Third layor and you're out

Well the third layer of stucco is up and finished.  Which means it may be time to retire the bathtub and some of the broken ladders.  Despite that it was coated in concrete I didn't get a damage charge on the scaffolding, to boot it was apparently only $174 to rent for a month.  It is pretty even, looks somewhat cohesive as far as patterns are concerned and will aptly accept a primer, and finish coat of paint, so another piece of the punch list is no longer a hanging chad.
What is going to be a pain in the ass is cleaning the mess up off the windows, ground, and most other places.  I think that a solution of muriatic acid and water (with some elbow gloves and goggles) will dissolve any unwanted over spills.  However the acid, and cold chisel to get the windows clear again and the edges perfect are things that will be dependent on whether the weather holds out long enough this year, because more important things need to get done before the freezes, like electrifying the place for instance.
As it turns out electricity has been the order of the week.  I have beaten every other contracting expense, but this one I think that I have to leave to the pros.  Unfortunately after sifting through four or so the bid have come in between 10k and 13k, which is much too much for such a service.  I have three bids to come in still and hopefully one will be in the sixes to sevens, but if not then it is back to the contracting pool.  Time will tell I suppose and posting a craigslist ad doesn't really take too much time. 
Onward and upward though!  In the up and coming the final layout should be put in, Doug will have the rough in for the plumbing complete, and I will get the furnace and water heater vented properly.  More or less things seem to be on schedule.  Hopefully it will be a weekend of great progress.

A little glass and a little glass of wine for the weekend off

Setting up the project

Blues, Greens, and Seeded Clear

42"x60"

The work table

The first attempt

The quick attempt

Checkers is not the biggest fan, but Amber and I still like the pieces

Trees!

Labor Day Weekend

Of late the main focus of work has been putting up the stucco on the outside of the house (as can be seen in the photos), and Isaac (my new roommate), Amber, Doug, and I collectively throughout the last week have finished the brown coat.  We were going to go for the finish coat on areas today but the low 60 degree weather and rain wiped us out after about five hours or so.  Mulled wine and hot showers seemed like a better option than catching pneumonia.
The kicker this weekend was we got rid of the old furnace finally.  I put up an ad on craigslist that if someone would come in, cut it up, and haul it away then they would get the scrap metal in exchange.  As promised the guy showed up on Sunday cut it up and we hauled it out to his pickup.  My initial guess at gross weight was #400, however the guy picking it up, Isaac, and myself all grabbing a corner of it could barely lift one of burner ports, since there were three ports I am going to guess that it was actually more like 600-700 lbs, (I asked the guy picking it up to let me know how much it ended up weighing so I should know some point soon for sure though).   With the furnace gone it allowed Doug to get to the areas needed to start running the interior water supplies (the exterior water and a new meter were installed a few weeks ago as a supply for the cement mixes).
The next adventure in purchasing shall be figuring out which hot water heater is appropriate (gas vs electric, 40 gal vs 50/60gal, etc so if you the reader have any knowledge on this feel free to impart it).  All in all the stucco has taken about a week longer than I had wanted it to, but with evenings devoted to it this week the high parts should be finished by Friday so the scaffolding can be returned.
The current stats on materials for the stucco are:
Type I portland cement: 22 #94 bags
Quickcrete Playsand: 66 #50 bags
Hydrated Lime: 3 #50 bags
Concrete Bonding Adhesive: 3 gallons
So far so good though on the stucco, for the most part it has been going on smoothly and evenly without cracking.  The plan is to have a fairly flat finish coat with some patterning to the spread so it will have character, and still be easy to paint.

Loading Pieces of the furnace

The last of the three burner ports waiting to be loaded.

Testing the capacity of a pickups suspension system

Back of the house complete with second coat

Moving the Scaffolding out front to tackle the rest of the layer.