Work on the Solano House

When we got to Albuquerque six weeks ago, we asked if Reid and Amy (my twin brother and his wife) had any work for us.  We checked with the local Habitat affiliate and they were not taking volunteers at the construction site.  So we worked on their house on Solano Avenue - aka "the Solano House".

They needed the facia around the roof painted.  And the soffit under the was peeling plaster.  I had never noticed a soffit of plaster and stucco before, but sure enough it needed some repair.  

And in some places, the facia board under the edge of the roof actually had wood rot.  So we tackled the 'whole enchilada' so to speak.

First the facia board.

I had to use my orbital saw and a saw normally used for sheetrock to remove the rotten wood.  There was a 2 x 6 under a 1 x 6 that needed to be replaced.

When I removed it, I had to cut a 45 degree angle where the wood was still good and do it on a rafter extension to hold the new pieces.

There were two areas on the side of the house and two pieces on the top roof that needed to be replaced.
Once I got the old out and the new pieces in, I caulked it.

Meanwhile, Pam was going around the whole facia and painting where I had sanded and or scraped off the old paint.

We did not work every day at it, but it took us about five days in two weeks to get that phase of the repairs done.

Next,
 we tackled the places where the stucco had fallen off and/or need to be patched.  We had to learn about that and ask the guys at Home Depot which was the way to on it.  We settled for Quikrete stucco repair.  We added water to a bucket and put in the stucco mix until it was the right consistency.

We actually spent money on a concrete adhesive bond that was basically a waste.  The stucco mixed up 'thinly' was the best way to stick it on in most cases.  In some areas the diamond mesh was visible and we applied the stucco in small areas so it would stick until it dried.

This who process was very much a trial and error project and after a few minutes we got the hang of it.
In some areas I had to replace or install new diamond mesh to cover up the whole.  Then I applied the stucco.

It took us two tries at matching the old stucco color with new paint but WalMart insisted we could return it if the first coat didn't match.  And we did and came up with the color that was real close.

It took another two weeks to go around the outside of the house again and repair the stucco and then do some work on top of the house.

Believe it or not, it was a lot of fun and gained another skill set.

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