Santa Fe House Renovation

 Playing with paint to make the bookshelf a little more dramatic and separate it more from the upper wall. Ignore the water stain, washing machine delivery. Looks good so far.  If I continue to like it I'll make a more permanent shelf later when it's time to finish the house.  I used scrap for this one, so the top will obviously go all the way to the far wall, and I'll integrate it with the bricks better.

 There is an ugly 1/2" setback between the foundation and the framing/drywall in the transition from the lower level to the entry.  The old builder just put some ugly molding trim there to cover it.  I had an idea to build shelving on that wall.  Not only to gain usable space, but also to cover that unsightly division.  However, that also narrows the stairwell, so I built a cheap prototype to verify fit, and tide me over until I start doing interior trim work and actually build the real thing.  Just used some scrap 2x4's and 3/4" plywood I had lying around.  Looks like it will add a lot of usable shelving in an unused area.  We'll see how it works out.

 Finally getting started on putting stucco back on the house.  Invested in a cement mixer due to the expected amount of stucco I'd have to do, and because I'll need to do the deck footings as well.  This is my first time doing large sections of stucco and results are good.  This is the scratch coat.  It goes faster than expected, so I need to have all of my lathe 100% prepped and I can knock out the rest of the stucco very quickly.