With October leaves falling and the weather still warm Marie and I decided to take advantage of the dry days and prep the walls under the deck and on either side of the house where the stone veneer will go. We had been given three quotes by local tradespeople but after doing more research thought we could probably do the job ourselves and save $5000. (Any 'yeah, right!' comments at this point will be disabled!) We had bought the stone from BuildDirect in the US in the early summer and it had been sitting in three large pallets on the driveway in front of the house so whenever I had a few moments I would grab a few pieces and pile it up on the patio slab, primarily to get it out of the way for winter snow removal, expecting to have it up and done in the fall. I first installed 3/8th plywood over the house wrap and covered this with 15lb tar paper. This was the easiest part of the job. Next came the cutting and nailing on the entire surface 2.5 lb diamond wire mesh to hold the scratch coat that would go on top of this. After losing half a pint of blood doing this I was ready with my handy wheelbarrow and shovel to mix up the type S mortar. We had tried to buy this particular mortar recommended by the manufacturer when we were in Montreal, Sherbrooke and locally but it was either out of stock or unavailable so we drove down to Kingfield, Maine one beautiful sunny afternoon to Jordan's Lumber and picked up 15 eighty-pound bags of the stuff. Naturally I wrenched my back off loading them from the truck and spent the next week in agony.
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| putting up plywood and tarpaper |
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| nailing on the mesh |
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| putting on the scratch coat |
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| stone veneer waiting to be put up |
With me basically out of commission Marie became quite an expert putting on the mortar over the mesh for the scratch coat so I let her go at it. Now we have to wait till spring and warmer days to put up the stone. Here on the mountain fall can be fickle, snow flurries one day and warm temperatures the next so it is best to wait for a run of good weather. Besides we have enough to keep us busy for the next six months! This week we are tackling the main bathroom in earnest and I will be reporting on our progress soon. Meantime the mountain is quiet and except for the birds and an occasionally hunter's shot (deer and bear hunting season started yesterday) it is typical early November. Next time I will be doing a special tribute to our old van which we sold last week after 12 years of faithful service!
Till then have a great November!
gws
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| view from my shed |
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| 2 woodpeckers that were doing some sort of mating ritual - I watched them for an hour |
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| early morning fog in the valley below us |
