Fun with Stucco lath - sculpted faucet cover

I am buttoning up the lath work in preparation for custom field-mix colored cement stucco. This part of the siding project is kinda fun. A little background, my wife and I moved a 1959 pink mobile home up the hill and camped out in it around 1997. We had a little generator we could use for power once in a while, no refrigerator. We had an outhouse pretty fast. Little by little we've been building onto the trailer making it a home pay-check to pay-check. Five years ago we decided the old mobile home was finally used up and it needed to come out. In order to have a kitchen while we worked we used a Sawzal to cut end with the living-room or about a  third of the trailer off and recycled the aluminium for some cash.
Two years ago before I got sick we demolished the rest of the trailer (mobile home) With the success of our earth-sheltered greenhouse we decided we'd dig the new section of the house into the hill. Just like the aquaponics greenhouse the limestone bedrock was under six inches of topsoil. I love busting rocks, but my body was going south for unknown reasons. With the help of family and friends we got the 18' x 24' building erected. During this time I had to leave my job because of illness so money got tight. For example, the roof is recycled three times tin. We were beginning to think the siding was going to stay oriented strand board (OSB) forever. I'm finally getting a handle on this autoimmune disease and I'm able to work again. Thank you great spirit in the sky!
I hope you understand from this brief introduction that we're on the bleeding edge of DIY. If resourcefulness and craftiness are the main tools in your box then please come on along and check this out, you may find it useful.

In this first image not only can you see my recycled tin roof, you can see we have the dual layer asphalt paper installed on top of inexpensive building wrap. On top of the black paper  is chicken wire attached with furring nails. Furring nails have the thick paper washer to hold the wire a 1/4" away from the wall so the cement stucco can achor to it.

During a break I was watching Youtube videos about stucco to bolster what my step-son has already schooled me on. I saw all kinds of cool cement detailing  being done including curved surface cement in southeast Asia, but that was way out of my league. Then I came across someone doing some  interesting stucco facade work  Architectural cement plastering details on facadesarchitectural cement plastering on facades  Wow!
I had a freeze-proof faucet that needed some help as I didn't make it stick out far enough to sit properly over the 3/4" stucco. I needed a way to be able to spin the faucet if it ever needs servicing.

First I wanted to try this sculpting technique then I added flashing to keep the area around the faucet indented.

Since the stucco is nearly an inch thick on top of this it doesn't need to be a perfect shape.
Under the paper are two half moon shaped pieces of wood screwed to the wall. They don't need much reinforcing as the lath will hold the shape. I used one by eight pine so there was enough thickness to give the roofing nails a good footing. Staple paper over the simple forms and nail lath over that. Super easy even in the tight spot I was working.
I hope between this and the video you can see how this works.
Brian      
       

Brian;  That's looking great!  Its called thinking outside the box or in your case building a box over your faucet.  I've seen many homes here with an old trailer deep inside what appears to be a pristine log home. Nice you got yours drug out. Your stucco project looks like it could be a fun job as long as its not 100 degree's out...
Glad your health problems are under control and your able to work again.
My own home is a 90 year old log cabin, with several additions added. When I bought it in 1986 there was a 1960's flamingo pink single wide mobile home attached !  Was the most ugly thing I had ever seen ! But the cabin behind...  Fire killed cedar from the big north west 1910 fire.  Hand flattened inside with an adz. The man who homesteaded and built here was a perfectionist. Its all still in great shape after all these years.

Thanks Thomas.
Yes, it feels so good to be able to think and act creatively again.
This technique was so easy I want to try it again on other parts of the house.  I think it'll be great  over windows as well.
We get a lot of wind here, well we used to, no telling what the future will hold. Wind makes the rain fall almost horizontally at times. I think this is why the siding takes such a beating here.
With this  stucco technique I may be able to create a cob building look on a frame structure. Of course it isn't as easy as slogging mud on as house to shape it, but it is pretty cool. My first self-built house was a fire-damaged adobe structure reconstruction on a house here that burned down on Christmas Eve, but that is a whole-nother story.
 
I'm still amazed at what a great find this is.

I'd seen plasters' create shapes that looked like trim around windows using Styrofoam board then stuccoing over them.

This wood and paper technique looks even easier, perhaps because I hadn't done that technique, but this provides wood to nail the lath to. I don't know how you attach lath to foam board?

A big thank you to Kirk Giordano plastering Inc. for the schooling. Again I have no affiliation to them, I just browsed until I found this video.  Speaking of browsing Youtube, I found a trick you may find interesting and/or useful, if you are like me and can't stand to use the remote control to type in searches on Google's Youtube. Load the

YouTube App on your phone and use the microphone to search Youtube for topics of interest, then use the broadcast to TV icon on the Google browser to send it to your TV.

This combines the power of Google search with their Youtube app.
Brian

Good morning
Yesterday was awesomely intense.
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This morning I'm fluctuating between consciousness and less-so. So if you lose me, blame the project, lol
We're going to do the second coat, called a Brown coat, today. We'll see what's what with my improved health a bit later, then.

Cool cool coolio.
I put forth an effort as good as the effort I put into projects from before I was sick. This is a super positive milestone in coping with an autoimmune disease that kicked my rear for four years.
I've been in remission several times before, but this feels so very different. My brain is working again and the fun has returned to being alive and contributing to real things.
I believe Permies.com and permaculture in general is also the crescendo in giving me greater abilities in the power of positive thinking.
Thank you all.
I tip my cob style stucco hobbit hat to all of you. Thank you
Brian
 

Brian;  
Hats off to you as well !
Your project is looking great !  Your positive attitude practically leaps from your post!  Consider yourself an inspiration to others !  Even my piggys are happy for you :)

Why thank you Thomas, much obliged!