HECK YES! SEE THE CAPT. PAINT

With his routine now highly-refined, the Capt. is systematically moving from right to left and top to bottom. Precision rather than speed is the key word for this redux in general but surely for the small squares and the grout finesse.

We are considering starting a pool on exactly how many squares and triangles make up this creation. As a curious data point, I have asked Kim Smerek if she has any notion how many manhours the original took and over what period of time. This endeavor, before and now, is the epitome of daunting but the Capt. claims he simply enters his zone . . . Onward & bottoms up-ward?!?

At the end of the day, I wanted to document the very damaged corner that had to be scraped and primed. We will have to ‘wing it’ a bit to replicate the original pattern and so we consult Kim’s original drawing in the hallway.

Also, the one point that continues over the step was completely eaten away so we are referring to the original drawing to re-create it as closely as possible. Tons of taking a step back and considering . . . The Capt. and I want this to be an authentic restoration.

This post brings us to day 17 overall and constitutes 13+ days of work. We want everyone to see the progress and especially to appreciate the level of degradation this piece endured. As we see side-by-side the reds and purples, it is astounding to think that the faded and dull reds and blues were nearly exactly like the new ones 23 years ago.

Capt. Allen thinks that he is about halfway through and of course as the spaces get larger the tedium decreases and the progress happens more quickly.