Here's a close up of the bottom step of the west wall. You can see the pitting that occurred with the sand blasting. This was a problem in certain areas, where it seemed the concrete was softer, where removal of the paint and stucco layer inevitably resulted in the pitting of the underlying concrete. Not to worry, as we have a solution to work with. : ) The upper surface of this same step has much scoring, which had been done in a previous repair, where they attempted to apply a thin grade layer to prevent water from pooling on the surface of the step. The repair failed (if you see the post from late April when we were trying to scrape this Stupa (before we realized sand blasting was inevitable), chunks of this repair layer were sloughing off. Obviously we don't want to repeat that experience, but we're working with materials we know little about. Concrete is not our business (we're Dharma students, working hard to preserve these structures to bring benefit to beings). We have, however, consulted and been instructed on concrete repair with professionals, so hopefully this new approach will produce a good result. One thing we will do differently on the top of the steps is determine if we're comfortable grinding out the "shoulders" necessary to create the desired effect. We'd have to remove a significant amount of the existing layer, to create a bed in which the repair would sit. Given the current condition, lots of visible scoring, that might not be a bad thing. We're just trying to figure out how to best approach it. So, keep visiting here to see how we navigate this adventure!