3rd inspection passed

On Tuesday, Sept. 6, the Lake Forest building inspector came out to make sure all the sheetrock was screwed on adequately.  He spent about two minutes at the house, then commented: "It looks like it will hold."  My next inspection will be the final one.  The city just wants to make sure I have installed tamper-proof electrical outlets and a carbon monoxide/smoke detector.

Below are views of the project as it stands. I am now ready to begin taping and floating all of the drywall.

The outside is finished!

I managed to finish a huge part of this project – the outside wall – just prior to Labor Day weekend.

I worked my way down the wall, covering the new stucco with Behr paint.  (Kudos to the paint guy at Foothill Ranch Home Depot – I brought him in an old stucco chip and he skillfully used his computer color analyzer to create a near-perfect match.)

Below are views of the finished wall and the original wall.

The new Tea Room window (upstairs-center), and new stucco from the roof down to the large plate-glass window.

Below:  The same wall at the beginning of this year.

The final coat of stucco

Monday, Aug. 22: I troweled and sponged the color coat of LaHabra stucco onto the wall, feathering it out widely to blend into the existing surface. As some of the thinner parts quickly dried, I could see that although the color is close, a coating of paint will be in order.  A good coating of quality latex paint will also help make it more water-resistant.

The darker areas consist of a thicker application of the color-coat. It all eventually cured to the lighter color seen around the edges, but the surrounding paint is darker.

I will paint the upper areas prior to removing the scaffold, then get the lower parts using ladders.

Sunday, Aug. 28: I painted the upper portion of the wall and removed more of the scaffolding. I was careful to caulk the holes in the rafter-tails where the scaffold and hoist pulley were attached. On Monday, Aug. 29, I painted under the window and then tore the entire scaffold down and tossed it into the garage (below).

Tuesday morning: I removed extraneous nails, screws and staples from the scaffold lumber, then carefully restacked it against the wall (below).   I will use the same wood to build forms for concrete planter boxes in the backyard once my interior project is done. . . .

 

. . . Meanwhile, we can at least get one car into the garage.