Walls, In and Out

Drywall workers continue to tape and mud the seams of the walls inside the houses and garages. It looks to me like the north garage is the last one that is waiting for that finish.

I stopped by on the weekend and found Jose' on stilts heading up the stairs of the north house with a trowel in hand (I wish I had taken a picture of him). He said that he had finished texturing the ceilings upstairs but the basement was so cold and humid, the joint compound hadn't dried in the basement.

pictures of a wall can be boring

On Monday, I spoke to Juan in the south house as he textured the walls there. He recommended a lighter touch, a smoother finish that still had some texture to it but wasn't as "busy".

The walls would be smoother still.

Outside there was more action. The inspection of the wire lath was completed so they were preparing to lay the "brown coat" for the stucco.
But first-- The Hanging of the Sign! (que fanfare)

It would go on the front gable of the north house garage, facing the street. I wondered about how to determine the placement but it dawned on me that this was a matter determined by ancient Greek architects and mathematicians long ago. The Golden Mean would come into play.

I had Bryan measure the distance from the top of the brick to the point of the underside of the roof. He had cut a piece of plywood figuring that he would be sliding it here and there as I contemplated the appearance from across the street. Instead, I took his measurement, deducted the height of the sign itself, found a Fibonacci number that corresponded to it and told him to mark the distance of the previous Fibonacci number on the wall, measuring up from the brick line --and centered under the gable of course. That would be the placement for the bottom of the sign. I think Bryan and Jeff were surprised that I decided it that fast. That afternoon the sign was in place.

What do you think?

The stucco workers were also getting started on the brown coat by then. They applied it to the east wall of our house and we were surprised to see the trowel stuck in the wall.

 Ruben explained that after it is applied it is too wet to smooth and work. So he plants the trowel there (probably so he can find it later) and comes back to it when it is sufficiently dry to finish. I expect this to take quite a while. The color coat, our color, comes after the "brown coat".