Day 120: Shower floor and downspouts

On Wednesday, Joshua continued work on the shower floor tiles. All of the material used for tiling the shower is leftover scraps from local kitchen countertop fabricators. Joshua's art is to cut the stone and create a beautiful tile mosaic with the pieces. Here is a pic of the work in progress.

Marty, Georg and I installed downspouts. Here is a pic of the souteast corner.

I finally removed all of the tarps protecting the south wall lime plaster while it dried. Below is a pic of that wall from the southwest. Thanks for reading. Please feel free to leave a comment.

Day 114: Plastering completed

On Tuesday, Joshua, Trevor, Marty, Raphael, Georg and I applied the finish coat of lime plaster to the exterior of the south wall. This was a monumental day being the completion of plastering on the home. Below is a pic of Raphael, Marty, me and Joshua at the southwest corner. You can see that everyone’s clothing has taken on a yellow tinge. Thanks for reading. I appreciate your comments.

Day 112 & 113: Exterior plaster

On Friday, Joshua, Trevor, Marty, Raphael and I applied the finish coat of lime plaster to the exterior of the east, west and utility room walls. On Monday the same crew applied the finish coat of plaster to the exterior of the north wall. The plaster has an integrated mineral tint, so painting is not required. I think the color and finish are beautiful. Below is a pic of the west (right) and north (left) walls. Thanks for reading. I enjoy reading your comments.

Day 106: Exterior plastering…and solar panels

On Thursday, we applied the 2nd of 3 coats of lime plaster to the south wall.

The guys from Independent Energy Systems installed 22 Sharp 224 watt solar panels to the tilt racks on Tuesday - I totally forgot to take a picture. Below is a pic of the south wall showing the plaster and solar panels. Thanks for reading. I enjoy reading your comments.

Day 95: South wall plastering

Today we applied the first of three lime plaster coats to the exterior of the south wall. This is known as a scratch coat. It has this name because it is usually scratched while still wet to create grooves for the next coat to latch onto. We do not have to scratch the plaster because the sprayer leaves a nice bumpy surface for the next coat. Thanks to Trevor, Raphael, Joshua, Georg and Ben for making the day go smoothly. Here is a pic of the plaster next to a sliding patio door.

We also installed the utility room door today.

I’ll close with a couple pics of Trevor’s daughter Zephyra showing her plastering technique. She visited today with mom and grandma. Thanks for reading. I enjoy reading your comments.

Day 94: Exterior plaster

On Friday we applied the first of three lime plaster coats to the exterior of the east wall and part of the north wall. Here are pics of both walls respectively. Thanks for reading. I appreciate your comments.

Day 70 and 71: Metal roof completion and plaster experiments

The folks from Wildcat Metals were back Thursday and Friday. They completed installation of the roof panels and drilled holes in the rain gutters for downspouts. Here is a pic of the completed main roof…

…and one of the utility and porch roof. I am very happy with the appearance.

On Thursday, Joshua, Justin, Georg and I tried unsuccessfully to shoot Natural Hydraulic Lime plaster (NHL 3.5) from 2 different air powered spray guns. Joshua ended up troweling the material onto the north exterior wall around the bathroom window.

On Friday, Joshua and I mixed NHL 5 plaster and troweled it onto the east and northeast exterior walls. The material spread well and appeared to adhere well to the wall. More to come next week on how crack-free the plaster cures. Here is a pic from around the bathroom window.

Coady and Adam completed the rough plumbing on Thursday.

Green comment for today:
Consider a standing seam metal roof as an alternative to asphalt shingles. A metal roof is more expensive, but can last 5 times longer than shingles. Metal is 100% recyclable when it comes time for replacement. A metal roof is also more energy efficient in climates that require air conditioning.

Thanks for reading. I enjoy your comments.