12/17/2008
We are almost finished with the first coat of stucco. This is called the scratch coat. There will be 3 total coats of stucco. Next being the brown coat and then the finish coat. It will end up being about 1 inch thick of concrete exterior coating when we are finished. Myself and Juan are doing this alone. Juan is a 75 year old hispanic man who has been doing stucco for about 40 years. I mix the concrete and send it up to him with a pulley and bucket. He plasters it on. I have been using a mix of 3 shovels Portland cement, 1 shovel masonary cement,1 shovel lime, and 10 shovels masonary sand.

12/19/2008
I took off Friday and picked up some building materials in Odessa, TX as well as something I have been wanting for about 23 years. I finally bought that motorcycle I've always been wanting. No more Vespa Scooter guy for me! This bike is a Suzuki DRZ-400 SuperMoto. It is designed for street riding as well as off-road. It is perfect for this area. I can go back road exploring and zip around town. So far, I love it!

1/1/2009
If you look close you can see Juan on the roof stuccoing. We are almost finished with the second coat. He is currently stuccoing the bunt on the roof. We didn't actually know the name of that so Belle decided to call it the bunt and it stuck.

1/2/2009
Me and Juan.

1/15/2009
Juan is almost finished adding the finish coat of stucco on the back side of the house. After the stucco is finished I will wait several months to let the stucco do its cracking and then I will add an elastomeric paint. This paint will cover the cracks, seal the house, and prevent future cracking.

1/24/2009
Helping Juan move the scaffolding platforms around.

2/2/2009
We are finished with the stucco!

2/12/2009
Another shot of the finished stucco. I am now inside working on the plumbing. It is much a trial and error situation but I am gradually figuring it out and saving lots of money. After I finish the plumbing and electrical I will then add the downstairs porch and 2 balconys.