442 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
their neighbors, but 
when copying their 
color-schemes here 
turn out exotic and 
garnish. A dish-rag 
gray is as safe a 
color as can be used. 
Whether a_ little 
lamp-black or other 
coloring is used, it 
should be thor- 
oughly incorporated 
in the mixture of 
the finish coat. In 
southern climes the 
coloring is merely 
water-color, put on 
like our kalsomine 
with a brush, and 
renewed whenever 
the outside becomes 
too shabby. 
A smooth finish 
coat is produced 
outside in similar 
manner to the finish 
coat of plaster in- 
side a room, by 
smoothing with a wooden float. A fine rough surface, also 
called “‘spatterdash,” ts procured by throwing the surfacing 
on with a trowel or a large, stiff-filbered brush. This takes 
some degree of skill on the part of the mason. A “‘pebble- 
dash” finish with little pebbles in the outside surface should 
not have its pebbles over a quarter of an inch in diameter. 
Carefully selecting nice white ones on the beach will give 
a very beautiful appearance. 
Before settling on your color, make a number of samples 
of different shades and ditterent finishes—they cost nothing, 
and you will soon see how the smoothness or roughness of 
the infinite number of little shadows cast by the rough 
projections of the surface effect the general tone. Re- 
member that the color looks somewhat different in a 
SUE 
The dining-room is carried out in the Colonial style 
November, 1909 
larger surface from 
that in a small one, 
and that the color 
becomes lighter and 
lighter as it dries 
thoroughly, and, 
again, that the 
weathering will 
make it somewhat 
darker as it grows 
older. 
Do not let the 
finish coat dry too 
quickly, or it will 
crack. A gradual 
setting is always 
the best. If you are 
obliged to put it on 
during the summer 
season and a blister- 
ing hot day is suck- 
ing the water too 
rapidly out of it, 
hang damp old sails 
or burlap in front 
of such portions as 
are drying. Only 
lay out an amount 
that can be covered in the time you have at your disposal, 
not leaving off in the center of a plain surface unbroken by 
angles or wooden projections. If you employ a mortar 
with no lime in it, such as many masons prefer, remember 
this takes longer to dry than that to which the lime has been 
added. 
The house used to illustrate this article very ably expresses 
the economic use of stucco as a means in remodeling and 
transforming an old house. Mr. C. La Verne Butler, hav- 
ing found himself possessed of an old farmhouse at South 
Framingham, Massachusetts, saw the possibilities it pos- 
sessed and immediately took up the task of its transforma- 
tion with the excellent results shown in the photograph 
herewith presented. 
Poe pO Ue | Walter Karl Pleolhner 
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