Stucco today!

Well, I will have to (happily) "eat my hat" as "they" say! The stucco was done in one day! That's twice in a week I was shocked that the job actually took as long as the contractor said! The stucco got done without any major problems and it looks great! These are pictures from the day of application, so it doesn't look quite the way it will when it is completely dry. I'll post more pictures then. It is a huge relief to have this done. It is such a huge improvement. Maybe now the comments from passers-by will change and people won't be trying to get a glimpse of us to see what weird people could possibly live in such a dump.

Here is a shot of the mixer sitting on our lawn. They mix the stucco in large batches so the color stays constant.


Here is the prep work. It took the crew quite a while to prep. They also hosed the walls down before applying the stucco to help it adhere.



And here it is, the magical first swipe of new stucco.....I was amazed at how fast and skilled they were. It took me a really long time to trowel the samples I did and they didn't come out nearly as smooth as the crew's did.


Here are the tools they used. The handle sticking out of the bucket is a scoop shaped like a quarter of a pie. They scoop a glob of stucco onto the big square trowel and then use the sponge trowels (orange and green) to spread it. I think these sponges really help them get a nice smooth finish.

Here is the first section done. I was so excited to see this - it's been so long in coming. We've had the house for 19 months and we've had to look at it being nasty for all that time. Shortly after this, they sealed me inside (my choice, I could have been out all day) so they could have the windows and doors masked off. I was dying of curiosity! I could hear them working wall by wall, and wanted to see so badly! I eventually went out at about 2:00 with the dog and was quite pleased by the progress.






Here is the first wall completed. You can see the darker and lighter spots forming as the stucco dries. It will eventually dry to a light tan.

No stucco today

The stucco crew was supposed to start at 8:00 a.m. and at 8:30 I got a call from the contractor saying they would be here tomorrow. Nice. What do people do who work outside the home? This project has been my full-time-plus job for over a year and it is still horrible. What if I had arranged my work schedule to be here today and all my critical meetings were tomorrow? How bad would that be to take off on a moment's notice? Or, the alternative to not be here when they are working..... not good either! I've seen what can go wrong when you are here and have seen enough to know I don't want to chance not being here.

Here's hoping for tomorrow.

Sandblasting today, finally!

After much scheduling drama with our contractor, I am pleased to report that the sandblasting actually happened today. Because the place is so trashed, it was not eligible to just be painted or surface coated with stucco. They actually sandblast off a small layer from the outside and completely redo the stucco. I was not happy with the contractor's attitude about scheduling. I had to be out of the house all day, and had to arrange care for the dog and manage to get to an appointment as well as make a few other stops. I did not appreciate him keeping me on hold for so long. The good news is, the day did go fine as least as far as I can tell. I'm not sure they took enough off, but that is not my problem. They are scheduled to begin stuccoing Monday, and it should take 1 - 2 days. In the meantime, the house looks worse for the most part but actually looks better in some ways because the finish, although ugly, is at least even.

Here is a before shot. You can see the light blue color and we think it was yellow at some point as well.



They covered all the doors and windows with tape and plastic.



Here is the garage wall with a small amount done on the left. I was amazed at how fast it worked. They actually used a water hose that blasted sand and water. I didn't know about the water until we saw them start. It seems like a good idea because the water much catch much of the sand dust. Even without the power on, the hose was quite powerful. We couldn't stay to watch because it was SO noisy I could see it damaging your ears really quickly. The entire crew wore heavy duty headphone-type ear protection, and I can see why. The noise is part of why we had to be out of the house all day, and the other part is that the house is sealed against the blasting so you would be stuck inside with no windows open.

Here is the back wall of the garage after being blasted. You can see all the blue is gone and it is just the grey undercoat of stucco. You can also see the partially done wall shown in the last photo.


Here is the front of the house after blasting. As I said, I think it looks better in some ways, worse in others. I can't wait to have new stucco! The only left on the outside of the house after that is trim painting and removing stucco from the windows left by our prior incompetent contractor who can't use a tarp. (We'll also be replacing the brick on the front porch with slate or flagstone, but that's a long way off). (We'll be resurfacing the driveway too, but that's a long way off too.)

The sandblasting left this weird, greyish mud all over the place.



This is why you don't do landscaping until all the work on the house is done. The ground next to the house was covered in several inches of mud. Any plants we had there would surely be gone.


