I received one of my final BrickLink orders today. Finally, I have enough tiles to complete all of the tan cement and trellises! It will take some days to finish all the work, but I was happy to get a good start on it tonight. Two wings worth of trellis work are complete now - the master bedrooms and servants' wings. Of course I leave the most complicated ones for last... hopefully I can muster up the courage to tackle the childrens' wing and guest wing trellises this weekend. The one by the garden is absolutely huge, at about 64 by 20 studs, with a few intersecting angles that may prove frustrating.

Soon I should be able to begin completion of the great hall roof as well. The end is getting closer every day.

Over the weekend, I worked on some finishing touches on the servants' wing. I've finally filled in the courtyard. The red cement in the courtyard is still waiting on the right color cheese slopes, and I'll probably add some flowers and perhaps a planter or two. I think I've gotten the trellises for this wing to a near-final state. I still need to add a vine or two - the real house has grape vines all over.

I'm quickly falling in love with this wing. The shaping, the angles, and the use of color are quite beautiful. I did not expect this to be my favorite wing, but I think it might be.

Tonight I set out to finish the landscape in the corner next to the servants' wing. I'm currently waiting on a boatload of parts from 5 separate BrickLink orders so that I will have enough to finish out the roof, trellises, and all the tan cement work.

The end is so close! With this section complete, the only "land" that I have left to finish is the walkway up to the playroom, and the center of the garden. Just a little ways left to go, folks...

It's getting to the point where I'm running quite low on things to do, and simultaneously running low on parts to do it with.

Over the long weekend, I did a complete rework of the guest wing and carport. There's a couple small bits of wall to complete, but it's basically 95% there. I'm now only a couple hours of work away from finishing Wingspread's walls!

Tonight I decided to take a stab at a bit more of the roof. With that I'm finally running low on dark orange parts. I'll likely be placing a few orders for more pieces in the next couple days so that I can finish the rest.

Finding the right angle for the garden pathways was an interesting challenge. I wanted to ensure that everything stayed flat, while keeping the edges parallel to the building walls. I'm quite pleased with it, and I look forward to finishing out the flagstone area in the center. It's unfortunate that I didn't have enough space to showcase the full garden path, but I was able to fit about 90% of it.

One of Wright's reasons for giving Wingspread 4 wings was for a separation of public and private spaces. Even today, when you go on a tour of the house, there are areas you are not allowed into. Many areas of the building are rarely photographed (inside and out). Above is the servants' wing courtyard. Its walls are high enough that the casual observer is unable to peek inside. Wright even hides the door to the kitchen area behind a second set of walls.

As you can perhaps tell from the photos, I'm running low on tan tiles... Time to stock up on a few more parts before the home stretch! Sections left to finish:

• Carport/Guest wing
• Pool area hardscaping
• Garden
• Servants' Courtyard (windows, patio)
• Roof

I've been considering building a scannable QR code for BuildingWingspread.com for some time now. Yesterday, my wife and I went on a tour of Wingspread, and I felt inspired to complete this. The red signature block was used by Wright on some of his later homes, as a sort of "stamp of approval".

During the tour, I was able to take a lot of pictures of areas of the building that very few people think to take photos of. As a result I'll be able to make every area of the model accurate, not just the parts that people see more often.

One other side effect of the tour is the ability to refine my scale more. By comparing lengths of sections on the blueprints with the sizing and number of real bricks used, I can define a better scale standard for wall and window heights in my model. I'm still working out the math, but at the moment it looks like I will have to revisit every section to make it slightly shorter. Not too big a deal for brick sections, but windows may need a redesign all around.

Today I began on the servants' wing wall which borders the garden. I've continued the occasional tile "bricks" in the 1x2 plate walls, and I'm quite happy with it. The rest of this wall will have to wait until I get a good look at the real thing when I take my tour of the house this weekend.

Trying to keep my pace up, I got a start on working out the roof sloping tonight as well:

The Wingspread roof is quite unique - one side of each wing's roof is shallow, while the other is steep. Meanwhile, there are trellises all over the place, and lots of sections of grey flat roof as well.

Tonight, I finished up the shaping for the playroom, and began working on the landscaping around the pool. I've got the spacing figured out, but the specific patterning of the concrete will have to wait until I get a good view of the real thing. Unfortunately, there are very few pictures online of the pool area of Wingspread. The good news is, I'm going on a tour of the building this weekend! I'm bringing my camera so that I can take tons of pictures.

I also got a start tonight on the pool-side wall of the servants' wing:

While the tile work in this wall looks nice and presents a realistic brick appearance, it actually serves a structural function as well - over any reasonable distances, walls made entirely of 1x2 plate tend to be fractionally shorter than they should be. This introduces stress and bowing when you begin to attach them to other pieces. The tiles in the wall here serve as "expansion joints" to allow the wall to be as long as it should be.

I'm looking forward to a fruitful tour this weekend! Hopefully the weather will not be too cold. In the meantime, I need to figure out what to work on next. Perhaps I'll start on the garden-side wall of the servants' wing this week.

The hills down into the terrace lawn were an interesting challenge. I had a few concerns to keep in mind during construction:

Next up: finish up the pool-side of the playroom, and the landscaping in front of the pool.