So... I figured that I had WAY too much time between being done with the rebar work and the concrete pour... so I decided to add a concrete stem wall to the project. Reasoning: the rest of the house is going to have concrete exterior walls and river rock masonry wainscoting, so I wanted to match that appearance with the garage, but as I was detailing the faux-rock-cladding detail my soul was dying a little bit with each click of the mouse. I could get it to look right, but it would still be... fake. I'm building the real thing here, so if I want river rock on the bottom three feet of my walls, the wall is going to be made of concrete behind that rock. I get to do it that way, because I'm doing it myself.  Authentic and real... not settling for anything less, and I'm going to stay that course.

Test run of shou-sugi-ban finish on the piece of Diablo that I cut yesterday. I love this finish. The photo almost captures the sparkle that the wood gets in the sunlight; a whole wall of this stuff will be mind-blowing when the sun hits it at dusk. I love the undulations where the burning smooths out the rough chainsaw texture. This is BEAUTIFUL!

Fuel for building! I went to the supermarket with the idea of buying a sandwich... but I just couldn't walk away from these beauties. Sprinkled with kosher-salt, rested half an hour while the coals were warming up, then grilled. Shawna called it: this is like a meat-peach!!! 

I couldn't agree more.

Done tying the wall rebar for the rest of the garage. I initially added the boards at the top of the bars to eliminate the impalement hazard, but they turned out to be very helpful in holding the rest of the bars in place. Win! I am REALLY looking forward to being out of the ground on this project!

...another progress shot from up the hill. I was keenly aware that my path to this spot took me above the retaining wall steel, where a slip down the hill could leave me skewered. Not a fun thought... anyway... look at the progress!!! Yay!