Last week's progress.

I took last week off work so I could work on the house. Thank goodness the guys were able to get stuff done, because all I did was prime. Regular primer, then sanded primer. Ugh. All prep so the guys could put on the American Clay Plaster.
This is what the walls looked like after a coat of regular primer and sanded primer.

Adam, Aaron and Andy are doing all the plastering. Here's what that entails:
- 1 coat of regular primer.
- 1 coat of sanded primer.
- Scratching off the loose sand.
- Applying the first coat of clay plaster with a trowel.
- Scratching off the loose plaster.
- Applying the second coat of clay plaster with a trowel.
- Spraying down the walls with water and burnishing the plaster with a clean trowel.
This is turning out to be a crazy labor intensive process. They really like the way it looks, so they seem to be happy doing it, but it's driving me crazier. There's just so much of it, it feels like it's holding up progress on the rest of the house. It would have been a fine DIY project for a smallish room with 8' ceilings, but we're doing it in the master bedroom, closet, main hallway and great room/kitchen. The biggest spaces in those areas have vaulted ceilings close to 16' at the ridge.

This is in the master closet. The weather on Monday, when we were all working outside was HOT! It got up to 85, which I certainly wasn't prepared for. The rest of the week was crap; overcast, raining and cold. We set up a kerosene heater in the house to help dry the plaster. We are waiting to have the boiler, electricity and gas hooked up, so it was pretty cold in the house as we worked last week.

Well, I guess I did accomplish more than just priming... On Monday I finished up my rock post. Once Bob was in town on Friday, he helped me finish priming and we moved on to colored paint; cream colored paint. Maybe tomorrow or Thursday I'll actually be able to put some teal, orange and mint colors on the walls. (Those are really basic names for the colors I've chosen; they actually look a lot better than they sound. Somehow, Sprout 01, Petal 01 and Water 01 aren't very descriptive.)

I'm headed out there right now to drop off Ava with Grandma and take pictures of the plaster at a more completed state. :)