I talked to several painters, general contractors and stucco guys and they all were clear from the beginning that the place needed to be re-stuccoed completely (i.e. it couldn't be painted or repaired). I trusted that information given that so many people said it, and that several painters turned down the work because they said it needed stucoo (I would imagine if it could have been merely painted they would have at least bid on the work). It wasn't until after the sandblasting that I realized just how trashed the surface was. In addition to being way out of plumb, there were massive cracks all over. Here is just one of many examples:





An interesting discovery. This is a former kitchen window that used to face the side of the house. The sink was there at one point, and then later a 2-story apartment building was built there so the view was probably not so nice. The sink window would have looked right out onto the main walkway used to enter the apartments and the walkway was higher than the window, so everyone entering the apartments could easily look in. The sink and window over it are now on the front of the house. We considered re-opening this window during our construction, but it didn't seem worth it. It would have added minimal light, and would have been closed most of the time for privacy. Also, it would have meant losing a lot of cabinet space.





A bonus. The crew sandblasted the eves for us at no extra charge. I have to get up and look at them, but they may have saved us a great deal of paint prep, so much so that we may be able to do it ourselves. Prior to this there was just too much scraping and sanding for us to possibly do, but now it may be manageable. We'll see.

How hard is it to call a cell phone?

I don't know why, but so many of the contractors we have worked with don't get the idea of "call me on my cell phone at ###-###-####." Sometimes I call from my home phone because of better reception and to save minutes, but I always say "call me on my cell phone at ###......" In fact, I usually even say, "this is my home number I'm calling from, and since I'm not always here please call me back on my cell phone at ###-" I cannot tell you how hard this has been for so many people we have worked with. It really doesn't seem that difficult a concept to me, but it must be difficult for some people. I had one contractor who preferred to communicate by text, and I tried and tried and could not get him to text my cell phone. He insisted on texting my computer and then I wouldn't get his messages for hours. I can't tell you how much time this wastes. I don't get what is so hard about this concept.

Yard work for stucco

I don't know how people who are not DIYers are able to manage a project like this. I spent 2 hours today cleaning up the weeds and growth by the wall between us and our neighbors. This wall will be sandblasted and stuccoed, so I wanted all the undergrowth cleared so the stucco could go down to the ground. I guess a non DIYer would have to hire a landscaper to clean it up before the stucco guy started. It felt really good to do this - there's a big difference already, and it motivates me to add in a little work on the front yard to my weekly yard work. We do want to do some sort of temporary fix in the near future until we can tackle it properly out there.

Here is a before shot:



And the after shot:

You're probably thinking "why did she do that, it looks even worse?" Well, the picture doesn't show how bad it really looked. It was just a hodgepodge of plants randomly mixed with some weeds. None of these plants is staying in our landscaping, so they all had to go anyway. I like starting with a nice clean backdrop of the wall and working forward. There was a lot of debris and weeds at the bottom (like a foot of weeds just piled up).

The contractor called me today and we are on for Friday for sandblasting. We should have new stucco by the middle of next week. I am so excited!

I have to say that even though our new contractor is better than the prior ones we worked with, I am beginning to get frustrated with him. I have to mention that C called this months ago when I said I liked him. C said "give it time, you'll hat him too." I don't hate him yet, but he has been blowing me off and hasn't been very prompt in scheduling. He and the landscaper are also not meeting with me about the backyard until after the stucco is done. This is really frustrating because while we are in a holding pattern on the stucco, I wanted to nail down the deck design and scope of work for them and have them ready to start ASAP once the stucco is done. I didn't want to wait until the stucco is done and then another week or two while we coordinate schedule and then a few more weeks while we nail down a contract. At this point, it will be September before they start and there is no reason for it.

Sick today

I really wanted to continue working on the doors today, but I was very sick. I did manage to get some things done, but doing physical work in the hot sun wasn't on the agenda today. C also made a good point that the doors must be completely dry when the stucco guy comes because they mask everything off to sandblast. If the stain is wet at all, the masking might leave marks. So, no door finishing until after the stucco. This solves (or at least conclusively delays) a scheduling issue (until after the stucco is done) but leaves me very nervous that the doors will get damaged in the meantime.

