Last winter we knew we had a big problem went rain started coming into the house at the top of 2 windows and Turkey Tail Mushrooms grew out of the siding. We did what any responsible person in Oregon would do - stapled a large sheet of plastic up and ignored it until the weather was better. We also planned, budgeted and waited for timing and money to work out. We were blessed with a windfall earlier this year (but that's another couple of stories) and it looked like we would be able to afford this big project. We were optimistic that we could get it done in a month and half. Early July we got to work! Be prepared for a photo dump for the rest of this post.
This is a picture of what the house looked like before got to far into the project, I forgot to take any before pictures of the complete house. Also notice that chimney is wrapped in a tarp - that was also repaired this year!
We soon discovered that the house had almost no sheathing (1 end had it, but that's where we found dry rot and had to replace most of it anyway). So, after replacing rotted studs we put up sheathing. A bonus to no sheathing, when we could see all the way through the attic we discovered we had and attic fan! $20 to fix it and it made a huge difference in keeping our house cool this summer.
We also found fun things like this in the front entry. Where cement meets house you can see where we cut the old siding to remove it - yep it goes below the cement! A lot of sealants, flashing and creative thinking went into this area and it is much better protected now.
Next, up went the house wrap of which we needed about 2.2 rolls of - if you are needing any of this stuff let us know, they don't let you return partial rolls.
First piece of actual siding went up on September 14....which is when we were originally thinking we would be finished. This is the first piece (L) and one of the trickiest pieces going up (R) lining up a light, a window,
an electric box, and a door notch in 1 piece!
We signed under the last piece, 3rd signer was our wonderful worker Caleb, what a blessing he was.
Last piece went up October 12. Also pictured here is a peek at the entry. Since there was no sheathing it was a good time to move the light to the ceiling instead of hitting you with light in the face next to the door, and if you are going to move the light, you might as well update the ceiling with tongue and grove too.
At the end of September we had the siding and trim up on the back of the house. Notice the blue on each seam? That's not caulk yet, that is paint. We painted the back and edge of every board that went up so it was even more protected .... and we hopefully will never have to do this again.
We were far from done with the job though. We still had caulking, more painting (Odessa had been working on eves, gutters and fascia all summer already), and the dreaded shingles to go.
Odessa was able to do the first coat of paint on the entire house in a day! There wasn't any battens up or trim to worry about painting onto so it was easy and it felt awesome to see so much progress.
If you refinish the outside of a door, you might as well finish the inside of the door to, and you might have to sleep for 2 nights in a house with a front door made in 5 minutes in the dark.
We are ready for shingles! And for a very large pile of garbage to be gone.
Tip: if you have a pile of garbage this big, don't let it get wet - it then weighs close to 3 tons and costs
you more to have disposed of.
Shingle progress...it's very slow. Also, battens have started going up and being painted. We started shingles at the end of October and we finished the first week of January. It has been determined that Jeff really loves Odessa and has proved this love in shingles over the last 2.5 months.
Because it took so much longer to finish, the project ran into other projects we participate in. Like Dressember (see this blog post for more information). I did it! Painted in a dress in 30 degree weather. Actually, it makes quite a nice tent around your legs and kept me pretty warm over my work pants.
Little man picked up some mad skills too as super nail magnet boy, painting the back of boards dude,
and he fired the nail gun - with dad's help.
Another tip: if you need to keep your preschoolers occupied during a
project that keeps dragging on, sharpie markers work well on house wrap.
Share with the Lord's people
who are in need.
Practice hospitality.
Romans 12:13
This verse is written above our front door. We hope to bless all who enter, share all we have, and remember to love all. Welcome to our finished house!
The final shingle was nailed into place around 4:00 pm last Friday and we are done! Approximately 5 months, 52 sheets of plywood, 48 sheets of siding, ~ 150 batten boards, 6 new outlets, 4 new windows, 1 new sliding glass door, 2 faucet extensions, ~ 40 gallons of paint/stain, 74 tubes of caulk, several hundred shingles, over 10 thousand nails and many trips to the hardware store. We now own a pretty good set of tools to complete siding jobs and a pretty good base of knowledge! Hit is us up of you need a tool or some help with your own project.
Many thanks to Jim at Parr Lumber who ordered almost the perfect amount of everything, introduced us to some really good new products, arranged deliveries of supplies even when they were small, and answered all of our silly home owner questions. Also, thanks to Caleb for all the hours he put into helping us get this project done, working weekends and holidays. We could not have finished without him. Also, thanks to the following folks who lent a hand, a tool, or watched children for a day or more: Luke, Ben and Leanne, Natalia, Trenton, Jen and Leo, Jake, Joe, Zach and Lindsey, Mandy, Heidi, Clara, Cricket, Mark, Jeff, Netflix, Sandy, Bob, Alan, and Tyler (first nail driven)! If you are needing a hard worker let us know and we will get you in touch.
And with that, the extra items have been returned, the work shoes have be thrown away and we can tuck in for the rest of winter (tools still to be organized in the garage). We hope to be crafting, resting, playing games, hanging out with our kids and having folks over. If you would like to come see how the house looks in person, let us know and we would love to have you over for a meal and a game.
One final tip. This stuff...right here...is awesome!
