New Paint

Over the weekend, we completed a long-awaited project - we painted the back of the house, where the addition's new stucco didn't dry to match the rest of the house.

Over a few midweek evenings, Stace filled cracks in the stucco (not a problem in the new stucco, but there were some in the older sections). He then used a borrowed pressure washer to clean the surfaces. Nick and I moved everything away from the house in Friday

And on Saturday morning, Stace masked off the windows, doors and lights, and began cutting in the primer.

Melanie and Nick came over to help, as a thank you to Stace for all of his help installing shelves and curtain rods. On Saturday, we got the two sides primed. It wasn't a fun job, in the heat, trying to get the paint into the thick texture and crevices. And it took five gallons! I had to run to the paint store to buy more, midway through.

 Thankfully, it was much cooler on Sunday morning, even misty, and the color coat went on so much easier than the primer had. 

Our happy crew, nearly done!

Much better!

Meanwhile, Ellie colored, watched television, and the girls took her to the park on Sunday. Then Cora thought of introducing her to Castle Crashers on the PS4, and they had a great time playing together.

While moving things around near the house, in the mulch, we found this green lynx spider - beautiful! Never seen one of these before.

And we also found this woodlouse spider, which eats woodlice, or rolly-polly bugs! Interesting! 

So glad to have this job out of the way... so we can move onto my goal of constructing a catio outside against the dining room wall!