Good Idea gone bad

Our new external doors are unfinished, stain grade wood and they are really beautiful. One of my design ideas is to have lots of natural wood around the house. The back door has been in for a while, and the front and side doors just got put in Friday. They all need to be stained, or in this case clear coated. I thought it made sense to wait until all the doors were in before I stained. It seemed like it would save time to be able to prep and mask the doors all at once. Well, the back door got a bit of damage from sitting outside unfinished, but no big deal. Then we got rain last night and this morning! Yikes, I was very upset. Okay, so it wasn't a good plan to wait. I should have at least done the back door when it was first installed and then gotten right on the front and side door this weekend.

I thought I would be able to prep and get a first coat on all the doors today, but of course it took way longer than expected. I only managed to prep and stain the back door. You just can't believe how many surfaces there are to tape off until you start prepping. Then I couldn't believe how many surfaces there were once I started brushing the clear coat on. It took so long that there wasn't adequate time to dry, and I ended up missing a board meeting for an organization I'm on because I couldn't shut the door because the stain was still wet. I haven't used outdoor grade stain ever, and it takes a long time to dry.

Lesson here: Give yourself lots of time when staining things outdoor and schedule it when you can stay home with the doors open.

Another ignorant person

Must I be constantly besieged by ignorant people? Why is it so hard for people who know nothing about a topic to keep from spouting off about it?

I had to verbally put just such a person in her place today. I was with a group of friends (I don't know this woman) and was updating them on the remodel. She asked if we had a general contractor for the whole job and I said no and explained that first of all we had nobody to ask for references and second of all without knowing you were getting a good person it is a huge risk to place the whole project in one person's hands. Also, you have to pay the contractor's markup on every subcontractor and you lose a lot of control. After seeing how badly some of the contractors screwed up their small area of the job and how bad our prior incompetent contractor was, I am even more sure that this was the best choice. I can't even imagine how bad this project would have been had I put it into the hands of any of the contractors we've dealt with so far (our present guy excepted). Her answer? "(snort)Well, that's why it took you so long." WHAT?!?! What a rude and nasty remark! How obnoxious and how condescending! Talk about not knowing what you are talking about - she doesn't even know me or anything about the project. To just assume that she could swoop in and diagnose the whole problem with one question is unbelievably pretentious.


She said "I know someone you can use." Duh. As if that invalidates my logic. First of all, I needed someone 18 months ago, not now. Second of all, the fact that she knows someone and I ran into her today doesn't change the decision parameters I faced 18 months ago.

The most egregious error in her assumption is that my management screwed things up. I don't believe this for a minute, and in fact seeing my level of staying on top of things and attention to detail, I don't think there is a contractor out there who could have done as good a job as I did. This may sound grandiose, but having worked with about 20 contractors and seen their management style and mine, I'd pick mine any day. She knows nothing of the massive problems of finding decent contractors in this area. Here are just a few of the examples I explained to her:

1) Our prior incompetent contractor was hired for a chunk of work that was difficult to parcel out last spring. He should have been done in May, and in December we finally fired him. Not only was he 7 months behind on 6 weeks of work, but he cost us much more time than that by screwing things up, doing them poorly and not completing things. It's much harder to get someone to fix poorly done work than to get someone to do it in the first place. Our bathroom grout still looks terrible and I've had someone in to fix it.

2) Window egress fiasco - two different general contractors installed our windows and neither had knowledge that would have prevented our windows from not passing inspection. The fact is our city has window standards different than the national building code and these standards are not available in writing. How would turning over project management to them have helped if they didn't have the knowledge to begin with?

3) The plumber dropped the ball on several occasions that cost several months delay. One of the biggest things he missed was that the attic had to be reinforced before installing the heater. Again, neither general contractor knew about this so how would turning over project management to them have helped?

4) We waited almost a month for plans to reinforce the attic. Nothing could happen without those plans. This engineer was recommended by the best contractor we have had to date. Exactly how would having him manage our project change this?

I pretty well negated her statements, but with her feeble reasoning it wasn't hard. After I made mincemeat of her ignorant statement, she had the nerve to imply I'm a poor judge of character by saying "What about your gut instinct on these people?" Gee, what a flash of blinding insight. Thank you for displaying your keen grasp of the obvious. No, really, I never thought of that, I hired people I thought were complete jerks. (Huge sarcasm here in case it's not obvious in writing). Of course I liked everyone I hired, they were all great at first. It's after you get into things and they have your over a barrel it all goes downhill.

