Mostly Stucco!

Back in my post “What’s the Definition of Crazy,” I told you all we chose the perfect color for the exterior stucco. Ooops. That didn’t work. The stucco team put some of the chosen color up on the crown of the carriage house and it looked REALLY awful, especially in the sunlight. Like orange instead of salmon. Honest, there is a difference! The stucco texture was also too perfect – in a bad way. It looked like the type of stucco that would be on a house that was in a sub-division of new homes. We couldn’t have that! So, we went back to the drawing board looking for the more perfect color and a better texture. We saw a color on the old stucco that we liked and were trying to match it. David, our stucco guy, worked so hard and with great patience to help us find the perfect color and texture. He mixed and mixed and at one time we were looking at about 30 different color variations. We had so many colors, the neighbors were voting. And we do appreciate all the feedback we got!

This is the old stucco inspiration with a shade we're trying to match. Also, you'll see the decay in the window jam on the left and door on the right that we have to deal with.

Some of the many shades we were trying to decide on.

We also decided that we needed more of a mottled look with an imperfect finish. After it was applied using a different technique, we waited as the stucco dried for up to 5 days to try to get the true sense of the color. It lightened drastically as the moisture was drawn out. David worked his magic for us coming up with what we are now using. This whole process caused about a 3-week delay in the stucco progress but we’re happy with the results and the team is now getting it done. The carriage house is complete as is the north side of the main house. The front is started and the south side is getting prepped. That prepping takes quite a bit of time. The surface is washed to remove mold and dirt build-up and all the cracks get repaired. We have scaffolding all along the north side on Wayne Street and west on Abercorn. It looks like quite the maze! It also looks like progress!!

One other thing that we needed to do was decide on the “scoring” of the stucco. It wasn’t even in my brain to think of but when we saw the initial scoring we knew it wasn’t correct. For some reason, the historic look of stucco is scored to resemble large sandstone blocks. The previous scoring on the house was a varying size from about 10 inches in height to up to 18 inches. We learned that historically one line of scoring was always level with the tops of windows and one was level with the bottom of windows. And we needed the pattern to be balanced meaning as close to the same height as possible throughout so it looked natural. There was a lot of calculating done to get the scoring spacing correct. See an example of this below.

The left view is the incorrect scoring. The right is an example of the correct way to score.

The last of the outside work that requires the scaffolding is window sill and window repair. Our goal is to have all this exterior work completed on the north and west sides of the house by St. Patrick's Day. The scaffolding must be removed, per city requirement, before St. Patrick's Day as Calhoun Square is on the parade route and the congestion will not allow for all the scaffolding and fencing. So we're only two and a half months away from that date with still lots to do! The last thing we want to do is incur the expense of taking down the scaffolding and then have to put it back up. And there's a LOT of scaffolding. Fingers crossed!

Front scaffolding on Abercorn St. and side scaffolding on Wayne Street. While the scaffolding in the front is in place, workers are replacing rotted wood on the bay above the front door.

The house has gotten to be kind of a disaster inside. With the HVAC, electrical, and plumbing being done off and on in the past weeks, there were materials all over the place and sawdust, plaster dust and masonry dust everywhere. It’s starting to get put back together now and cleaned up as these jobs are pretty much completed. The last job of the plumber is to add gas lines. We’ll have gas lines to each of eight fireplaces, two hot-water heaters, the main kitchen range, two grills, and six external lanterns. It’s so cool to see the exterior gas lanterns on some of the homes here is Savannah and we’re excited to install them in several places on ours.

Left view is of the kitchen wall in the new addition. This will be where the refrigerator, range, and most of the cabinets will be. It's the back wall of the house. Right view is of the third floor front bay area over the front door. This will be a bathroom. A pedestal tub will sit in the window area (yes, we'll have window coverings!).

Left view is the garden level bedroom. We had closets and book shelves built in to separate it from the living-room space. Behind us is the front of the house on Abercorn Street. Many people told us this space was used as a doctor's office in the 1950s and they remember coming here then. We'll leave the brick exposed as much as possible and also try to show the wood beams. Notice the electrical and HVAC in the ceiling. We'll use the joists to hide the materials that will feed HVAC and electrical to the floor above so soffits don't have to be built on the second floor. In the right view, you see the space above where the HVAC is coming up through the floor.

On inclement days, David is working on plaster repairs, his true art. The plaster medallions where chandeliers were hung were taken down to help preserve them from damage while electrical was being done. They’ll be refurbished and re-installed at a later time along with new chandeliers.

The ceiling medallion was removed and the wall plaster was "trenched" to allow for new electrical. This is the parlor ceiling but this has been done all throughout the house to allow for electrical. This and all the other cracks and holes will be repaired by our plaster man.

Another example of electrical trenching.

Another artist is Justin, our finish carpenter. We wanted to install doors in the parlor and dining room to access the side porches but the historic board of review would not allow the change, So Justin found a way to have both sashes of two of the windows recess into the ceiling to get us 6 feet of height. Both windows slide up into the wall when fully opened. I can picture having a party where people can move in and out of those widows onto the side porches! Justin also removed the main staircase railing (see above picture) and took it to his workshop to restore. He’ll be doing a lot of that over the coming months. And of course Jim, our cabinet maker, is building us some beautiful cabinets for the kitchens, bar, and bathrooms. Can’t wait to use the bake center in my kitchen cupboards!

These two windows straddling the parlor and dining room will give us access to the side porch outside. We will be able to slide both the sashes up into the wall above the window to give us a six-foot egress. Notice the silver venting tubes coming up from the floor. These are the air/heat vents. They'll be capped off nicely but not as obtrusive as a large grate and didn't require us to build soffits along the ceilings on this level of the house preserving the look of the ceilings in these rooms.

I'm starting to look at actual interior color choices beyond cabinetry. This will prove an exciting part of the process. The stripped walls had the remains of these color tones that I'm gravitating to in some areas of the house. I love the soft, warm feeling they give off and the fact that I'm honoring some of the historic colors. More to come on this topic. The picture below left also shows some of the plaster damage that will need repaired.

In keeping with the season, we had a Christmas tree in the front parlor window for people to enjoy. Next year we hope to really do it up right as we might be IN THE HOUSE! And you ask when we hope to be finished with the project? Well, our scheduled goal of completion is the end of September. Let’s see how it goes! We are so appreciative of our construction team for working so hard for us. Anthony is there any time we need him and he and his dad, Tony, are keeping us on schedule with subs (all of which have been great to work with) and the day-to-day operation of the project. We couldn't have imagined a more pleasant experience. We think we chose well!