Exterior Fix, Or, Awesome Cousins Day
I can’t believe it’s been almost 3 weeks since my last post, holy polly possum. I’m disappointed in myself, to be honest. But let’s not hang onto the negative, eh? I’ve too much to say for that sorry lot.
I need to waaaaaaaaaay back up for Awesome Cousins Day, which took place in June (I know). But to get all that, let’s revisit what our house’s exterior originally looked like-
Then we did this within about a month of owning our lil’ gem-
And after examining the cornice and realizing it was all rot, we realized we needed even more work than first imagined (per usual around here)-
The original cornice needed to be ripped off and replaced. Enter Awesome Cousins Day.
This was a TWO day event featuring FOUR different states of cousins coming in from PA, NYC, CT, and ME. All for a little, old cornice. Isn’t that the sweetest?
These beasts of men tackled the cornice mercilessly, shredding and molding it to puuurrfection.
The cornice, though it may seem like an ornate, little detail of a house, is useful because it helps divert water away from the house and also from dumping straight down on top of you the minute you walk outside in a rainstorm. Helpful, no?
“We” made it out of loooong plastic pieces, which are good for the following reasons:
- won’t rot from water over time
- animals/insects can’t burrow in it
- won’t deteriorate
- doesn’t need to be prepped- sanded, painted, etc
It was a hot, late June weekend and these guys killed it.
What is especially rad about Drew’s cousins coming to help is that it propelled us forward to finally get to the stucco. Our house was doomed to stay a broken, chicken-wired brick mess until the cornice was amended.
I know a lot of people love brick houses- me, too! We would have loved to keep our brick and were originally planning/hoping for that when we tore off the blue veneer. Unfortunately, the brick was in too much disrepair to be saved. Bits of cement and chicken wire (used for the old veneer) clung to the brick. When Drew attempted to sand these bits away ever so carefully, the brick often than not, crumbled.
So we plowed ahead with the plan to stucco. Even still, we would have loved to keep the brick, but we didn’t have the time or money (or knew if it was even possible) to add this huge job to the to-do list. Plus, we live on a city block FULL of brick houses, and in Drew’s word “we’re too rock & roll” and he needed to make a statement. Cue dryvit! (SOOOO rock & roll, right?)
We were talked into the dryvit because of its alleged benefits of adding extra insulation to our home (GREEN DREAMS). Also, water is known to get behind stucco, which dryvit prevents. AND, it claims to have like a 200-year shelf-life. This is what it looks like-
And fully up-
THEN (DRUM ROLL) we at long last got to the stucco -
It’s not the best shot (surprise, surprise) but it gets the point across. We’re really happy with the color and texture. Stucco tends to be a sorta lumpy, not unlike a popcorn ceiling. We made The Stucco Guy promise it would be smooth as a babay’s bottom, and he delivered.
We still need to paint the cornice. We haven’t decided on a color yet, but have pulled samples for pumpkin, eggplant, and some deep blue-greens. Any other suggestions?
And that’s how we got a green house and new cornice. And, cousins rule. So much love and thanks to Ryan, Kyle, Kev, Uncle Billy, and Pop Mac. And to the non-blood players, Steve and Ted.
And before I go, you can read my latest installment over at XOJANE here-
http://www.xojane.com/issues/i-bought-total-dungheap-house-watch-me-renovate-it-which-we-access-damage
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