As we have been tearing the drywall out of our "new" house, I have been getting a good look at the insides. Three walls of the house are stucco, and from the inside of the wall, what I see is a sort of black paper, crossed with wire bands, and the stucco is on the other side of that. (Hah, hah -- insulation? What's insulation? It appears that the builders of this house weren't concerned with wall insulation!) It looks to me like a sort of armature was made using the wire and the black paper, and the stucco was applied on top of that. My question: what function does the black paper serve *now*? My first guess was that it is a vapor barrier, but that doesn't make much sense, since the black paper is riddled with holes, and when I took off a piece that was falling off anyway, I found spider egg clusters and mold on the back of it. (Luckily, not much if any mold is on the stucco itself.) So what is this paper, and can I take it off since it is all gunky? And indeed, *should* I take it off since it has some mold on it? We intend to insulate the wall interiors, and I guess that a new vapor barrier will be a part of doing that. So the vapor barrier issue should be taken care of later, I guess. (BTW, although I keep referring to mold, I hope no one is worrying about this! We have been covered in dust and dirt and mold from head to toe for several days now, and both of us seem to be just fine. We are wearing our dust masks conscientiously and taking our allergy medicines, and that seems to be taking care of the issue. The only reason I keep referring to mold is that I want it ALL out of there so I don't have to worry about it in the future! :) As always, thank you all so much for any insight you can provide. This group is awesome!! Thank you all for being so great with answers and encouragement. :) - Ann