A question to ignorant people everywhere: Why can't you just say nothing when you know nothing about a topic? Why do people who have, at this point, way less experience at remodeling than I do insist that they have simple solutions to all my difficulties? It's unbelievably arrogant, especially given that so many remodels go badly. Why would someone who has very little or no knowledge of this presume that they are smarter than all of us experienced remodeling homeowners? It's a whole different conversation when I talk to another remodeling homeowner. I can almost tell how much experience someone has had by what kind of comments they make.

new doors look great

The new doors were installed today, and they look great. What a relief to have doors that open and close properly and don't look like they belong in a scrap yard. There is a problem with the jamb though - it's too thick for the walls so the trim won't fit correctly. A good drywaller can build up the wall so it is flush with the jamb. Since the contractor told me what jamb depth to get, I am really hoping he fixes it. Incidentally, this is the same problem I had with my prior incompetent contractor - he told me to buy the wrong jamb depth (in this case too thin) and we had a problem. What is it with contractors? The doors do look great and I am thrilled with my choices. I can't wait until the stucco is up - the house will then just look bad not abandoned or ready to tear down.

I tried to set up a meeting with the landscaper to nail down a contract. I want to be ready to move as soon as the stucco is done, which may be this week. He works a lot with the general contractor we have been using. Unfortunately, they both blew me off and don't want to even meet until next week. NOOOOOOOOOO! I want to be ready to go as soon as the stucco is done, not starting to nail down a contract when the stucco is done. That's the problem here - all the contractors are so busy with work that you need them worse than they need you. (This is an example of the many ways a project stalls).

I did get one piece of window trim up today. The first piece I cut was 1/4" too short (yes, I did measure several times, it's just a really hard thing to measure and cut correctly) so I had to cut a second piece. There is a reason finish carpenters make big bucks! I measured again, and this time figured out how to mark my piece before cutting so I am not measuring against a 45 degree angle. I also tried to cut it on my table saw, with much success! My prior incompetent contractor told me that a table saw does not do a good job cutting trim and that I had to buy a miter box and do it by hand. Talk about tedious! Each cut takes 20 minutes of sawing and it is really boring. Multiply that by 15 windows and doors with 3-4 trim pieces each and that's 42 hours just cutting trim! That doesn't count finishing, measuring, installing or finishing the windows themselves. I should have second guessed him sooner knowing how incompetent he is, but he really seemed to know what he was talking about on this.

I'm pleased to say the table saw does a great job, maybe not quite as good as hand cutting but no question it's good enough even for my high standards. After yesterday's debacle of cutting a piece too short, I was really conservative and cut this one too long. It only took a few minutes to shave a slice off the end using the table saw and viola, it was done. What took the most time was opening and closing the garage and rearranging the table saw and everything in the garage to make room for cutting a 7' piece of wood. I was pleased the piece went right up and looks great. I'll post a photo once all the pieces are on this window.

I worked more on the shower curtain track. I came up with an installation plan, which was harder than it sounds. A lot could go wrong and the product comes with no instructions at all.

I had "help" today

I worked more on the window trim today and am trying to get myself motivated by getting one window (and hopefully the door in the same room) ready for window shades by the time my mom comes to visit in August. We've lived here 14 months and still have a variety of newspaper, butcher paper and plastic taped over the windows because shellacking the trim takes so long none of them are ready for shades yet. Also, being the saavy consumers we are, we want to comparison shop before sinking money into window shades. It seems like a simple enough thing, but they actually cost quite a bit, have loads of features and there are many different brands at different price points. Like everything house related, it's not simple if you want to make an informed choice. I at least know I want "Honeycomb" shades so that rules out a lot.

I have a hard time doing more than 30 minutes a day on the window trim because it is so tedious. I have learned that I have a low tolerance for tedious activity.

I had "help" working on the trim today though. It was quite funny because he has the whole house to lay around in, including a plush bed and two rugs but he choose to lay right here and effectively stop my work by making the trim piece not level and thus making my cut off. I was almost ready to quit when he did this, so I didn't lose that much time.

lots of progress on different things

I got my sandblast permit today after receiving the faxed lead report yesterday. I had to tell the guy at the counter how to read the lead test since they don't usually get x-ray tests. I also worked on the window trim for the first time since March, when we found out our windows didn't meet code. I didn't want to keep investing time until they all passed final inspection. It's a really tedious task, and I can only handle about half an hour a day on it (I did manage 45 minutes today). I've already invested hundreds of hours and I'm not even a third done. Why so much time? I am shellacking the inside wood trim and each surface needs to be shallacked, steel wooled 3 times and then buffed with old denim. Each window needs to be done in about 6 sections so there are no wet surfaces facing each other. If I had been willing to setting for painted trim, I could have been long done. This is another culprit in the long time things are taking - I like things done right and my standards are high. I simply love the way shellac looks and am committed to getting it. I think a lot of people would have balked at the time and effort required and not done it. I am currently trying to get one room ready for shades so that my mom can help me buy them in August when she visits.

