Day 70-74

The stucco is done! It looks fabulous. The only down side is that we had planned on keeping it in its natural state/color, but Red said it would be better to paint it to add a layer of protection from moisture. He said it would be fine to leave it as-is, but if it was his garage he’d paint it. Coming from the stucco guy we might want to paint it. I guess we could paint it the same color as the stucco (which will lighten as it cures).

Red will be back tomorrow to clean things up. Stuccoing is definitely messy, messy, messy. Once Red’s gone I imagine Lazaro and Arturo will be back to finish the bottom of the garage. I haven’t seen them in several days, but there’s not a whole lot they could do right now anyway.

The electricians and plumbers have both been here this week. The plumbers are great. They’re a father and son team (James Crawford Sr. and Jr.). Today they found out that when the sewer line from the garage to the street was laid it, it was laid level—instead of sloping away from the garage. They said it won’t cause any problems but that by code it has to slope away from the garage. Hopefully that’s one of the last problems that will crop up. It’s probably going to add another day or two to their plumbing schedule. I’m just happy they found it before the City did.

Our contractor still isn’t my favorite person in the world. After I wrote my last entry he told us we needed to pick out our plumbing fixtures ASAP—like that day. This isn’t the first time he’s done that. To make a long story short he gave us the name of the person he gets wholesale fixtures from. When we tried to buy something from her (after going to the showroom) she said we’d have to set up an appointment so she could go through all of the details. We said we knew what we wanted (this faucet in chrome with this valve). She said no, no, we’d have to set up an appointment. I conveyed that to David when he called today and he said he’d take care of it. We’ll see. I’m not entirely positive he remembers everything we discuss.