Hi Grasshopper Is tha S type Portland cement? I quite like it myself because it is so nice to work with but it is weaker than the regular Portland. I recommend using an acrylic admix to compensate.

Thank you, Camp, I enjoy your sense of humor just as much as your compliments. Hi Carol: I agree that cool weather deepens the color. Phosphorus shifts the color to the red range, I checked on that in Ingrid's thread "A rant about the Dark Lady". Here's what I wrote in that thread: "I tested bonemeal on geraniums, it's high in phosphorus, which shifts color to the red range. Ingrid, your soil is decomposed granite, high in phosphorus, thus your Dark Lady rose is gaudy red. If you want the "blue" pigment to deepen your "The Dark Lady", aluminum sulfate is suggested to turn hydrangea blue as well. Check out this quote taken from the link below: "TED STEPHENS, horticulturist and owner of Nurseries Caroliniana, in South Carolina, wrote in his most recent catalog: Generally, an acidic or low pH will induce 'blueness'; whereas, a higher or alkaline pH will induce 'pinkness or redness'. Work in England seems to indicate that higher aluminum content influences blueness more than pH levels. We gave Dr. Jim Midcap of the U. of GA a number of plants on which to run "color changing" experiments. By applying aluminum sulphate at the rate of 2 ounces in a 3 gallon container, he was able to change 'Masja', which is normally a red, to a brilliant blue. This application was made as soon as flower buds were evident in the new shoots in the spring, about 6 weeks before flower maturity." From my experiments, LOWERING the pH deepens the colors more so than horse manure. I was able to change William Shakespeare bloom from fuschia pink to more purple, see pic. below: Here is a link that might be useful: How to change color of hydrangeas

I have a brick and stucco house built after the turn of the century. The stucco is the traditional portland cement and lime mix. We repainted ours several (5?) years ago using Benjamin Moore's exterior latex paint. We have not had any problems with it. The painters applied the paint with fuzzy rollers - the painting part went very quickly. The stucco was in very good condition and needed little repair. If you have small cracks they can be caulked but larger cracks need to be repaired. You don't want any water to get behind the stucco. If there is any bulging chances are you have a problem and need to repair it before painting. If you think the paint that is peeling is lead based you need to do some research to see what your local authorities require for removal. I'm not an expert but it sounds like the Fed's allow homeowners to remove paint, but some state and local municipalities have stricter rules. There has been a lot of discussion on this lately because the new laws just took effect so use the search option to do some research. If the paint is coming off easily with just scraping or brushing then I would go with that. We had an addition and the paint came off almost like a sheet. For the original house it was crazed and crackled and even though everyone says never power wash stucco we hired a company to GENTLY powerwash the flaking paint off. It was a mess - it took them days to clean up everything but it worked and the stucco was not compromised or damaged. Try not to rush this project, make sure you or whoever does the work knows what they're doing. I think your city will give you some slack as long as you are making an honest effort to bring the house up to standards. As for picking out colors it's hard to know without seeing it but typically if the colums are substantial, are part of a porch and have their own trim they are often painted the color of the body of the house. If they are more like a federal colonnade then they are painted white. But I'm guessing that it is somewhat regional as far as what's accepted. Good luck!

I'm just a housewife, not an expert, but here is how I have patched my stucco. Use regular wood exterior sheeting to fill the hole. Attach two layers of 30# roofing felt. The one closest to the wood helps keep the wood dry, the second layer needs to be wetted down when you apply the stucco and is crucial in getting the stucco to cure properly. Over the felt attach galvanized self-furringt lath with fasteners no more than 12" on center. I'm assuming you have the same stucco recipe as mine. For the scratch coat use 1 part portland cement, 1 part hydrated lime and 2.5 to 4 parts sand. For the next, brown coat use 1 part portland, 1 part lime and 3.5 to 5 parts sand. For the finish coat use 1 part portland, 1 part lime to 1.5 to 3 parts sand. The finish coat is pretty thin and more just to texture the finish to match the rest of you stucco. I use a wallpaper brush to scratch up the first and second coats. Make sure you really wet down the surface before you apply each stucco layer and to keep it misted so it doesn't dry out too fast. If you are trying to match the exterior texture I would make a practice board and try some different techniques. Some old stucco's have pebbles in them but I could never find any small enough to match mine (mine has more of a mica in it). Those were thrown onto the finish coat and pressed in with a broom. When we put on our dormer I just textured with a sponge and broom since it was pretty far away from the older stucco. When we moved the four windows for the kitchen remodel it was on a newer (60 year old) addition and there were no pepples added. I used an sponge to texture the top coat and then loaded up a wisk broom with stucco and slung it at the wall for texture. It worked well. If your stucco is unpainted you can try to match the color by adding pigment but you need to do a tester board for this and to allow up to 60 days for the color to cure. If you are matching a painted stucco then prime the new stucco twice (after curing) and then paint the patch. Then paint the whole wall of the patch if possible. New stucco absorbs a lot of paint and if you don't get a few layers on the stucco will look different that the rest of the wall. DO NOT use house wrap (or stucco wrap) under the stucco. It will not dry out properly and it will lead to problems down the road. The Portland Cement Association has some stucco tips on their website and you should read those. I would also recommend that you verify what kind of stucco you currently have. You will have a failure in your patch if the composition is different than the existing siding. The site listed below should help with that. Here is a link that might be useful: how to figure out your stucco base.