About a month ago, Richie and his hard working crew did the scratch-coat on our house. (I'm a wee might behind on my blogging!) The lovely paper and stucco-wire is all covered now, so the wood is protected and it could sit like this forever! Don't worry, it won't, but it could!!!
It's heavy work - holding the pallet with cement on it in one hand, and smearing it on the wall with the other hand. You should see Richie's muscles!!!
Rich and Chad up on a gable wall of our workshop. They would try to work on walls so they weren't in the sun for a few reasons: it's just too hot in their long pants and sleeves, and the cement dries too quickly before they can get it all even spread and brushed.
This little cutie was going ahead of them and preping the walls by covering smart board and trims with tape - much easier to peel tape off than scrape cement off!
Rich and Chad are down a lift now. Rob was the cement maker guy and there's Chelle around the front doing her prep work.
Took this shot zoomed in from across the block. We have two horse fields behind our house between our house and the road. The two white horses, Omar and Sahara, are in the field that adjoins our backyard.
They've just finished scratching the back wall of the shop (the guys, not the horses!) .
Another day and they're scratching the garage and back of house. FYI, I do wash his clothes each night so he can wear the same outfit and only ruin one set of clothes - it gets so cementy.
You can't tell, but the front of the garage is done here - it's still wet and dark though so it looks like the black paper.
North wall. The smart board sure stands out now that the cement has dried. And the deck plate stands out too. Our deck will wrap around the corner and will be lovely for those summer evenings.
And the back wall is done. We still need to dig out the ground around that door so we'll have a basement entrance and can actually install the door.
Isn't this pretty? I'm not even standing all the way into our northeast corner of the backyard. I love that tree! The grassy knoll is a pile of topsoil that will eventually get spread around again. Our lot is "L" shaped so that backyard is a lot bigger than the front. Anyone want to come camping?
And this is the front southwest corner view. The scratch coat is all dried now. Some of the parts that are scratched will be stone and some will be stucco.
I delight in cement!!! Odd, yes I know! And I'm so glad we have a cement mixer! Imagine how much more work Richie would have to do if he had to make the cement himself - stomping around in a pit of hay and mud and clay, and then trying to spread that goo on the walls. We've got a lot of cement in our house - footings, foundation, walls, floors, and as of a few days ago, we have a bit of the shop driveway poured and a sidewalk. So when it rains again, we have a small portion where we can walk and not get muddy. Of course Richie doesn't make the cement for the big pours - that's what we have cement trucks for!!!
So yeah, isn't cement delightful?
