Gearing up for the next phase...

It's been a week filled with busy things that did not include working on my office. Such is life. 

I did spend some very productive and peaceful time out there Sunday. It's been the impetus for everything else I've been up to. No worries, it's all good. 

And now we're gearing up for what is ominously known as . . . 

"The Next Phase"

I've been getting the proverbial ducks in a proverbial row.

Tomorrow James and I go to Lowes to see my buddy Mr. Smith for a Stucco Lesson.

Mr. Smith knows a lot about stucco and the fine techniques needed to do a good job of getting stucco onto a surface. I spent some time there today chatting with him about how exactly to do this. Mr. Smith was so very patient and helpful, as always. He and I agreed that using a stucco sprayer would be our best bet, especially since I'm a complete novice at working with stucco (or plaster).  But alas, after calling ALL equipment rental agencies in the phone book, no one had a stucco sprayer for rent. 

He suggested our next option would be using a shovel to sling stucco at the wall!

Having spent my youth cleaning out horse stalls, let me tell you, I am an accomplished slinger of stuff with a shover. Seriously. 

But then I realized he didn't quite mean it so literally. We can sling it up there, but then we'll need to smear it on the surface. Hence the lessons tomorrow.

And we have stucco. Granted at the moment we only have 7 of the estimated 48  80lb bags we'll need to put a 3/4 inch base coat on 600 square feet - but I didn't want to get too carried away - and since Dad's stuff is taking up the garage, I'm limited on dry storage space. 

This Friday we'll start on it!! (and likely buy much more stucco too!) We've got some friends who have volunteered to join us for the "plaster party .01" If anyone else would like to join, please let me know!!

Also, Thanks to the wisdom of Mr. Smith, We'll be building some sort of scaffolding around the outside, because in the wise words of Mr. Smith, "This isn't just climbing a ladder with a power drill."

So stand by for photos, observations, and probably a whole list of really dumb mistakes I'll make, but those will be fewer thanks to Mr. Smith. So maybe there will be something impressive?

STAY TUNED!