott Speed. Scott is my favorite driver because of his attitude. He's more like a hang glider pilot, snowboarder kinda guy than a race car driver. He doesn't win races (yet) but he's doing better all the time.

Anyway, I stopped to watch the taping and when it was done, I went over and introduced myself and shook his hand. I always do this in a nice and respectful way and so far, none of the many celebs that I've done this with have been put off.

The new International Truck that Cowboy likes.

Later, Cowboy (our truck driver) and I went down to the pits to take care of some business and to look for this new truck that International has come out with - that looks retro. As we were passing the media center, we saw a girl go in there that looked like she had an olympic medal around her neck. I went in to see if indeed she was an olympian and instead found 4 olympians. Honestly, I don't know who most of them were, but I instantly recognized Steven Holcomb -the driver of the men's 4 man bobsled who took gold just last week in the Olympics. He has an incredible story and I made sure to take the time to meet him, and tell him thanks for making us all proud.

The olympians. Steven Holcomb is on the right.

Shortly afterward, a B-52 bomber strafed the infield - for no apparent reason. It was loud, low and really cool. I happened to have a camera in my hand and was able to get a photo of it as it passed by. A fun day at work!

Atlanta Motor Speedway

I'm in cold,cold,cold Atlanta this week.