Thursday, August 13, 2009

Another Check on the Punch List


Punch List: a list of usually minor tasks to be completed at the end of a project Every project has one, and houses usually have long lists. When you pay someone else to build, they are responsible for those items or they don't get paid. When you do it yourself, they get done when they get done.

This job had been bugging me for a long time and it's one of those that most people probably didn't notice, thinking the variation in color was a design decision. But I recently put a swing on my front porch and this window is right by the swing, so I had to look at it every time I sat there. Yesterday, with a little flour, water, sand and a couple of hours of work-Check Mark!

First, I made flour paste by mixing a little flour with a little water and pouring that into boiling water and cooking it for a minute or so. Yes, just like a white sauce but for this, I don't mind the lumps.


Then I added sand which had been sifted to remove rocks and other debris. Inconsistency in the size of material can make a plaster job hell.


Next
, with my trusty Japanese trowel, custom hawk and a few other tools, I applied the sand/paste plaster to the dampened substrate.




This window is completely protected form the elements by the porch roof otherwise this plaster would not be suitable.
Finished! Now I can really enjoy sitting in my porch swing.

2 comments:

  1. Hi- Sandra here from Happy Texas Farm. ;-)

    Just wondering what treatment you used on the floor in your strawbale house. I am in the process of deciding what color to stain our floor- I'm shooting for a natural limestone kind of look...at least unless I change my mind again. lol

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sorry I've been on vacation. I went to our local Habistore one day and found several partial gallons of concrete stain (Lithocrome and Kemiko as I recall). There were several colors and I bought them all, weathered bronze, copper patina, walnut and maybe a cola. I started out on the floor with the green and then moved to the browns so it is a vari-colored floor but I like it.
    I then sealed it with a water-based sealer(which I can't remember the name of now). It's about to need sealing again but, oh well. :)

    ReplyDelete