florey, 1).Do the vents come with operable openings? The stock vents will not come with closable openings. The idea behind vents is that they remove heat buildup and moisture on the sold side of the insulation, preventing moisture condensation on the skin, preventing water buildup in the insulation, (which renders it ineffective) and stops the growth of mold. Closed vents result in too damp and cold in winter, to hot in summer. 2).For interior finishings, I was thinking lengthwise bead board, tongue and groove, or bendable luan ply, or maybe cork sheeting. Bunches of gathered poles/rods, can be braceleted, twisted and added to, to extend, as supports. Some steel buildings have steel framing. Insulation can be fit between the framing and an interior sheathing can be bolted to the frames. On the heavy duty buildings, holes will need to be drilled and tapped to fasten the sheathing. On lighter built buildings, where formed light guage sheetmetal froms the frame, self tapping screws can be used to drill the hole and pull a thread ridge. On Traditional Quonset buildings the corrogated skin provides the structural framing, and so, a "house" inside a house needs to be built to provide space for the insulation, wiring, plumbing and attaching the interior sheathing. Light weight luan plywood outgasses horrible amounts of formadhyde and is a major fire hazard. Due to the glues, the stuff burns like rocket fuel. Beadboard, tongue and groove and cork are all expensive and labour intensive with minimal thermal mass. One aspect often neglected or forgotten is that after we heat or cool a space, some materials, ( stone, drywall, concrete, tile) all retain and slowly release the heat, or if cooled, slowly warm up. Other materials, like wood, cork, etc, quickly heat or cool. So when we open the windows on a cool summer night, some materials retain that cool inside the house into later in the heat of the day than others. When we heat the space in winter, some materials retain and slowly release that heat during the night, as the fire goes out. 3).Gable the ends.? Do you just mean extend the roof line beyond the end wall? , or add a smaller layer? I could use a pyramided layout of rectangular windows in the flat end wall. A rounded curved masking, of plywood, covering the corners, might give the effect of a shape of arched windows, a gable is merely a roof overhang above a window or door space, so on say a 40' x 20' traditional quanset, to "gable" the ends to fit windows and sliding glass doors, the end walls would simply be inset 2', 3' 4' or so, providing a 36' x 20' living space for example. A common example of a converted Quonset is a 60' x 30' Aircraft shelter Quonset from WWII, with a 6' gable on the "front" of the house, providing a porch, and a 14' gable on the rear of the house, providing a sheltered deck with an overall interior living space of 30' x 40'. 4).What size, or proportions are good for adding usable, loft space? You need a minimum of 8' headroom, 10' is better. To support a floor, you will need a minimum of a 8" joist, 10" is better, with a build up floor thickness of 1.5" to 2", and of course, a minimum of 8.5" for framing and insulation and vent gap.. So, the bare minimum to provide functional loft space is a peak height of 18 feet. This provides either a loft space or second floor with a usable central walkspace and a maximum of floor space. Shorter quonsets can be used, if your idea of a loft is a crawlspace used only for sleeping or sitting on the floor. 5). There are translucent panels available for light. As noted in the previous post, quonsets and other "instant" metal buildings are engineered and designed as storage and rough industrial space, not living space, so any translucent panels for letting in light, with be not be insulated or insulatable. Better quality windows have an R20 rating, the same as a 6" insulated stud wall, the equivalent of a little more than half the insulating value of a 16" thick cordwood wall, or almost a third of the insulating value of a straw bale wall. The translucent panels provided are usually molded FRP and will have a R value of less than 0.05, still, better than the steel skin. Corrogated Lucite panels, used for commercial green houses, can be molded with a steam bath and a heatgun to fit the curve of the Quonset, sealed with foil tape, crewed and caulked in place. They will provide up to R10 insulative value, but they cannot be molded to fit both the curve and the coorigation of a typical quonset. 6). I'm thinking above ground, with a walk out basement, and a midsection where the basement opens to above. A greenhouse area for guava and lemon trees, would also allow for a lot of solar gain. I have ideas to distribute and move the heat, for winter. Quonets are designed to fit a slab or perimeter foundation wall. They are not designed to fit ond a joist and sheathing floor. The end loads of the quonset wall will over time, rip the joists apart. The "only" way to fit a basement is as a "grease monkey pit" 4' minimum inside the perimeter foundation. A slab foundation, the cheapest option is out of the question if a basment space is desired. 7).For summer, HELP! How to dump a LOT of solar gain? Tons of ventilation, air conditioning, geothermal cooling big electric fans. Passive solar homes are designed to accumulate and store passive solar gain in winter, yet through shaded overhangs protecting windows from a higher in the sky sun,, prevent passive solar gain during the summer.

I use those 4' orange electic fence stakes from home depot (about $1 a piece)for lots of things in the yard & gardens. Pound it in the ground and then slide the PVC pipe over it and into the soil a bit. Set out several of these with holes drilled in the PVC pipe and string wire through them to make a fairly sturdy, portable & cheap trellis. I use these stakes to build easy fencing. I use plastic cable ties to secure wire or plastic mesh fencing to them. Because I dislike the orange and it stands out like a sore thumb, I paint my stakes black. Pound 2 rows of these stakes in the ground about 4' apart and slide each end of a flexible PVC pipe over them, making an arch. Cover this with garden cloth or plastic to protect plants. I "sew" the fabric to the pvc with fishing line. If you are using plastic, cut some flaps in it, to keep it from blowing away in a big wind. I use them to brace non secured retaining walls. At my old house I built a raised bed using them to hold the lumber together. I drilled holes in the timbers and slid them over the stakes, then I lined the interior side with heavy plastic.

We also liked the quality and size of the recessed cabinets but preferred the look of the framed mirrors. Our carpenter cut the whole in drywall for the recessed cabinet, then made a custom frame and mounted that to the wall. Finally, he inserted the cabinet -- so that the frame is actually behind the mirror. We love the results.

It's going to depend on the door. You are going to want to cut the stucco back enough each side and top if the door has a nailing flange to fasten into the trimmer/jack studs as well as on the header. The void can be filled with foam,(low expanding foam for doors and windows), befoe your trim is installed. The trim itself should be back caulked as well as topically caulked after it is installed. I would prime the trim all 4 sides before installing. If the door has no flange, you can cut the stucco tight, install the door, foam the gap, then the primered, back cualked, topical caulked trim. I dont normally recommend relying on caulk to keep water out, but seems like the only re-course without disturbing the stucco and trimming over. The bulletproof way would be to knock the stucco back wide enough to run a head flashing over stucco mould that would trim out the doors exterior. The flashing would run over the moulding. Then self adhering bitumen type flashing installs up the sides with a piece then installed over the header flaashing. Then mesh wire/weep screed at the base followed by your stucco patching.Your scratch coat can be followed by the brown coat after 24 hrs and then let set a couple of weeks before the color coat. Your brown coat will be leveled with the existing wall surface. Grind enough of the existing top coat around the perimeter to be able to feather the new top coat into the existing. Depending on wether you have a textured top coat existing, or fairly smooth, i typically have exterior acrylic latex paint matched up to the color coat and paint the new color coat area as it is usually hard to match up existing color coats that have been on the home even if you knew the product brand that was used. That way you dont have to mess with trying to match up the color coat old vs. new. You would want an exterior flat paint.