It's been a few months...let's play catch up!

FEBRUARY - MAY

Within a few days of having the stucco done, it started to crack!  We had cracks all over all the walls.  Not just small cracks, but large ones too.  We called the stucco company to come out and fix it.  They had a meeting to determine why it cracked and in the end could not come up with a conclusion.  They decided it must have been because of the ICF (insulated concrete forms - what we built the house in.)  Jeff was not very happy!  He insisted they repair the job.  Weeks went by and nothing happened.  Finally, some workers came out and "patched" the cracks.  In the photos below, you can see where the cracks were "fixed".

 

Some of the cracks cracked again.  Jeff sprayed them with orange paint to have them redone again!

Once all the cracks were fixed, the painters came out to paint the house.

Unfortunately, it was premature.  If you look close, all the "fixed" cracks show through the paint job. 

Now we had a painted house with stripes! 

Obviously, we were not very happy!

Of course no one wanted to take the blame.  For months, the stucco company refused to return any of our phone calls.  The painters were great to work with, but said we should have never accepted the "patch" work job and insisted they fixed it before we painted.  (Now they say that.  Why didn't they say that before they painted?)  Jeff hired an independent company to test the stucco chemistry.  That didn't turn out well either...he said it was the paint - it wasn't put on thick enough.  We didn't buy that excuse either as we knew the paint had a very thick primer and coat.  We were certain the paint was fine.

To make a long story short, two months later, Jeff insisted in one final meeting with the Stucco company.  They came out and within two minutes told Jeff that they did a crappy job and would repair the whole thing.  On top of that, they would repaint it at their expense.  We were shocked!  Why did this take 3 months to decide!  Although this put us way behind schedule, it's nice to know that the company took pride in their work afterall and came back and did the right thing. 

(Stucco company:  B&H - a usually highly reputable company that came with recommends.)