Exterior – Page 4 – nicole.groudasfamily.com

Wed, Thur, Fri last week

Surprisingly they only missed a half day last week due to rain, although they couldn’t paint with the constant threat of rain. Great progress was made when I came home Friday morning and I’ll just explain through the pictures since I wasn’t here to witness it anyhow 🙂

Scaffolding went all the way up the tower and the crown molding and soffit were stripped down!

The attic windows were all installed and the window caps for the second floor windows were installed with copper, all panels around the lower windows are also done (before they put up staging). Primed as well.

The bumpout with scaffolding removed. We still have to add the red molding over the lower windows and paint inside some of the center panels.

New attic windows really brighten this attic space!

I don’t think I have a picture of the end of friday progress, they got the window caps on the attic windows, all the way around with copper. They got the casings and sills for the attic windows all made, cut and primed, ready to be installed. The goal is to get above the attic windows done completely, as well as down to the sill of the attic windows. Get that caulked/primed/painted, add the red molding and then lower the staging down to just one level to do between the two sets of windows. With the long weekend coming up, hopefully the weather holds so they can get this done like they want.

Monday and Tuesday

Well now that I’m away I don’t get so many pictures but Ryan snapped one this morning before heading into work. They started work on the tower in earnest, getting the panels around the windows almost done which involved some flashing with the porch roof and window caps.

Monday/Tuesday panel progress on the tower

Monday they got the moldings up around the peak and the top windows of the peak, those really came out nice.

Moldings up on the peak, and the windows which are tough to see in the picture. Once the scaffolding is down i’ll get a good picture of this.

I am very happy with the molding installation work, they did a great job, much better than the painter we hired on the other side did last year, who added blocking because he didn’t know how to go around the short bend. This contractor is great at that detail work which is why we hired him!

Before leaving I got the second coat of paint on all the extra moldings we have so hopefully nothing is holding them up this week. They should have all the materials they need and should be able to make some good progress, I just feel bad about the insane heat wave that is going on back east. (I’m in CA where it’s nice and non-humid).

Painting the peak

Another weekend home and we got to do some work on the house! During Alex’s morning nap I went out and sanded and primed the old shakes.

Afternoon nap was spent working on finishing up the crown molding in the kitchen and taking a nap myself so no more painting (plus the oil based primer takes longer to dry so i couldn’t paint the peak yet anyhow). I’ll get pictures of the crown for tomorrow’s post – it’s all up now, just needs hole filler and caulk!

After Alex went to bed I got the backs of all our moldings primed and then went up and got a coat of paint on the peak. It was getting dark so Ryan got a picture part way through, when I finished up it was too dark for a picture.

They did a great job with the scaffolding, it wasn’t scary at all being on a ladder on top of it, they have planks screwed into the top of the scaffold and the scaffolding is attached to the house. Tomorrow i’ll get the second coat on the peak and get the moldings all painted with 2 coats of red during Alex’s naptime.

I can’t wait to see this with the moldings all up and the scaffolding down!

End of the week progress

The second half of this week sure had some better weather than the first half! Just getting nicer and nicer, figures this weekend is going to be some thunderstorms because I have some painting to do and naptimes are pretty strict time wise!

Anyhow, back to progress today. First went up the window caps and copper and frieze boards on the bumpout, completing construction there if you don’t count the moldings. Then they got the primer on all the new pieces, let it dry.’

While that dried, they got started on the tower panels. Made some decent progress around the windows then ended the day getting the paint onto the bumpout so that’s done. It’s ready for red paint this weekend.

Panels around the windows, the lower panels aren’t in yet, just above the sills is in.

And the front of the house, the MDO isn’t in these ones yet but they are framed out.

The current plan is to get the red moldings up on the bumpout monday, take down the staging and get to work on the tower in earnest all week. They want to have all construction work done before the 4th so they can take a long weekend and come back to just do finishing touches/painting/scraping. That’s a week and 3days to do the tower if there’s no rain. Goodluck! Can’t wait to come back friday to the tower progress – going to be awesome!

Peak is looking good

I came home thursday to a pretty sight! They got the soffit along the whole peak all stripped, sanded and primed. Once I told them the heat gun goes faster than scraping they were all out there with the heatguns getting it done. Came out great. The moldings are all up/repaired so it looks original minus the red moldings that I am painting before they go up.

The contractor also picked up some more moldings for us so I got those primed last night once Boo was in bed and before working. This morning I hit them with the first coat of red so by lunchtime I can hit them with a second coat and they can get installed before the end of the day. We’re going to be home this weekend so I’ll paint the shakes red – can’t wait to see it!

The view won’t look great until Monday or tuesday when the scaffold comes down though.

