The Decorative Concrete Institute sincerely wishes all of you great success and all the romance you can handle in 2007.

After a couple of days off to recover from the New Year, Bob and Lee Ann load the box truck and head south. The final destination was beautiful St. Augustine, Florida for our next exciting project.

Hmmm. . .I wonder who took this picture of LeeAnn. . .working our way to St. Augustine.

The week between Jan 7 and the 13th, was spent shooting Bob’s new DVD on Stain. This was an interesting project for the start of our video shoot considering the fact that it was actually a three-story concrete home with work being performed on all three floors. This picturesque setting was virtually next door to the historical light house in St. Augustine which made the project that much more intriguing.

This DVD will truly be one of a kind considering the content on this actual project. Issues addressed were, properly patching holes that were through the entire 3rd floor, fixing problem areas, sampling on the actual floor, as well as some beautiful finished floors.

The filming reconvened at DCI’s shop for important design layout considerations as well as some mind blowing decorative applications using metallic epoxies, dyes and some unbelievable effects. We don’t want to give it all away, so stay tuned!

Another shot from the new Stain DVD!

After a long, long week of filming we are back into a ColorMaker skim coat class on Jan 17-19. The class started off with the theoretical side of how skim coats work as well as issues such as proper surface preparation.

After the classroom instruction, Bob demonstrated the proper use of Sgraffino and Pentimento along with Colorfast. Once the students had an understanding of how the products worked, they were able to go work on their own panels using the above-mentioned products.

The last two days were spent completing decorative saw cutting, working with stains and dyes as well as sealer and wax applications.

Victor Pachade from ColorMaker made the comment that this was an exceptionally creative group, and we have to agree. Great job gang. Hopefully we’ll see you in the near future.

The day after our skim coat class, Bob, Lee Ann and Lee Ann’s Mom, alias (“Baba”) head west to sin city, Las Vegas, Nevada for World of Concrete. There they join up with Bob’s Mom, Mary Lou. These four tear the city apart with some great times. On Monday it is back to business with the first of Bob’s four seminars throughout the week. Bob co-presented with friend, Tom Ralston on the subject of Acid Staining Techniques. We were amazed at the attendance level, which is yet another indicator of the popularity of the staining market. Tuesday, bright and early, Bob presented with friend, Clif Rawlings of HTC on the subject of Polished Concrete. Again, this was a packed house. These seminars were again presented on Thursday and Friday with great attendance.

The Portland Cement Association introduced their new DVD (an overview of decorative concrete) at their booth, along with an “Ask Bob Harris” question and answer session. Based on the attendance at the PCA booth decorative concrete is not a passing fad, but one of the fastest growing market segments in the entire concrete industry.

In between all of this, it was great seeing many of you as well as other colleagues out at the Artistry in Concrete demonstrations. Hats off to all of the talented artists!

Thanks Matt, John, Clark, and Mike for a great last night in Las Vegas! The plane ride home sure sucked.

(Editor's Note: We are unable to share pictures of this trip...What happens in Vegas...)

Until next time...