All the stucco is now off the house and has been taken to the dump.  We do not have to deal with stucco again.  It had so many nails in it that you really need two people to work at it. One to pry and remove nails and one to pull on the stucco.I am so very happy.

Still not sure what to do about the 125 year old siding.  It is in better shape than the stuff we just had installed last year so we may just repaint but since it was such heavy work we will wait awhile to make any decisions on that part of the job.

Now we will move on to finishing up either the screened in porch or the trim at the roof line.
May just rest the back for a few days first.

E/B

We will just paint the window.

Can't wait to replace that ugly screen door.

Cracked paint but dry wood and tight seams.

The dimples on the porch posts.

We'll use heat to take this off because we are sure it is lead paint.

As I was saying yesterday Brian was very unhappy with the siding job once you get up close.  Needless to say our plan was to get Eli back to finish the front porch but I guess we will be doing that ourselves now.

We have removed some of the stucco and are impressed how good the original siding is.  We now think we might just remove the rest of the stucco and try repainting the original exterior.  We'll see once we get moving on that again.

The biggest problem will be rebuilding the deck from the ground up with out having to replace all the posts and rails.  The stairs are newer and not well built anyway but everything else is original to the house.

E/B

Not far off the colour now.

I guess the idea was if you put stucco on you would never have to paint again.

It is heavy work ripping that off but with two of us it can be done. Thank goodness for hot tubs.

Front porch is on hold while we oversee getting the back patio finished.  We are not doing it because I cannot lift those stones anymore.  Once I hit 60 my body is just not that strong anymore.

So the guys have been here for eight days and they are still not done.  I hope we do not go over the budget but it looks like that is where we are headed.
Once again we have been led down the garden path since Andre the boss of the crew has been absent from the site almost every morning so the two guys left fill in the hours until he gets here because he seems to be the only one to be able to lay stone.
It will be really nice when they are done and the work is great but man is going to cost us.

Meanwhile Brian is starting the trim above the siding.  It is causing him a lot of grief because it turns out none of the space that was to be left for the trim is the same height.  It was supposed to be 8 inches above the siding so The detail moldings could go on.  Not to be some is 7" some is 6"  some is 8"  not much of it is level and you would not notice until you get up on a ladder with an 8" piece of beadboard and it won't fit.

Much anger.

E/B

The stone is so nice.

Laying it on sand which has caused a few problems with it getting too wet.

I don't like heights so Brian is doing most of this himself.

Touching up paint mishaps from last year.

Brian does not mind working up there at all but his feet and legs do get sore after a day of this.