Shakes are going up

The crew was a little worried about how much work would come from repairing the shakes. We had hoped they were in good shape like the other two peaks but not so once we uncovered them, the bottom row was gone completely. Seems like things are going faster than anticipated in repairs though. They were worried taking out the old shakes would break the ones above them but with the window taking up most of the peak, they could easily remove everything below the window and only had to be careful on the sides. It takes a while to make everything and get it up but it’s coming along very nicely…

On the right you can see where they took out a section of molding and then the soffit piece that needed to be rebuilt due to being hacked away and then rotting.

And all in a day’s work… Right side is repaired on the soffit, left side is removed and ready to be repaired. The shakes are going up, just the last row left to put in tomorrow and then scraping and putting up the window caps which are all built and pre-primed already.

I’m looking forward to coming home from work tomorrow and seeing the progress. I bet the peak will be looking almost finished minus some painting. We’re trying to figure out the painting schedule because the shakes are going to be red so they need 2 coats of paint instead of a tinted primer/1 coat of paint. I’m going to help out if I can in any free time with painting any red (like the moldings).

By friday I hope they’ll be getting a start on the tower, they anticipate 2 weeks for that work in total. Looking forward to it but going to miss a few days of progress since I’ll be out of town.

Painting around rain

Well yesterday the weather was beautiful in the morning and progress was being made quickly in the painting department, then the rain came fast. Luckily the wet paint was up high where it was most protected from rain and they just wrapped up and quit for the day when it hit.

Yesterday’s progress. The left 2 sides of the bumpout are painted yellow leaving just the right side primed and needing paint. The siding is primed with tinted green and they started painting it green. This is when it started raining…

Today it felt like it would rain any minute (HIGH humidity) but it held off. They finished painting, took down the staging, put up the molding i had pre-painted and repaired the holes where the pump jack was connected. They are done for the day with the threat of rain, wanting to give the paint time to dry. Off to pick up staging materials so tomorrow they can stage the rest of the bumpout to get working on the window caps and shingles/shakes.

And today – all done. The bottom frieze actually still needs paint, it’s just primed and that right window of the bumpout needs paint (once staging goes up) but otherwise this side is done and they are ready to start the next section tomorrow.

From what I understand, the bumpout and peak get started tomorrow. That will take a few days, so maybe next week they’ll start the tower. They are anticipating 2 weeks for just the tower work. Hopefully the windows come this week as planned so they don’t hold them up at all.

A little weekend PAINT stripping

I wanted to get the base board stripped down so the crew would paint it this week along with the rest. They would have scraped it but not taken all the paint off. That’s fine for up high stuff but for something down at eye level I prefer it to be stripped down completely. So during Alex’s naps on Saturday I got the whole section stripped down and sanded.

Finally got this base piece under the bumpout stripped down. The corners were pretty rotted so I cleaned them up and used some wood repair/filler.

On Sunday during her 1 nap (from now on we are sticking with 2 naps on weekends, she was cranky today!), I got the moldings painted red and the holes all filled on that board. It’s ready for a final sand/prime/paint which i think the crew can handle tomorrow (hoping for no rain!!).

This saves them from cutting in any red/yellow. They can get all the yellow painted then add the moldings last and just touch up the nail holes.

After bedtime I got the second coat of paint on the moldings and the porches all cleaned up so we could temporarily store our new tub on the porch. Once the crew is done using the upstairs master bathroom for work, we can move the tub up there. We now have most of the materials for finishing the little upstairs bathroom, we just need to get cracking on it!

Friday progress

I was worried today was going to be another bust do to rain however the rain stopped at 7am and it quickly turned into a sunny day!

Today they got the back wall sided all the way up and then primed the soffit and casings/frieze board.

Siding done (the one missing piece is waiting for the window caps to go up).

The plan next week is as follows:

Monday – paint the trim that’s primed, prime the siding, paint the siding (primer dries in 2 hours).

Start the panels on the cupola.

Move the pump station over to the bumpout, get the window caps on, replace the missing shakes and get that peak scraped down.

The attic windows are supposed to arrive mid next week, it looks like they should be here before they really hold up any work which is great. The back part of the house will be completely done.

My plan this weekend is to strip the base piece so they can paint that along with the rest of the trim (I may prime it so it’s ready to just paint). I also need to paint the bed molding so they can get that installed before moving the pump station. Can’t wait to come home monday and see the progress!

Panels are primed

Well the bumpout panels are all installed and primed (tinted primer). A good amount of work for the morning and just in time for some more rain – yup – raining again.

Also done today, they got the copper installed over the kitchen window and the caps and frieze board installed over the 2 vinyl windows above that. I assume if it isn’t raining tomorrow they plan on getting the siding up on the back part of the house. Then they can move the pump station over to the bumpout to do the window caps over there.

The pictures are not great, it was raining and I was holding Alex. Also you can’t see that the primer is actually yellow, it looks white in the pictures – it’s not.

Window caps and frieze board installed, and copper on lower window. We’re not doing copper on the high windows because the soffit protects them.

It looks like AM showers tomorrow, not sure what that means for the crew. Considering all the rain, they’ve really only worked on the job 6 days now total, so this is great progress.