Category: Exterior

Siding progress

Ryan is working on the siding this week.  2 problems with this, our painters/construction crew took a couple weeks off and decided this week to start back up full time so they are kind of stepping on each others’ toes and annoying Ryan in general with the quality of work.  I’ll wait until they are completely finished before I do a post on all of that, so far they have fixed the couple of things that were really bad but in general, having a single carpenter trying to put up long lengths of boards or moldings is not easy and they did not staff this job correctly.  Ryan and I could easily have done everything they plan to do in just a single week with just the 2 of us.  They finally seem to have a second carpenter here (although they do not work together) and Ryan has been helping them here and there so things get done correctly (one guy wanted to use 2 pieces for an 8′ length just because it would be too hard with one person so ryan helped so we wouldn’t have that break).

All well, we’ll see how it comes out.  Anyway so on Monday Ryan got up some frieze boards and got the siding started.  Problem was that the first side to do was full 16′ lengths of siding and doing that with one person is very hard so after a few hours we decided that I would take 2 hours off on Wednesday morning to help him finish up the long lengths and he could focus on the smaller stuff.

Tuesday he removed the rest of the siding on the left side of the window we still need to replace and got the front porch section cleaned up that we are siding up to (aluminum siding still to remove and some trim).  Then he almost fell of the roof after slipping on some debris the contractors were leaving all over the place so he quit for the day and took a break.

Wednesday was a much better day, I started by sweeping up the roofs.  Then we got the long sections of siding done with the two of us.  Ryan spent a good deal of time helping the carpenters with their jobs and trying to make things easier for them because angles and moldings are definitely not their specialty!   He then got the section of 12′ pieces of siding up on the far right.

I’m pretty hopeful that we can get the siding finished up by this weekend.  Ryan also has next monday and tuesday off if he needs them but i think he wants to do some other stuff by then.  Oh and this weekend we have our neighbor’s daughter coming over for a couple hours to play with Alex which frees me up to help finish up the siding too.

Wednesday afternoon progress – the carpenters are done for the day (they are waiting for some moldings to arrive) and Ryan is still siding that far side.
a closer look at the siding done so far
Rather than strip the siding on the porch the painter asked if he could replace the siding with new – we agreed and even paid for the siding (they are losing a lot of money on this job with how much work is going into it since he did not estimate enough time for stripping everything).

Ryan was able to get the far side almost up to the top of the window before calling it quits yesterday.  Today he is working around the carpenters again (they are doing the moldings right above him) but he’s gotten the 2 smaller sections about halfway up and the last 2 12′ pieces done (the last piece has to wait for window caps).  He thinks he can finish up that side minus the caps/last pieces of siding this afternoon before he has to pick up Alex.

Tomorrow will be the window on the left and siding over there.

 

Work progress while we work work

That’s right – we hired someone for another project. This time we decided we really want the porch to be stripped (lead paint) and re-painted before winter so we decided to hire someone to do that work. Interestingly enough I could probably do this stripping faster if we just hired a babysitter, but the work is getting done and I don’t have to do it so bonus.

What are they doing? We are having the soffit and frieze board around the top of the porch all done, the tops of the posts (the bottoms are being rebuilt by Ryan’s Dad). The soffit and frieze along the roof line on the driveway side of the house and the shingles in the peak (those are not being stripped but just sanded and then painted). Finally the siding next to the side door is going to get stripped and painted. It’s easier to show in pictures.
Rather than strip a lot of this, they are actually just taking down the wood and replacing it, fine with us and cheaper for them.

This section of siding will be stripped and then painted green with yellow for the trim.
Here you can see the posts are stripped and that upper frieze board was replaced, the piece between the posts and the top has also been stripped but needs some repair work (they are going to screw it up to secure it better than putty it up). The posts and frieze/soffit will all be yellow.
The outside frieze/soffit removal is started. I believe they remove the entire thing and replace it because the moldings are all standard and easy to replace rather than strip. The carpenter is waiting for confirmation on that from the contractor so he’s waiting on that.
The work up here hasn’t been started yet but they will replace and/or strip the soffit all along the roof there just like the porch. The shingles will be sanded and painted red, the soffit yellow and the molding they are going to add in will be red. There are also 2 sections that were rotted a bit so they are going to repair that up as well. The only section they aren’t touching (except to sand and paint) is the shingles and frieze around the shingles.

