April was another exciting month. The paintbrushes came back out, and nohing was safe. Well, nothing but the back wall.

The month started with the plaster finished on the second floor of the casino, but not the first. At least the modillions were in place.

Just a couple of days later, and what did I see on the bridge from the parking garage to the casino? That’s right, it’s paint!

A little closer look shows they’re using the same colors as the very top of the hotel tower. And they’re also starting at the eaves and working their way down.

But they weren’t done. A few days later they had painted more of the bridge, putting that brilliant white on the walls next to the windows.

They also dismantled the scaffolding as they went down, giving an unobstructed view of the newly-painted eaves and modillions.

Meanwhile, at the northeast corner of the casino, they were still doing plaster work. Here the grey dots covered the entire second floor.

A few days later I caught the painters in the act. Here they are painting the lower portion of the bridge a kind of sandy brown, a little bit darker than the sandy beige up above.

Here is the end of the bridge crossing Curry Street, mostly painted. It shouldn’t be too much longer now before they take down that barricade and reopen the street.

They stopped painting about ten feet off the ground. It look like they might be putting rockwork on the legs of the bridge the rest of the way down.

In the courtyard you can see where they started painting the wall of the casino. They’re using the same colors as they did on the bridge: sandy beige on the eaves, white on the second floor, then brown the rest of the way. And again they stopped painting about three feet off the ground. It really looks like something besides paint is going there. Could this mean the return of the FakeRock™?!

In the back, along Curry Street, they painted the bridge but stopped when they got to the casino. This back wall is lagging pretty far behind the front in terms of progress. In fact, this is the only part of the building that still has its original exterior walls intact.

Along Carson Street, they started painting the eaves. Surely the walls can’t be far behind. They’re also putting some decorative trim around the windows in the Big Room, to mirror the vertical lines on the hotel tower.

They finally finished plastering this wall, so it should be ready for paint soon. And you can see that even here they’ve left three feet next to the ground for rockwork.

The north wall is also fully plastered, and the eaves have been painted. I’m expecting big things in May, so we’ll have to keep our eyes peeled!

It’s still a long way from opening, but it’s right on the cusp of getting paint on the casino walls, and that will go a long way towards brightening up this block. Now they just need to start working on the portecochere!

More to come as the spring goes on.