Good morning.
We had another snowstorm this week, getting us up to around 15 inches, and the weather folks are talking about yet another one coming. We're glad to see it; the land desperately needs the moisture, especially this slow kind that soaks in every drop and feeds a promise of a green spring.
I actually found myself enjoying the feel of mud on the ground, remembering it had been many months since I'd last seen some. In between those snows, it has warmed right up and melted a lot of it to make the mud.
So the fire is lit and there's hot strong coffee; have a seat and we'll talk about repairs and projects on our home fronts.
I did get the first coat of plaster on the guest room walls, although I opted to use standard gypsum plaster rather than making up some natural earth mud plaster, as the dirt was too frozen to mix properly. Gypsum plaster comes in bags and needs only a little sand mixed in, which we were able to dig out of the pile.
I have the material for the second and third coats, and the process will continue. Photos next week.
The first coat of plaster, rough and uneven as it is, is always transformative, as the rough visual texture of raw adobe blocks and wood frames for the door and windows is suddenly covered and a uniform surface appears. Each succeeding coat of plaster will be smoother as trowels work the coating slick and fine.
Once upon a time, plaster was all there was for finish, until the invention of gypsum board ("sheetrock" or "drywall") put a whole category of skilled workers out of a job. Plaster is now a high-end specialty finish and almost unheard of in most places in the construction world for interior work.
Exterior plaster, now called, generically, "stucco", is still common in many regions, and is also a process of hand-applied coats of material, but rarely approaching the slickness of interior work. Gypsum is not water resistant, and thus is only used for interior work; exterior work is done with cement-based material and is very durable against severe weathering.
Join us for a while, share what you know, or what you are working on, either project or emergency, and maybe we'll all learn something.