Where the Exterior Has Been and What Is Happening This Week!

There are so many things with the Merc renovation that are important, but one of the biggest transformations is happening this week!! The exterior stucco!!

There is this weird phenomenon that happens with the Merc, if it wasn’t a part of people’s lives, they don’t notice it. Which is weird because its this GIANT building RIGHT BY THE ROAD, and even if they drive past it everyday, loads of people don’t remember it. I believe its because of its entirely offensive beige paint job. There is something about the bad faux painted rocks that the conscious mind forcefully rejects. I know because I’ve experienced it first hand.

The way the Merc was was completely forgettable, but not anymore.

If you’ve been following along, you know we’ve been working on uncovering the original brick, and uncover it we did. We had no idea what we’d unearth and were disappointed to find that the brick was in such bad condition.

Buuuuuut when we uncovered it we also found the original sign!! We had NO IDEA that it was there!! And that little thing made the entire process 100% worth it!

We’ve been working on the brick for the better part of 6 weeks and finally have it finished! Doesn’t it look so good?!

Our plan for the stucco is to put it pretty much everywhere that the brick doesn’t exist.

(The small portion of stucco that is still left above the brick is being replaced with wood) but the sections to the right an left are all being stuccoed over. Remember our original rendering? Obviously the signage changed with the discovery of the OG sign, but the layout and colors are pretty much the same!

With the stucco, we’re also fixing a lot of the weirdness that exists on the front. If you look at the large window on the right side of the building you can see that its in this little concave portion. That’s because the original window was the larger size and at some point it was sized down. We’re filling that space and the stucco will be flat up to the window.

That large skinny section used to be a door. This is where we’re putting a faux door and real transom window. We decided on a faux door because it would open into the kitchen and I didn’t really love that idea. The door is in place and the hole for the transom is cut, we’re just waiting on glass!

You can also see in the picture below that we covered up the door on the far right. This one was totally unnecessary because we are replicating the original wooden garage doors, so we boarded it up and its getting a coat of stucco over it was well.

The stucco guys are also repairing some pretty hefty cracks on the side of the building. There are 2 main ones. On the far left of the picture below you can see where there is a pretty significant texture change. There is a large crack that runs down between the 2 sections. There is also the one that is right in the middle of the picture. It doesn’t go all the way to the ground but its definitely not awesome.

This side of the building already looks so different with the windows!

The stucco is going to be white, which will make the brick section be the shining star. I’m DYING to see it finished!!