Treads, Trim, Faucets and Fridge

Trying to catch up on some recent progress. Piper and I installed trim on the exterior windows after painting a lime wash on the walls. It gives the facade a nice finished look and rounds out the exterior color pallet.

A accidental blunder was made beautiful with the stair treads this week. The black stain on the treads was applied too thick and allowed to without removing the excess. In an attempt to fix the problem with the orbital sander, I found myself loving the look of a distressed finish oak board. The result is a great worn patina, with the oak coming through and I can't wait to see them installed with contrasting white kicks.

Soon the sink will be installed in the kitchen and with the excitement has come the stress of trying to figure out a faucet for a 4.5 foot wide sink. Our solution is to use two faucets, side by side. I had found a pair of matching faucets several years ago at a yard sale in North Carolina. One of the earliest items we collected, the two retail at over $200 and I got them for a steal at $10 a pop.

And the stucco continues...

The house is really coming along, and cloudy misty days made for a perfect climate to spray the stucco walls. With a crew of 5, we've spent the last few days spraying the lime and portland cement mix to the interior and exterior of the north, south and east walls.

There's certainly a science behind the process, some walls receive just the portland lime mix, while others will only have the earth plaster. It a seriously messy process but all we can see is the beauty the form is taking. Piper made sure I took pictures of just how messy the site was.

The sprayer shoots the mix out onto the walls like large curd cottage cheese and then gets a troweling to create a smooth and beautiful surface. Piper manned the sprayer hose, which when filled with concrete weighs about a whopping 60-100 pounds. Good thing he's a professional strongman.

Hopefully we'll be wrapping up the remaining walls in the next week or so and then on to the interior!!

Lime Plaster: First Coats!

After lots of prepping, the crew arrived this mornign ready to spray in the first coats of lime plaster. Sprayed on in thin coats, the lime will create a durable finish coat on the house, sealing in the straw bales. The walls are grooved to create a better bond between coats. After teh final coats are done we will be able to tint lime to any color we choose and paint it on. Plaster gun action shots coming soon!