nicole.groudasfamily.com

This weekend was not a major renovation weekend. More of a family weekend, we had my cousins over so I could take them shopping to pick out fabric for their halloween costumes. They left pretty early Sunday though so we did manage a small project – installing our new porch light.

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It takes a CFL bulb – it is not however connected to electricity yet so it’s just for show at this point 🙂

Saturday was a beautiful day this weekend and we got up and started working at 8am. Since we stripped the paint off the siding around the door Friday night we were able to get started right away on putting the new siding up. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves…

Here we are just getting started:

And here the siding starts to go up:

This was the point where we needed to stop and put in the block for the light that we made Friday night. We also had to make and attach the cap on top of the door before we could continue:

And we’re done!

On Sunday it rained so putting up the mouldings was not really an option. We took a much needed break, visiting with family and then I decided to clean up the demo’d rooms and put down protective paper on the floors. I felt pretty good getting the rooms in shape:

Tonight after work it was still light outside so Ryan and I headed out to finish up the last few pieces of siding that needed to go up. We put up the last new piece and then put a few of the old pieces back up over the porch to be replaced when we do that whole section at a later time.

Then I sanded and primed the bathroom window casing so if we get rain this week we should be all covered.

It’s hard to see in the picture because it was getting dark but the siding is done here (just have the siding by the door to patch!)

On the list for next weekend:
– Strip paint off siding near door
– Cut siding near door to prepare for new siding
– Make and mount a block for the porch light (were thinking something like this: Porch Light)
– Fit in new siding around door
– Make and attach cap for door

With luck we’ll get that all day with or without rain since it’s under the porch. I’d also like to put mouldings up around all the window caps but that requires good weather and more time. We’ll see how far we get.

This past weekend Ryan and I worked on siding the house. It was a long but productive weekend.

This is where we were siding wise prior to this weekend: http://groudasfamily.com/nicolesblog/2009/08/anniversary-and-vacation/
Just under the top of the windows. The first pieces we had to do this weekend needed to be cut around the window caps.

First up though – Ryan had to remove a bit more of the siding that wrapped around the porch roof and needed to be replaced so he did that.

Then we got down to business cutting siding with our new jigsaw.  We put up the row of siding that wraps around the window caps, and got up to the first part of the frieze board under the soffit.  This is where we ended Saturday night:

And this is what took so long – each piece had one or two sides that had to be cut like this:

Oh and we had to cut the frieze board to lay flat over the siding – this was all very time consuming work but we loved the outcome:

And on to Sunday – the siding continued – we were hoping it would go faster however one of the first projects included making a drip cap for the bathroom window and getting a tight fit between that and the frieze board on top.  Then cutting the old side frieze board to match the new frieze board.  Here is the bathroom window cap – this took a while with the table saw and some figuring out but it actually came out perfect (compared to plan anyway).And then we continued siding – this part took a good long while:

And finally – the finished product (well as finished as we got over the weekend) – there is still a full run of new siding that needs to go up and then 2 partial runs of old siding over the roof that need to go back up until we get around to redoing the siding up there.Don’t think we are done either – we still have:
– mouldings around all window caps to install
– moulding under soffit to install
– double window extended sill needs to be made and attached
– siding around the door on porch needs to be put up (after the window block is created and installed)
Stay tuned for next weekend when we try to tackle that list!

Well this weekend Ryan had to work all weekend so I was left to my own devices.   Unfortunately it rained ALL day saturday so that meant indoor projects and I got a few things done including building this little bookcase to store tools on the porch:I made it out of some old shelves we had removed from the tv room closet and some scrap pieces of 2×4.  It’s quite sturdy and has now organized the porch to my satisfaction.
Sunday the weather was much more to my liking so I got started on the soffit.  It needed to be stripped with the heat gun, then sanded, then primed.  Luckily we had bought a new 20′ ladder that i could move around more easily than our other ladder so at least I could do this on my own.  However it was a difficult project for my wrist and I was aching by the time the stripping was done and in real pain once the sanding was done but it was getting dark so I pushed on and finished – just after dark 🙂

Here is the soffit BEFORE:

And here it is while I was working on it (notice that it’s getting kind of dark on this side of the house):

And here is the final primed soffit:

It has officially been one full year since we got married – and we celebrated by working on our house! We also made a trip down to NYC for a few days to see PJ and get away from JUST working on the house.

Our big project was installing the new windows we ordered and then putting up the siding we had removed around those windows.

Dad came out to help install the windows – when he left we had the windows installed (aren’t they beautiful), the siding started, and window caps almost completed (minus the moulding on most of them). We were mightily impressed and compared to our progress the rest of the week this was impressive.

Here are the new windows and siding when Mom and Dad left:

And here they are after working on siding Thur, Fri, Sat and Sunday (around the rain and heat/humidity):


A closeup of the window cap Dad made for us:

And here we our on our Anniversary:

Ryan spent saturday installing the bathroom window, this involved moving the window lower from it’s original position.

Here’s the original window we started with. Notice how the window goes right up to the soffit.

Here it is after the hole was moved down and the wall is now ready for the new window.

And here is the finished window – outside:

Inside: