Another Saturday. This Saturday, however, is the highlight of the local community days celebration. Each year that another class has a reunion of 10, 20, or 25 years... or whatever, this is when they do that. The event also includes a morning parade and some of the entries are class reunion floats. Today also happens to be a gorgeous june day. After a brief couple of hours at work, I hurried over (in my work clothes) to hide in the back of the crowd and watch the parade. By this time in my life, I know so many of the people in the parade and in the crowd, too. The last two years the school's marching band has managed to reunite as well. Since the band always spans all four years of high-school, the reunion band has become more of an all-school reunion feel. They have been the best part of the parade the last two years. They sound loud and proud and they all look like they are having a great time. I'm pretty sure they are. I should be part of that, but that's another story.
I spent almost the whole day just prepping the east wall. First I had to remove everything that I did a couple weeks ago. By the way, how do you remove stucco? With a hammer. I am still a little peeved about having to re-do the project (it just seems so wasteful) by getting to smash it all to bits helps a little. Then, I have to remove all the screws that hold up the mesh. It's my own fault, there. The lumber yard guy that told me how to mix the stucco and told me about the mesh (and sold it all, too) said to attach it with roofing nails. Now, I have a roof nailer. But, I just don't want to drag out the air compressor and hoses and make all that noise. If I did, however, it would get attached very quickly and with more attach points and I could just pry it off the wall when I want to remove it. Easy removal might also mean that it falls off too easily, too, in my opinion. And as much as I don't like the flexing of the mesh when applying stucco to it, since I have to apply it so thick to match what is there, I don't necessarily want the mesh stamped completely flat with a zippy nailer. And, I suppose I said all that just to explain that it takes a long time to remove all those screws (even if they are far fewer than the nails I'd use) since I have to use vise-grip pliers to do it (the ends are full of stucco, so a driver won't turn them out).
Once I finally got it all off, then I had to attach my form, saw off the old siding, remove the form, remove the old siding and dispose of it. Then, I could finally start attaching the lower form for the stucco. On the east side of the house, the landscaping is so high on the foundation that I have to dig holes to get my driver into the screws that hold those up. I also wanted to do the whole thing in one piece, so I made another section of form. I took a picture for you:
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So, the picture shows all the old cut away. On the far right end, you can see the foundation without the final section of form. Further in to the left, you can see the form in place. On top of that I started screwing on the mesh.
After I got all the mesh up, I'm ready for the stucco, but I'm not going to start that today. Since Sunday is Father's Day, I probably won't get enough of a day to do this until next weekend. I used the last couple hours of daylight to paint the stucco on the south side, squeeze another tube of caulk in place, and weed the garden. I was able to harvest a handful of strawberries, too!
I spent almost the whole day just prepping the east wall. First I had to remove everything that I did a couple weeks ago. By the way, how do you remove stucco? With a hammer. I am still a little peeved about having to re-do the project (it just seems so wasteful) by getting to smash it all to bits helps a little. Then, I have to remove all the screws that hold up the mesh. It's my own fault, there. The lumber yard guy that told me how to mix the stucco and told me about the mesh (and sold it all, too) said to attach it with roofing nails. Now, I have a roof nailer. But, I just don't want to drag out the air compressor and hoses and make all that noise. If I did, however, it would get attached very quickly and with more attach points and I could just pry it off the wall when I want to remove it. Easy removal might also mean that it falls off too easily, too, in my opinion. And as much as I don't like the flexing of the mesh when applying stucco to it, since I have to apply it so thick to match what is there, I don't necessarily want the mesh stamped completely flat with a zippy nailer. And, I suppose I said all that just to explain that it takes a long time to remove all those screws (even if they are far fewer than the nails I'd use) since I have to use vise-grip pliers to do it (the ends are full of stucco, so a driver won't turn them out).
Once I finally got it all off, then I had to attach my form, saw off the old siding, remove the form, remove the old siding and dispose of it. Then, I could finally start attaching the lower form for the stucco. On the east side of the house, the landscaping is so high on the foundation that I have to dig holes to get my driver into the screws that hold those up. I also wanted to do the whole thing in one piece, so I made another section of form. I took a picture for you:
So, the picture shows all the old cut away. On the far right end, you can see the foundation without the final section of form. Further in to the left, you can see the form in place. On top of that I started screwing on the mesh.
After I got all the mesh up, I'm ready for the stucco, but I'm not going to start that today. Since Sunday is Father's Day, I probably won't get enough of a day to do this until next weekend. I used the last couple hours of daylight to paint the stucco on the south side, squeeze another tube of caulk in place, and weed the garden. I was able to harvest a handful of strawberries, too!
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