If he's partly retired and so has some time on his hands thats an interesting way to build value in a project that is normally labor intensive. Many years ago posts on this board mentioned his house building project/s.

Stucco-including the high value stucco with portland cement he's presumably using is common in some parts of the south where timber is not readily available but relatively rare in most northern tier states, partly due to moisture problems, with fire prevention being a top priority-about one hour of fire prevention per inch of stucco-not usually a diy project-usually requires relatively rare stucco pros.

Especially if he's doing this all by his self as a self educated artisan that would explain years of work [on the total bldg project -not just the stucco] ,expired building permits and neighbor complaints due to the length of time its been taking, though they should be pleased w the final results, which should improve real estate values in the immediate vicinity.