“Architectural details” take a lot longer to stucco than plain flat walls. Lookin’ good though.
Several people have asked what the final color will be. (This is the base coat; there will be a finish coat over this.) It will be a light off-white (soapstone?) like the greenhouse columns.
And here’s today’s Buddhist thought of the day: “Chaos is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on with diligence. – Buddha”
And so we strive on.
After the very cold weather and two snowfalls, we finally had a couple of days this week that were warm enough to stucco and got the third wall done. Then it started to get colder, so we took a day to finish the foam doorway arch on the last wall.
Yesterday was pretty cold (40s during the day, 20s at night), but today was supposed to be warmer so we set out this morning to start the last wall. It was colder than expected though with the temperature still in the 30s after 10:00…too cold for the stucco (and for me too).
I went to hose down the walls that have been done (something we do a few times a day so that the stucco doesn’t dry too fast and crack) and found that even the water in the hose was frozen solid.
We’ll try again tomorrow.
We stucco’d the first wall today! Yay!
It was cold, and we are both completely exhausted, but it looks really great, and this is a huge milestone.
Since the snow before Christmas, we’ve had another snowfall (this is not seeming like the desert southwest), and it’s been cold — low 20s at night and not out of the 40s during the day. With a brisk north wind, that’s too cold to stucco, so we’ve been working on solar and other things. One of them is the woodworking.
As you may remember, we began a test run of building our own doors just before Thanksgiving. It was a project that we weren’t in a huge hurry to finish, but now that the batteries are in their house and the weather is cold, the battery house needs a door.
After many rounds of sanding, I proceeded with staining the door. I used Minwax wood conditioner first (which I really liked) and then an oil-based stain. It went on very nicely. Then we began working on mounting the door hardware and hanging the door. (In hindsight, I would have done all the hardware work before even staining. It didn’t make a huge difference, but I did have some touch-up work to do afterward.)
First, Brad used a template to rout out the space for the hinges, both on the frame and on the door itself.
Then we did a test hang (the first of many) to check the door height and width. We needed to trim just a bit off the top and the bottom, which went smoothly.
Then we worked on the width with a planer. This not only narrowed the door to fit, but also put a bevel on the door so it would close right.
The process here is first to plane and then to test hang to check fit. Repeat, repeat, repeat. It took many, many times to get it just right.
Then for the last steps of several coats of varnish and installing the lock. Here is the varnished door.
I also stained and varnished the door frame, which is really looking nice. (It’s been fun to finally do something that I had some pre-existing expertise in — thanks Dad!)
You’ll have to wait to see it hung with final hardware … it’s taken me so long to get this posted that we’ve now commenced stucco’ing. And with stucco started, everything else will be on hold for a while.
We woke up to 3+ inches of snow this morning! And then by afternoon, most of it was gone.
We got all the lath on, but ran out of staples to do the final nail-down. (We want it to be really tight to help with the stucco.) So, we had a day or two this week to work on other projects.
Brad worked on the columns for the solar, while I worked on the door for the battery house. I’m in charge of all the finishing.
Brad had suggested several times that I try his orbital sander, but I was reluctant. I did a lot of sanding when I was a kid (thanks, Dad, for the good training), and we always sanded by hand. I didn’t think any kind of power sander could do as well. But after many hours of hand sanding the door and some stubborn spots that I couldn’t quite work out, I decided to try the orbital sander.
Surprise — I liked it! (This is a pattern with Brad and I. He often suggests something for me to try — usually computer related — that I resist for many months and then think it’s great. Examples include a USB drive, IMAP, and Thunderbird.)
One thing I really like about the orbital sander is that you have a lot of control with it. It’s small and light (not unlike the palm nailer) and doesn’t feel like it might get away from you. The door (and table) is looking really good now.
We have an inspection on the lath scheduled for Monday. Keep your fingers crossed. This is the first inspection that I really feel like they’re looking at my work.
A passed inspection to proceed with stucco.
And we’re getting close. The paper and stucco netting are all on now. On Monday, we did something else I’ve been waiting for a long time: fire and ice. This is the last layer of underlayment…this one goes on top of the parapet as a final layer to keep water out. Fire and ice is a very thick vinyl with sticky black stuff on the bottom. We were going to put it on earlier, but it has to go over the sharkskin and house wrap paper. (Layers are put on from the bottom up so that water cascades down, hopefully never entering the house.) Fire and ice is kind of expensive, so Brad suggested we wait until the very end to do it. As it turns out, he was very right because we had to tear off all the paper because of wind. If we’d put fire and ice on before, we’d have had to tear it off and redo it too. Good call, Brad.
Fire and ice (blue and white top stuff) on top of the parapet
We also have most of the reinforcing lath that goes on all corners and around windows and doors. This stuff is a sheet of woven metal that goes on to strengthen places that might need it. It looked like it would be difficult to work with, but in fact, it was quite easy. It’s quite malleable, cutting and shaping easily. And it really looks great on the corners. It will make the rounded corners we’re doing much easier.
(Click to enlarge.)
We ran out of this stuff before we got the whole top of the house done, so it’s off to town to get more. Then, that should be it for lath.