So that’s our house progress while we have no time to work on the house just yet.  I have the shelves for the built-ins primed, ready to be painted.  I also made one of the two curtains for the nursery so some progress is being made here and there.  Hopefully this weekend will see more progress.

Columbus Half Day

Due to the continuation of great weather I took a half day today off of work to continue the window panels.  Around lunch time I did the final sanding of the diningroom panels and then primed them.

Diningroom panels primed!
Another view

Once those were done, it was time to paint the cupola panels yellow (first coat)!  Just as it was getting dark we got the last part of the cupola painted!

Cupola has first coat!

And just to see what it will look like, once the second coat is on we’ll be installing this red trim inside the panels.  We’re trying out all yellow with red trim but haven’t ruled out having the recessed part of the panels be green yet.  I think at this point there is a concern that the red won’t ‘pop’ on the green as much though.

A look with the red trim to get an idea

I finished up the night (after getting a few hours of work in) by getting the second coat of paint on the window sashes so tomorrow they’ll be all dry and can be put back in the diningroom since it’s getting cold out.  It would be nice to get a few more windows done, maybe the next 2 on the cupola which are more exposed to the sunlight.  Since they’re under the porch I can keep the sashes out even if it’s raining but not if it gets too cold.

2 more sashes to paint then it’s off to bed!

Beautiful Weather Weekend!

Wow, October and it was in the 80’s!  Perfect for finishing up window panels!  So Ryan and I worked hard this weekend!

Friday night Ryan got home and started right away working on the built-ins!  He got the box for one of the bookcases put together so we could see what they’d look like installed – it will be so great to have the storage when those are done.  I know he wanted to work cabinets all weekend but due to weather he was compelled to get the outdoor work done before it got cold out.

Saturday we started by getting the rest of the panels installed, it was just a few vertical panels and we were done just after lunch!

Diningroom panels finished!

 

Back side of diningroom panels

Once they were installed Ryan got to work on finishing up the sanding of the cupola panels.  He was able to sand the last 2 of the cupola windows, the large diningroom window panel and we got the cupola windows all caulked.  We ‘ended’ the light hours of saturday by priming the first 3 windows of panels (it was pretty dark when we finally stopped).

Cupola windows - all sanded and caulked!
Main diningroom window all sanded
First 3 window's panels all primed!

We didn’t stop there though, we stayed up until midnight priming (inside and outside) of the 3 diningroom windows themselves!  They are exposed unlike the cupola so it was important we get these ones painted.  It  would be great to get all the windows painted but the cupola ones are at least under the porch during the winter and have been primed.

Sunday it was back to windows!  I finished hand sanding the last 2 cupola windows while Ryan finished sanding the diningroom windows and got the panels all caulked and ready to go.

Diningroom window panels, ready for primer

Before lunch I got the last 2 cupola window panels primed, including the post against the house which came out great after a good sand.

Cupola - primed!

After lunch we had some surprise company!  Ryan’s sister and her husband came up with the nieces for a few hours!  The girls were a lot of fun, after a tour of the house progress we went to the park down the road while the guys watched football 🙂

After they left we finished up the outside work, Ryan finished caulking the diningroom window panels and I put the second coat of trim paint on the front of the house (so that is FINALLY done).  I continued painting until dark, after dark moving inside to get a coat of paint on the diningroom windows.

Front of the house finally done! (window panes still need to be painted)
And started painting the cupola. We've decided we might do the cupola all in yellow with the red trim (still to be added) as an accent instead of green on the recessed parts. The all yellow idea is growing on me and it's definitely easier to paint that way 🙂
Window panes everywhere - drying!
The large diningroom window panes

Painting just one side of the windows goes MUCH faster than priming the night before so I actually finished up by 9 and went to bed early.  With the nice weather sticking around I’ll probably get the final coat on the windows tonight and let them dry through Tuesday before we put them back in.  I’m taking a 1/2 day today off of work to maybe get the diningroom window panels primed??  We’ll see how it goes, it’s hard moving the ladder by myself and they should be hand sanded still which is a lot of work.

