May 2nd - putting the banding around the windows, and preparing for the base coat. 

May 3rd - the great room with all the scaffolding, base coat almost complete. 

May 2nd - this is what the colour looks like. It looks too orange with the stone, so we had to pick another colour. 

Fossil in our back yard 

May 1st - putting the base coat on the gables, 

Stucco has started

The maple french doors now have had their second coat of urethane, so the protective plastic has been removed.

This is now our view looking towards the front door, and out towards the lake.




Nick, trowelling on the base stucco coat on the front of the house, on the porch.

Nick first trowels the base coat on the banding around the windows, doors, and just below the soffit, and then does the main part of the wall.


The stucco guys have been preparing the walls for the base coat.

First, they scuff sand the walls to roughen up the surface, and tape plastic over the windows and doors to protect them from the cement (which is caustic).

After that, they fasten mesh at the top of wall under the soffit, and around the windows and doors, and then install a 4" wide 1 1/2" thick piece of foam. The mesh wraps around the block of foam when they cement is put on.

Stucco requires a foam backer. The stucco guys are installing foam on the gable ends. Then the mesh will be put on and a base cement coat will be trowelled over it.

Pre-dawn goose chase

Tawny, surveying the lake on a calm morning, looking for geese or ducks to chase.

They really don't have much to fear from her.




Tawny returning for a goose chase.

The geese don't pay much attention to Tawny (much to her chagrin I am sure) when they are paddling away in the middle of the lake.

If she's lucky, she might get a sideways glance.


Tawny, returning from a pre-dawn goose chase. (5:26am, April 17th)

Stucco and Mother Nature

Mother Nature is unpredictable. Last week we had beautiful sunny days with temps above 20C. This week, the temps have been in single digits, and we have had some frost in the mornings. It started raining last Saturday, and rained until Tuesday evening, and another shower yesterday afternoon.

The stucco company was planning on starting this week. Some scaffolding was dropped off last week in preparation. In order to guarantee the work, the stucco guys will not work unless the daytime low is greater than 6C. Well, the weather this week has been cold and rainy - not good for stucco.

It's too bad they couldn't have taken advantage of the nice weather last week to get the scaffolding set up. Although it's -1C as I write this, today is supposed to be a nice suuny day with a high of 9C, so hope things will get kicked off with the scaffolding today.

The view from one end of the lake. Our house is at the middle spot on the right side of the image.

A beautiful sunset (from last week)