I worked on waxing the countertop, which I am way overdue on. The DIY guy from whom we bought all our concrete products from recommends waxing your concrete countertop once a month, but I've been pleased with the results of doing it once every other month. This time thought, it should have been done in April and I'm just getting to it now. Welcome to my life!

I also worked on the curtain track for the shower curtain. So much of this project is planning, measuring, calculating and problem solving. The actual hanging shouldn't take long at all.

Desk day today

I spent all day today (many hours) on filing, phone calls, administration, etc. I am slowly trying to get our files cleaned up and into a good system. I got rid of a whole box of files. While we are remodeling, I am also slowly moving into the house as space becomes available to me (lots of stuff still in the garage), and I am always in the organizing and decluttering mode as well.

Picked stucco color

I decided today on the lighter brown stucco color and I am quite happy with it. Seeing it against the flowers in our landscape colors was the final piece I needed. I am really excited!

Here are some pictures of the flowers against the stucco colors. They are not the greatest due to being limited by my arm's length.

This is the light brown color we choose:


Here is the dark brown color I almost choose. They both look good, but I am very happy with the lighter color.

Stucco colors and speakers

C and I did a little bit of work today. We talked more about stucco colors, and I'm almost decided on the light brown. I just want to buy some flowers in the color of our landscaping and see how they look against the stucco.

We also talked about his sound system in the living room.

It's funny that the vast majority of remodeling work has nothing to do with labor or actually working on the house. Most of it is spent doing research, managing projects, picking up materials, shopping around, talking on the phone, planning, sketching, problem solving, etc.

Saturday around the house

C and I worked today on making final decision on the stucco color. Here is are the colors we are choosing from:



I really like the dark brown color and it was my first choice for a long time (really since we've had the house). But C made a really good point about it being hot in the sun, and sure enough you could feel a big difference between the dark brown and the other colors. That was a big sticking point for me and I began to think about other colors. We both don't like the second from left color - it's too pink. Don't get me wrong, I love pink, but I love it in a t-shirt not a house color (at least not our house). I also love the one on the right, but it is too grey for this purpose. I want a brownish color to match the roof and serve as a backdrop for the red hues in our future landscaping.

That leaves the second from right color, which has been my second favorite after the brown. I am pleased about the color and get more excited about it as time passes. A lot of people think beige/tan/brown is boring but I love rich neutrals. We can also "accessorize" this color with trim, stone and plants. We are planning to go over the brick on the porch with flagstone in bolder tones like rust, reddish brown, dark brown, etc. I am much happier having bold accents (including the porch, which I am psyched about!) and a neutral colored house. I wanted a lighter, beachier feel and I don't think the dark brown would have worked as well. It's a really bold, contemporary color which may not look right on a 1950's bungalow.

C and I also spent some time cleaning up cat poo out of the backyard. Outdoor cats are really gross (sorry cat owners!). We have a slew of neighborhood cats that use our backyard as a litter box and since the little buggers bury their poo, it's all over the place stinking up our yard and you can't find it till the dog tries to eat it. Nice, thanks cat owners. Not only does it stink, but cat poo is toxic to humans and dogs because it carries a parasite called toxoplasma (ever heard pregnant women shouldn't change a cat box? That's why). The father of our good friend spent two weeks in the hospital near death after laying bricks on a sand bed that cats had been using as a litter box. Not only does it stink and cause illness, but they wake us up at night with their howling. I can't wait to let the dog back there and give him big praise for keeping the cats out.

I also unpacked another box and bought a second in from the garage. I moved some things around in the garage and managed to get the ladder and sawhorses put in there. We are gradually moving toward getting all the house things in the house and all the garage things in the garage. Emphasis on gradually.

