Well I finally managed to get coat number three of the whitewash on. We had storm after storm roll through and then I spent a few days sick. This really messed with my planned wait time of three days. So I was able to get the third coat on yesterday.
Before I whitewashed the oven again I inspected it. I found some damage to the whitewash skin. I had a tarp covering the oven in hopes of protecting the new whitewash when the storms were coming in. It turns out that the wind whipping the tarp against the oven was what had done the damage. The damage was visible due to the whitewash being flaked or scratched off to exposed the adobe beneath.
While applying the whitewash I made sure to paint on several coats to the damaged areas. I applied a full coat including on the grout of the bricks and around the bricks and hinges. I noticed that the fresh whitewash when applied is still being absorbed into the adobe. When applied you can still see the blues and browns appear in the areas where the adobe is still absorbing and it stays white where there is no absorption.
After the coat dried I could see the white begin to even out but, there is still some areas that will need more. I’m planning to add another coat tomorrow to thicken the skin and continue to even out the coat.
One quick note here about applying these coasts of whitewash. I keep these coats thin so that if any of the whitewash can be absorbed it is. I have worked with many different types of coating and in almost all cases the end product of multiple thin coats is stronger than one or two thick coats. I know it takes longer this way but, in the end this provides the best finish possible.