Holy Stucco!

So you will recall that I made an offer on this house knowing the stucco condition would give me some negotiating room. I have basically been waiting to get the stucco redone since day 1 - the stucco was pulling away from the house in places, had been punctured by golf balls (and by my dad poking at it), and the parapets were unbelievably cracked. Every time we got precipitation, I winced. But last week, I got new stucco. And holy shit, y'all. It is AMAZING.

 

 

As a reminder, here's where I started:

 

It was so amazing once they started work. The first day and a half were setting scaffolding and power-washing and scraping. Then they put on the cement coat and even just that made a huge difference. 

 

It took a week to get the new stucco up - work got a little slowed down because it rained TWICE last week, which like what?! Picking a color was super nerve-wracking. I worked with Santa Fe Stucco and Roofing for this project, and while the stucco product they offer can be mixed in literally 800 colors, thankfully they gave me a sheet for the "Southwest Colors" - a mere 24 color options. I pretty quickly narrowed it down to 4 options and got 8x8 samples: two light colors, a red, and a brown. After a Facetime consult with my mom, those 4 options were down to two: Desert Lace and Tumbleweed. Santa Fe Stucco gave me addresses of homes they've worked on in those colors and I went on a little driving tour. It was really nice to see the colors in person, and I was pretty sold on Desert Lace. (But don't worry, I totally dithered on the colors for 3 more days before I gave them an actual color). 

But on Thursday, when I got home from work, the color coat was up and it was such a relief. I drove home totally panicking about "what happens if I don't like the color" but I'm so, so glad I chose this color. It's bright and warm. Plus, the holes are gone and the cracks in the parapet are gone.

I'll leave you with a shot of the north-east corner of the house, with the new door and light, and the new bathroom window (beautifully bull-nosed!).