Lead testing

I spent a good deal of time this week researching lead testing. I found out I had to get a lead test before I could get a permit to sandblast (yet another setback that could have been avoided if the city were more willing to put things in writing). I spent many hours this week (more than 12) researching lead paint testing and making calls. It pays to call around! The fees varied from $18 per sample (I need 9) to about $100 a sample for the same service! I ended up finding a place that does the test using an x-ray machine and can give verbal results on the spot. This saves me chipping the samples or paying their tester to do it.

The tester came out this morning, and I was very pleased when the test came out well below any the threshold for lead. I just have to wait for the results in writing and then I can get the permit. At this point, it isn't holding the contractor up but I want that permit in hand and ready to go.

Light day today

After working hard on Sunday and all day yesterday, I needed a bit of a break today. One of my favorite ways to spend a day off is to do whatever productive thing I want to do (yeah, I'm weirdly addicted to productivity). So I was busy doing things all day but I had no schedule and no obligation to my to-do list. It was quite rejuvenating.

Here are long-awaited pictures of the stucco samples:

Here is the front of the house:


Here is the side of the house:



Here is the back of the house. The roof is actually darker than it looks here - it's a mix of browns, rust, tan, etc.


And finally the garage. This is closer to the real roof color. The trim will be white.

More hard work

Today we had a handyman here fixing our glass-fronted Ikea cabinet doors. It's funny because Ikea is a "DIY" (do it yourself) place but we had to have someone come in and get these doors working right. Our original contractor installed them, and the right door fell once, was re-installed and fell again. The left door fell once before we resigned to keeping it on the floor. The thing is, as incompetent as he was, I don't think he screwed this up. The design of connector between these doors and the frame is just really bad. There is a metal disk inside a channel that has "wings" and when you turn the disk with a special tool the wings wedge into the channel (supposedly). This part wasn't available for 3 months when I tried to buy it last year due to a "design problem." I guess they haven't solved it yet! The handyman (and his assistant, who is a retired licensed general contractor) took the doors and pre-drilled holes in the channel and used a rivet gun to put 4 rivets in to hang the door from the connector. I wonder what other people have done who bought this door? It wasn't a particularly hard job, it was just a good candidate to outsource because it wasn't critical and I didn't have a specific idea in mind other than the doors had to work and not fall down. Also, we didn't want to buy a rivet gun for this one purpose. Well, truth be told I've never heard of a rivet gun so his knowledge of how to fix it was what we paid for.

He also fixed a broken fascia board that our prior, incompetent contractor (can I shorten that to PIC?) broke while on bobcat (like a small bulldozer) in the backyard. That was quite a drama - check it out here.

Today was really hot, and I had to finish the remaining 3 stucco samples. I wanted them up so they have time to dry and I can live with the colors for at least a few days before making my choice.

Here is a picture of the glass cabinet door, properly hung. They slide side to side. We had wiring put in for in-cabinet lighting, so eventually this will be really cool. We are gradually changing our dishware over to Fiesta Ware in a deep red color, so the cabinet will not only hold our dishes but it will be a work of art. I love the idea of a dark kitchen lit only by the light shining through the frosted glass door highlighting our deep red dishes.






Here is the new, fixed fascia board. Not too exciting but necessary before we can have the trim painted, which will be after the stucco.

Work on a Sunday

C had to work today, and I did too (although I work "at home"). I was so stressed about having so much to do I knew that it was fruitless to try to have any fun - I'd just be thinking about everything that is not getting done. I have stress dreams almost every night now.

I did the first stucco sample on the house today. This is heavy, wet dirty work and it was VERY hot today. I managed to get one sample up in about 2 hours. The first one took a long time because I mixed 30 pounds (of a 90 pound bag) of base material with the dye (the base and dye are meant to go 1 bag base to 1 bag dye. Since I was only doing samples, I decided to use a third of the base and dye. It turns out 30 pounds was way more than I needed. It took a lot longer to mix all 30 pounds and the bucket was heavy when I was done (about 40 pounds total). The cleanup takes way longer too because there is so much extra material. For the remaining samples, I'll use 15 pounds and 1/6th of the dye. There is probably a saturation difference in the color because it is impossible to measure exactly 1/3 of the dye, but it's close enough to help me pick. (Pictures will follow when I have all the samples up.)

