The House Project: The Stone

Finally! This blog is about the last major set of work we had done to the house to date! Since then it has been all work that we did on our own! I will post later about all that.

We went with Austin stone for the exterior. Austin stone is basically white, but can have red or yellow mixed in as well. We went for mostly white, and it turned out beautifully! We shopped around for a contractor on this one, and finally got a great deal on a referral from a family member!

I think Bruce and I can honestly say that out of all the contractors we hired, this group was the easiest! The guy we hired actually had his crew finished in the time he said they would, and the work was done very well the first time! I didn't get as many pictures as usual partly because by this time (late October 2012) I was back at work and could only take pictures in the evening, and they got it done in three or four days!

They worked fast! Notice the cedar trim right above the rock and then just below the roof? All that had to be stained. Then I had to go back and clean off excess mortar that had splattered on it from installing the rock, and touch up the stain! I was working around these guys every day when I got home from work because I wanted a base layer on the inner trim before the mortar splattered on it, so the stain would help keep so much from soaking into the wood. The layer of cedar just below the roof already had the base coat to protect from the sun and rain. Adding the second coat was hard because I had to avoid getting it on the beautiful Austin Stone! It stains more than just wood!

I took this to show all their tools and materials before the rock was put on the back wall.

Here you can see the french doors to the Master bedroom...

And the doors to the dining room.

The view from the back yard

And the front! I love love love our new mailbox! And the front door! The old mailbox and door had this horrible ugly old orange paint. I'm pretty sure we hadn't stained the front door yet in this picture, and even without garage doors in yet I think the house looks SO much better from the outside!

Since the stone was added, most of the work we have done is inside. It is all stuff that has to be done before the walls are put in, so to most it doesn't look much, but it's very time consuming. Some of those things are: electrical, plumbing, duct work, vents, pony walls and vents for the kitchen, and raising the ceiling in the kitchen!

More on all that next time!