You're Up, Larry . . . Crazy Woman at the Counter!

When my late husband and I closed our two offices in Seattle and decided to work from home, we added a studio for me and an office for him in our plans.

During our planning phase, my dear friend and boy genius architect, Zenith McManigal, AIA came up with a stunning elevation for our remodel. The addition was going to be stucco. "I'm all for stucco," I said. "We are talking stucco, aren't we? Not that scary Dryvit pretend stucco stuff, right?"

"Yes, real stucco," he said.

"So," sez I, "tell me about cracking. Do I have to worry about an entire wall falling off?"

"No, but it does crack. I want you to take a drive through Magnolia, Queen Anne and Laurelhurst and look at old stucco houses. If you can handle those type of cracks, that's what you can expect."

And, so we did. We decided cracks were atmospheric and romantic. Stucco, it was.

Zen and I had been working on a project together that he designed overlooking Lake Union. So, when he said, let's talk about "integral coloured stucco", I know what he meant.

The cool thing about integral coloured stucco is that colour is in the mix when it is applied to the structure. No painting. The colour is as thick as the surface, so no chipping to reveal a nasty under surface.

What colour? A house Rick had in Seattle had the most wonderful climbing roses growing on either side and heavily festooned over the gate to the pool. I just loved the colour, so we took a cutting with us. The roses start out a deep burnt orange bud (I'm not so red hot on orange) but as the buds opened and fully bloomed, the burnt orange turned to a gentle butter cream ~ sort of a yellow with lots of red in it. Oh dear! Tender, beautiful and unbelievable fragrant.

I'd love a yellow stucco house. Something very friendly, warm and inviting about a yellow house. But, what colour yellow? How about matching the yellow climbing rose?

In my design practice, I'm matched all kinds of things so I wasn't really worried. I hied myself down to Salmon Bay Sand and Gravel in Ballard and walked up to the counter.

"I want an integral coloured stucco," sez I to the nice man behind the counter. He reaches under the counter and pulls out a chart of the colours available.

"Mmmm," sez I. "I looking for something more like this." and I plop the rose onto the counter. His eyebrows fly up to his hairline; he sighs deeply. "Just a second. Let me have you speak with our integral colour expert." He picks up the phone, dials an extension and says, "Larry? You're wanted at the front counter."

As Larry saunters up to exchange places, they exchanges glances and I just know calling him up to the front counter is payback for some internal joke. I show him my rose. Almost as though I can read his mind like a screen crawl on the television ~ "Jesus! Designers! Idiots!" He shows me the colour chart again.

"Well, Larry. None of these will work. I want this soft yellow."

"We can't guarantee an exact match."

"Oh, I know. Close is good. Very close is perfect."

"It will cost extra."

"Oh, I know. I didn't expect you to do this for free. What are we talkin'?"

"Depends on the job, of course. Let's see. Custom colours? Probably $500. But, keep in mind, you can't return it. Can't cancel it. We'll do our best, but you are entirely responsible."

"Great! Let's do it."

Six weeks later, big strong young men descend on my house, put up scaffolding, install all the underlying elements and start applying my custom integral colour stucco.

Whoa! What the hell? Oh! My! God! They are spreading French's Mustard yellow onto my walls. Breathe deeply. Don't get scared!

I stand at the bottom of the scaffold and say, "Ted, I don't want to be one of those hysterical Bellevue housewives, but tell me, my house isn't going to be French's Mustard when you finish, is it?"

He snaps his head around, looks stricken like he's about to throw up and clambers down from the decking. He grabs a piece of gypsum and slathers a layer of the aforementioned stucco mortar onto the surface, goes to his truck and gets out a hairdryer (something you always keep in your truck, right?) and starts drying the stucco sample. Little by little, as the water is dried out of the material, the most wonderful yellow takes the place of French's Mustard.

And, so it was. Salmon Bay Sand and Gravel had matched my roses perfectly! Yes, it is true, my house was French's Mustard for several months while it dried, but little by little we ended up with a friendly integral yellow stucco house.

And, my roses? They have struggled. We planted the start in our 40' perennial border, but there is just not enough light in my yard for roses. Last year, for some unknown reason, I didn't cut my roses back. They now have branches that rest on my pergola.

This morning, I went out early for a meeting. There under the pergola, two rose petals on the limestone. That's weird, I thought and then I looked up. My little start had finally reached its goal ~ the sunny top of the pergola and it was blooming, blooming, blooming.

Day 40 Everyday Grateful ~

Rainy, cool, roses blooming on my pergola!

Lovely.

http://www.sbsg.com/

http://www.mcmanigal-architecture.com