I have to say it is really cool to be the kind of person who can do stuff like this. Since we've done concrete and tiling, we had the equipment and I knew how to mix it and trowel it on. It's nice not to be helpless and at the whim of a contractor. I was very surprised that the contractor doesn't routinely offer samples as part of the stucco process. Given how expensive it is and that you have to live with it for decades, I can't believe people are willing to pick their colors from a 1" paint chip. It seems that we are much more thorough than many people, and that's part of the reason our project is taking so long.

I also cleaned the outdoor trash can today by dumping in a few pounds of baking soda, hosing the inside and outside and letting the baking soda-water sit in the can overnight. C thinks that's overkill, but I just get grossed out thinking about the people who lived here before us and the fact that we've had the trashcan for a year and a half and it's probably never been cleaned.

Busy day

After this morning's setback, I spent the morning lining up a lab to do the required lead testing on the house. In order to save about $300 on the testing process, I have decided to collect the samples myself and drop them off at the lab which is about an hour away. It should take me about 4-5 hours to acquire the sampling supplies and tools, take the samples, label them and drop them off. That's quite a savings for a few hours work! When I was talking to the saleswoman and getting prices, she had to keep putting me on hold because she didn't know the pricing for do-it-yourselfers. It was so rare that she hadn't yet learned the process. I was shocked to find out so many people were willing to blow so much money so easily. I mean if it was $10 for 4-5 hours of work I'd go for it, but $300?

In the afternoon, I finally got my car cleaned after many months of it being caked with dirt. I think it may be close to a year since it's been this clean. It feels really good, but it will only last until the next time it is used as a construction vehicle, which is often!

I also finally finished the backlog of filing that built up over the last year. When we first moved in, we were confined to one room to live in, so a functioning office or filing space didn't make the cut. We still have a marginally functional office, so filing is difficult. A few months ago, I bought in the boxes holding our files and began churning through the backlog. It feels so good to be done! A few items still can't be filed because I haven't bought the corresponding place for the item in from the garage. Part of it is lack of time to look for and pull out things and part of it is lack of space to put anything at this point. In the future, we will have a well-equipped office with lots of storage, bookshelves, cabinets, etc but that is a long way off. Filing isn't strictly remodeling related, but this helps illustrate just how we are living these days.

One of my next projects is to revamp our existing filing system. One day, I will do the small closet in the office with elfa, my absolute favorite closet system. Since our house is old, the closets are few and small, so each one needs to be maximized. I researched many closet systems, and choose this one. It is relatively cheap compared to comparable products and the quality is high. The parts are all metal. It is easy to install and very flexible. I'm doing all the storage areas in the house in the same color elfa so that all the parts are interchangeable. A tip - once a year beginning Christmas Eve, they have a huge, month-long, 30% off sale on all elfa at The Container Store. I'll probably do C's closet this year and the office next year. Anyway, I know that one day I will do the office closet in this system, so I plan on buying just the file drawers now and getting our files in better shape. When we moved into our apartment (years prior to buying our fixer), I put together a filing system that worked at the time. Now, we have a lot more paperwork to keep track of due to the remodeling. I am looking forward to not digging through boxes anymore!

8:30 and already a frustrating day

I got the stucco contract from the contractor yesterday and all looks good. This morning, I went to the permit office to pull a sandblasting permit (we need to have the place sandblasted so the stucco can be redone). I was told by an inspector that you need a permit to sandblast because there is a notification process to go through so your neighbors can close their windows and/or be prepared for noise. There is no information available about the sandblasting permit on the city's web page. (You can see this is heading in a bad direction........)

So I get to the office before they open and I'm first in line - this is going to be a breeze right!? I get to my first stop and they guy asks me "Do you have a lead test?" Huh?! It turns out I need to have all the surfaces tested for lead before we can sandblast. I have no problem with this requirement - sandblasting causes a lot of dust, and the surface will also be pressure washed before applying the stucco so this makes a lot of sense. What doesn't make sense is that there is no information on this on the city's web site! I could have and would have had this done long ago so I was ready to go when it was time to get a permit. Talk about frustrating! I wanted to give them a piece of my mind so badly! But, I have learned you must not rile the beast. Calling attention to their huge oversight would not bode well for me in the future. So we are stalled on the major work again. Not good. I am hoping that the test comes back negative. If it doesn't, we need to have lead abatement done before we can stucco.

