Notes From My Balcony: progress

I have been remiss in posting and keeping people up-to-date on my little "green" house. We have turned the corner and are ready to start wrapping up the essentials, e.g. installation of PV panels, solar hot water, the rainwater catchment system, etc. I have decided to go with an iron sulfate stain to the outside stucco which should give me a reddish brown color that will go beautifully with the corten roof. For those who don't know what corten is, corten is a formula of metal that, based on its composition, which includes nickel and copper, rusts very quickly to create a top layer of beautiful burgundy rust. At that point, the rusting stops and the roof is protected.

The balcony roof has been up a couple weeks and the rust is already started to progress.

After equivocating for a bit about the outside paint, I decided to go with a simple ferrous sulfate coat (commonly used as fertilizer and relatively cheap). The iron sulfate will react with the lime in the stucco to give the color. I like the idea of a house whose color is created by a chemical reaction. The house has a life of its own. And well it should.

Frank will be making my metal balcony and fixing up my staircase to the roof. The staircase to heaven, well, that will be under someone else's purview. But this will be pretty close. Frank made the beautiful metal posts that hold up the balcony and balcony roof- a simple, minimalist, and elegant look that compliments the angularity of this unusual little house. Frank doesn't like to refer to himself as an artist, but I have seen the work he does and I might beg to differ. I have given him free rein, within the overriding rubric of "simple but beautiful", so it will be fun to see what he comes up with. Frank and Peyton run the High Desert Market in Bisbee and serve up some of the best quiche in southern Arizona (among other delicacies).