October so far has been spent mostly wrapping the house’s exterior and interior. For the exterior, we used 1x2 fencing and the inside was regular stucco wire. Along all the Hardy Frames we used rosen paper to keep the stucco from touching the metal and cracking. I had stuffed the triangles with insulation and then put the pink paper over that. Wherever there was a post or wood we covered it with black paper (jumbotex), again to keep it from cracking. On the exterior, we hand nailed the wire to pull it tight, but on the inside used an air stapler to attach the chicken wire. I used hog rings to attach the rolls to each other. On the windows and doors, we used diamond lath attached to the chicken wire with hog rings. The diamond lath gave us a much easier surface to do the curves. We finished all the wrapping on the 23rd and started plastering the interior walls. The kitchen is first so that A+ Cabinets can begin his install. All the appliances are purchased and waiting. We shopped around and found that Pacific Sales had the best prices and totally the best customer service. I tried my hand at the hand troweling of the gypsum mud. I think Mark was doubtful of my arm's ability to sustain. I shocked both of us by getting the hang of it pretty quick. I can’t put it up on the tray and hold it there though. I have to go up and down the ladder filling my trowel each time. On the 24th we have the scratch coat on the kitchen walls and Becca’s room done. I have plastered the other kitchen wall, Bec’s closet, and some other miscellaneous walls. The lath inspection is set for Wednesday the 27th and Andy (he is the husband of a friend of mine) is coming to stucco the outside after that!
Passed inspection! Andy will start stucco on November 6, I think. The 30th Mark and I worked on finishing all the prep to get the outside ready to stucco. All that is left is to cover the windows and doors with plastic. We finished the pipes and stringing the line for the telephone wire. Becca and I sanded the walls that had been textured. We looked like ghosts when we were done. Bec suggested we just use that for our Halloween costumes. That evening Andy & Michele came over and we moved one of the stacks of bales leftover from the house and then had carne asada. Sunday (the 31st) Mark & I moved the last stack of bales (64 of them) and just worked more on plastering and texturing the inside. During my free time (LOL) I am packing up the house getting us ready to move next week. I really think life will be simpler without having to run back & forth all the time. We can also work in small spurts when we have a few minutes to spare. Now it is a production to go up there, bring out the tools from the storage container, and then have to finish soon enough to pack them back up.