Getting ready for stucco and yard work

Today I spent over 2 hours on yard work. It was a really nice day for it - cool and overcast. The ivy is almost done up to as high as I can reach without a ladder. I have about 6 more really dense feet and then about 12 feet of dead vines to trim. I also broke out my new, fully-charged weedwacker and this immediately became my favorite tool! It is so much fun to use. I was surprised at how tire my hands got from holding it. I made mincemeat of the 2-foot tall weeds out front and used it edge that part of the median strip that I have already edged by hand with an edging wheel. I found that the weedwacker would not edge the areas that weren't already done by hand, but that's okay because I do a few feet a week and it is almost done. I also wacked and swept the driveway which severely needed it. I sprayed some weedkiller too, so hopefully the driveway will start looking a little less abandoned soon.

I also ran out this afternoon and picked up material for stucco samples that C and I are going to do this weekend. The stucco guy will do only 1 sample and in my mind that just isn't enough to make a choice I will have to live with for decades. I just can't figure out how people can choose something so prominent with a 1" cardboard chip in a brochure. I'm also not sure how people who are not willing to get dirty would manage. Find another stucco guy? Demand samples and pay for them? I suppose I could find another guy, but we are so happy to have this decent general contractor that I don't want to mess with someone new. I would rather do the sample myself than deal with another unknown entity. I bought 4 colors and 2 bags of base, (usually it is 1 bag of color to 1 bag of base, but each bag of base covers 100 square feet and that is just too much) so look for pictures after the weekend.

After doing my yard work, I had to unload the bags of base from my car. Let me tell you, 90 lb. mushy bags are heavy! There is no good way to grab them. I ended up using once again the wagon we bought for the dog. It's good to be getting use out of it now that he doesn't need it. I wanted to clear the bags because I am getting a car wash tomorrow and they do the inside as well so the car needs to be clean. It has been a real challenge to keep my car clean and I am getting tired of it being so gross. The fact is, my car has been functioning as a construction vehicle and the dog rides in there as well so it gets dirty. I am on the go most days from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. and just manage to keep my head above water and make small progress every day. (We have begun taking some weekend time off). Keeping my car clean just doesn't fit in the schedule very often even though I like it clean.

Lowe's today

Today's major accomplishment was a trip to Lowe's. My trips to the home improvement store have slowed to about once a week, which is better than last year when there was a time I was going almost daily. I picked up the locks for the new front and side doors. The door replacement is part of the next big chunk of work. We'll have the place sandblasted, put the new doors in and then re-stuccoed. I am quite excited by this as it will make the place look significantly less abandoned and junkyardish. I purchased exterior stain for the doors as well. We will start with them looking "natural" with a clear finish. I am finishing all the wood trim in the house that way. I really like natural wood, and also it is much easier to paint over clear finish than vice-versa. Stripping paint is a nasty, smelly, tedious job. Picking the correct product took a long time. There are a ton of products that meet this need and all have their pros, cons and price points (like everything in a remodel). Trying to make a choice using their marketing literature is really difficult as well. This is, in my opinion, the biggest challenge of being a do-it-yourselfer. Picking the right products amidst so much often conflicting information is really difficult.

I also picked up a weedwacker. I've been putting this one off as I hate to accumulate things that aren't that useful. But, the front median strip is just looking too nasty. Even though I mow it weekly, the tall weeds just don't get cut very effectively. Hopefully this won't be a wasted purchase.

I got home and unpacked the weedwacker, and it took more than an hour to get set up and charging. The instructions were horrible. I think I could have a lucrative business testing and writing manuals because so many of them are just so bad. This one omitted information on how to make certain adjustments to the tool. It also instructed you to look for a "pre-installed screw" and even showed where it was on a diagram. The problem was that the screw was in a separate package in the box. Nice. The thing that really killed me is that the battery charging instructions say "allow the battery to fully discharge before recharging." On the very next page, it says "replace the battery [there are 2] as soon as there is a loss of power. Do not allow the battery to fully discharge." OK, which is it?

I was surprised to hear voices in my driveway and I looked out the window to find a strange man and a young woman out there. It turns out they were the stucco people sent by the general contractor to take a look at the house. It was good to actually talk to him because, as usual, I have a million questions. He did make one really good point - I had been debating getting a custom stucco color since I haven't found exactly what I want (sort a milk chocolate or capuccino color). He disuaded me by saying that a) it is more expensive to get a custom color than one off the shelf, b) the guarantee isn't as strong in terms of cracking, etc and c) if I ever need repair work, I have to buy a huge quantity of stucco rather than just one bag. Sold!