Great progress for a great weekend though!  Almost ready for winter!  I still want to get the copper caps on but we can do that on a cooler weekend since it doesn’t involve paint 🙂

Memorial Day weekend

It’s been a crazy couple days but finally I can post with some pictures from this weekend.  Friday night Ryan sanded and caulked the exterior window panels around the diningroom windows that have been half finished since last fall.  Once the caulk was dry I primed them so they are more protected.  At some point we need to actually finish them still …

Window panels primed.

Saturday we went down to my sister’s house to visit with family for the weekend.  I got to see my little nephew again – he’s still in the NICU but he’s growing steadily!  Sunday we had a BBQ with all the family coming down and it was very relaxing.  We had a great time.

Monday we spent the day around the house, ryan’s back was bothering him so he relaxed but I worked in the gardens.  I finally got them cleaned up, planted my veggies I started from seed 6 weeks ago and planted a few new plants I got before mulching.  Every year the plants look more robust, the ones my mom gave me 2 years ago are really full now.

Annual under the front tree (impatiens and coleus)
Mint (from mom) and baloon flower along the driveway, hoping the mint will spread to fill this area in the future.
Veg garden from last year still has the original oregano, I planted sweet basil (on the right) and the rest is carrots this year.
The rest of the veggies got planted in front of the roses this year, squash, cucumber, beans and pees.
The lilies were getting overwhelmed by the raspberries so I moved them over to the side and the blueberry pushes were planted in front of them.
Perrenial garden is really doign great, new additions include daisies on the right and some smaller colored daisy like plant to the left of them.
The mountain bluet, chives and dark geranium are all flowering beautifully! (All from mom 2 years ago)

We’re home this coming weekend, hoping to work on the house, unfortunately Ryan’s back is still bothering him so he’s got to take it easy.  I hope to get some stuff done myself though even if he’s not up for it.  I’m feeling overwhelmed by the passing spring, need to get more of the summer projects started already 🙂

Happy Holidays!

Ryan surprised me after work today by putting up the xmas lights!  We need to buy one more strand but considering last year all we did was buy the lights and never put them up we’ve gotten quite far this year 🙂

I would like to get a wreath for the door as well and maybe we can decorate the columns too.

All lit up

It was hard to get a good picture since it was so dark out but the front of the house is nice and bright now 🙂

More scaffolding

Well today was full of putting up scaffolding – it goes pretty darn high.  We climbed up there tonight so i could take some pictures of our roof leak and it’s pretty obvious why it’s leaking…

120 years later and the copper has rusted away leaving just the bare wood

I assume that’s copper anyway.

The temporary fix last year was some shingles that mostly blew off. Rusted all the way around.

So that is why we’re paying for this copper installation.  Hopefully it will last our lifetime at least.

While we were up there I took more photos of the roof, found another possible leak we should probably fix up.

little hole

And here’s the scaffolding we climbed up to the top of tonight…

We signed a waiver of liability so the roofer is going to leave the scaffolding up over the weekend for us – we plan to try to get the aluminum siding off the cupola to see what’s underneath.  It’s also hard to do from a ladder so we figured we’d take advantage of the scaffolding we just paid to have put up.

More painting…

I got the second coat of paint on the trim around the 2 tvroom windows. By then it was 6 and I knew I had less than an hour before it got too dark so I switched to the other side of the house and got the second coat of paint on the new section of siding. This is all done now and I can call the electric company to re-attach the meter. It was dark when I finished so I’ll have to get pictures tomorrow although pictures of a second coat of paint never show that much.

Siding primed (updated with pictures)

After we finished up the last piece of siding, I got the siding caulked, sanded and then primed.  Hopefully tomorrow I can get both coats of paint on it.

Siding primed

While I primed, Ryan worked on the window panels, putting the MDO panels into the completed panels and then caulking around them.  We’re not sure when we’ll get to putting the moldings in so we want to make sure it’s water proof.

First window - panels almost done

Later Ryan had to work so I switched to the other side of the house and started painting the trim.  I didn’t quite get it all done before it got dark, got 3 windows done and the soffit though.  Tomorrow I hope to finish the first coat and later put on the second coat.

Trim painted on 3 windows
Half finished window

So tomorrow will be lots of painting.  Ryan probably has to work again so it might just be a painting day.  I couldn’t get pictures before it got dark so I’ll take some in the morning for tomorrow’s post.

Can’t wait for the day off tomorrow!