New house update. Finish stucco is taking longer than I hoped, in part because I have too many other responsibilities, in part because I am using a pool float and sponge to apply it rather than spraying. The stuff I am using is Vasari Italian stucco. It has almost the consistency of honey when applying- very gooey.

I have finished the mud room, living room, kitchen, and hallway, I still need to do the dining room, bedrooms, and bathrooms. I’m going to run short of this stucco, I think I will use something else in the bedrooms.

I spent a few hours cleaning up, the floors are back to passable. As soon as I finish the stucco, I’m on to finishing the floors.

You can see the finish stucco on the living room fireplace. I need to add some kind of tile border, I haven’t decided what yet. And the kitchen bar wall is starting to look good. Still finish work to do on counters, etc.

I also managed to properly set all the doors except the sliding door to the dining room and the back door. I’m leaving the back door for a warm day, and the sliding door for when I can get help from a friend, because it’s heavy and I need to shim it underneath.

I had a fire today. It snowed last night and was cold today- April in New Mexico is unpredictable!

Hopefully I will do the dining room tomorrow, and maybe a bedroom. This stuff goes a long way, but I’ve used nearly half of my stock. I think I might try to stretch it to also do the third bedroom and bathroom/laundry room, since that is shared space.

I finally got a quote from PNM, the electric utility company here, to drop in a transformer and put the house on the grid.

And boy it’s a doozy.

They want $21.5K to hook me up to the grid, and of course I will still have to pay for electricity.

So, as I alluded to in an earlier post, I’m pricing the necessary work to put in solar with batteries and stay off grid. I got a quote before of $22K for a 15 Kw solar system ready for batteries, and I think $10K is what I would need for a battery system. All in it might be $35K including switching dryer and range to propane and having a switch for a backup generator for those cold, gray winter days.

An additional $13K is a chunk of money, but rates keep going up and I would make that back in 2-4 years. Lots to mull over.

One additional thought about the stucco. This stuff comes in five gallon buckets (you can see a few of them by the wheelbarrow in the picture). It comes as a white powder, and separately they sell pigment in a variety of colors in these little jars. You mix the powder with water then drop in the pigment and blend it with a mixer/blender attachment on a drill until the whole thing is smooth and consistent in color.

The color I am using is called Refined Gold, which to me looks a bit like ivory in traditional stucco finish, but I’m a man and my color sense is not great. I’m thinking the floors might be black, but I haven’t finalized that decision yet. Untinted, earth floors once sealed will tend to look like dark leather, which I guess is OK, too.