The Portico and Loggia...

The more observant readers will have noticed that last weekend the artist's impression in the left side bar changed to an actual photo of the manor. It is so nice to have a photo of the whole project sans construction equipment and scaffolding!

Today we are going to look at the entrance and the loggia. As one pulls up at the foot of the steps they are greeted by this sight...

I think another pair of urns, planted up with a well manicured selection of flowers and ivy would look good between the door frame and the inner columns under the lights.

By night guests are greeted with this sight...

We are very happy with how the doors turned out. The execution of our design, the final colour of the stain, and the placement of the knockers we brought back from London all came together nicely. The wood is yellow cedar, which is a lot harder than the more common red cedar. They had to stain it repeatedly to get it to darken up (compared to the carriage house doors, which are red cedar, and only required the standard 3 coats of stain before they turned a warm dark brown).

The view of all the column capitals and the hanging lantern from the front doors...

By night the lantern shines leaving a wonderful pattern of light across the plaster...

whilst the carriage lights on either side of the door provide additional illumination...

The columns at night...

Around on the northern side of the manor, we have used the same components in the loggia...

We will have to take some more photos at night to show you how wonderful this looks from the cocktail lawn. I will do that next month when I am home again. Please stop by again tomorrow when we share photos of the lakeside folly which Peter and our friend Dirk built.

A Grand Entrance 3 - Paint's on, Gates on, Anybody Home?

The gates have finally been hung. They were a long time in the making but we are pleased with the finished product. The leaves have been gilded after the wrought iron was powder coated, so everything should be well weather proofed.

Probably the last photos we shared of the entrance were almost a year ago, when it looked something like this...

It had only just been rendered, and not painted (as we had not chosen a colour at that stage)...

Below: The finished paint colour, compared to the exterior render for the manor house (plaster tile) and the stone dentils..

But now the walls are almost finished (we just need to have the brass plaques mounted, the carriage lights hung, the lions fixed atop the gate pillars, and the security cameras installed).

Above: One of the two stone lions for atop the gate pillars.

Below: The original design for the gates, showing lights and lions.

Above: The left hand side of the entrance.

Below: Looking back down the drive towards the entrance from the inside.

Below: The right hand half of the entrance before the gates were hung or the pedestrian gate gilded.

Below: The team from Iron Design, Tauranga, who manufactured the gates and hung them.

Some of the interim photos as they were being forged...

 Above and Below: The main scroll for the top, with and without leaves.

 Above and Below: The individually made leaves.

The gate before the leaves were gilded:

The closed gates from the inside...

Views from the outside...  

You may notice in the last shot we are missing 10 buxus plants from the sides of the entrance. Some thief with OCD decided to steal the plants symmetrically from either end during the night! Please leave our hedge alone, so that everyone who drives by can enjoy it.