Stuccoing the Walls: Before and Not Quite After

Home Improvement Projects. We have a lot of them at our house. In fact, the whole house is one big home improvement project.

We have spent the last year working on the inside of the house and come pretty far, if I do say so myself, but the outside leaves a LOT to be desired.

After much hemming and hawing and what should we do first, we finally decided that the first thing that must be done is paint the house. There is a lot of prep to be done first.

And as I was contemplating the changes the painting would bring to our humble home, I came up with a brilliant idea. "Why not do the walls while we're at it?"

Well, not we, but somebody. (actually just not me)

These are the walls that surround our house. Ugly, faded, cracked, crumbly, 1952 brick. Or in other parts, cinder block. Not attractive.

Because they are in such a bad state, simply painting them is not enough. First they must be stuccoed. So Sunday afternoon, Aaron got out some bags of plaster, and got to work.
It is a big job.
And of course, the kids wanted in on it. Making it an even bigger job.

But Aaron is a good Daddy and he outfitted the boys with their own tools and gloves.

He showed them what to do and let them give it a go.

He did, however, forget to tell William to wear pants. Please don't report us to OSHA. I am sure working in your underwear is considered a safety hazard.
They were into it.
Lilly looked out the window and realized she was missing out on something fun.

I tried to trick her by setting her up with a paintbrush and water to paint the walls.

But you can't really trick her anymore. She was onto me. And she was so over the fake stuff.

She wanted the real goods.

So to save her from getting covered in plaster, I had to send her inside to watch Peter Pan. Thankfully, she has a deep and abiding love for Peter Pan, so she stayed put.

After a while, James kept wanting to wash the stucco off his shoes, his legs, his arms and eventually moved inside with his sister.

William kept at it for a long time.

He spread it on pretty thick. And when I tried to show him how to thin it out, he said, "well, I'm not strong enough to spread it out like that. But that's OK!"

I like that boy's positive attitude.

Aaron worked until dark and finished the whole wall. It still needs another coat of plaster, a coat of paint and then there are 2 more walls to do.

But, it's a start!

Here's to home ownership--it's just a barrel of laughs.

Or something like that.

Happy Monday, friends. I am hoping to be back to normal with blogging when I stop being sick. (see here) See you tomorrow. Maybe.

Love from,

Greta