Rockwork!

Carson and I spent several weekends in Utah trying to pick out colors and make decisions on the exterior and interior colors of our home. When we went down to look at rock colors, we just couldn't find one that was dark enough for the color of our stucco. We saw all of the harristone choices and thought we would just have to settle with something we didn't really like...

We even sat down and watched their entire slideshow of different homes and rock choices... and yet again, nothing grabbed us. They were all too light. I showed the employee our stucco samples and explained that none of the rock matched correctly and it would look funny. I asked him if there was anything else that might match better. That's when the worker remembered that they had just gotten a brand new rock in and that it was around the back of the store outside. He took us to see it, and both of us said, "That's it!" We both knew what we wanted and it only took us a couple of seconds to realize that was the perfect stone colors for our stucco. We also liked that it was a brand new stone out, so nobody really had it up yet.
We were going to dry stack the stone, which means the stone would be stacked directly on top of each other so there is no room for mortar, but we decided to have it spaced out so we could add the mortar. We also found out this secures the stone better and gives it more durability during the cold winters.
So here it is! The lights and darks were just what we wanted to bring out the trim color and give the house enough contrast. This picture shows the rockwork on the garage BEFORE they added the mortar.

Here's a front view of it AFTER the mortar. We chose the darkest mortar color possible, and I am so glad we did! It really helped to make the rock stand out! This is also a BEFORE shot of the window above the garage with NO mortar.

This is the AFTER shot of the window above the garage WITH mortar.

As you can see in this shot, without the mortar, the rock kind of blends all together and then gets lost in the stucco colors. Everything is too close to the same hew... not enough contrast.


Here's a shot WITH the dark mortar. SOOO much better!
Here's a far-distance shot so you can see the difference. The bay window to the left and the pop out window above the garage DO NOT have mortar.Now they do! You can see how it helps to stand out the different colors in the rock.

Here's a 360 of the completed stone and stucco!