Week 14 - Siding 2

Siding continued this week. Also, the top of the porch was closed in. It altered the whole look of the front, and the look of the world from the porch as well.

One nice point about having a team approach on the project is the flexibility and creativity that evolves. At several points this week Robert or Hal (contractor), Mike (framer) and I (owner) had little summit meetings about particular issues and/or problems. When we had a consensus, the work would proceed. The important thing for me was that, while I was ultimately the one making the decisions, I got good information on the pros and cons of the different options being suggested. And as a group we usually came up with solutions that were somewhat different, and often better, than any one of us would have done alone.

The porch rail was finished and sided, along with the porch walls.

Once the top of the porch was enclosed, T111 was put up on the inside of the roof to reflect the look under the eaves. I think it finished the look off nicely, and gave me a pleasantly vaulted space for my porch lights.

In the middle of the week my front door came back from being set into a new jamb and was installed. Once it was in place, the siding was finished around it.

I'm happy with the way the door turned out, especially considering that I had to pay extra to have it moved several inches to the right. I did this because I wanted a full surround, but on the plan it was too close to the corner to make that possible. It just fell through the cracks.

The problem was that all of the surrounds were supposed to be consistent with the period, which is wider than the current standard. I'm not sure I would have done it just for the door, because it was a big headache to move at this point, but we also discovered that the wiring for my entry light switch was unavoidably in the way of where my mail slot was supposed to go. So I had two things taken care of at once. It was a reasonable request, but I wished I'd seen it sooner (or thought it out more fully - the light switch intruded into the interior door surround on the inside because we didn't move it as well).

My mail slot became much more of a production that I had expected because I wanted to solve a problem that had long plagued me with the old one. In the winter a cold breeze would blow into the house because the slot was straight through. The new mail slots will be offset from each other to help reduce that. The inside one will be at desk height, and the outside a foot higher.

The frames for the pocket doors were firred out to match the rest of the wall, in preparation for next weeks drywall installation.

On the garage, the inside of the parapet was covered with T111 rather than siding and capped, giving it a nice clean look.

At the end of the week the gutters went in, which should give me a lot less mud the next time it rains.

Because the gutter guys came and went without notifying anyone that they were here, they managed to give everyone a good chuckle with one odd aspect of the installation. To do the siding my two rain barrels were moved away from the house, and had not yet been moved back. The gutter installers simply ran the gutters to where the barrels were sitting. All I have to do is remove the extension when I put them back, so this isn't a big deal. As Robert said, "imagine if the barrels had been in the middle of the yard!"

Last thing on Friday I got actual boards on my porch. Yeah!

So at the end of this week I have a mostly sided house, and am starting to gather color suggestions from family and friends.

Week 15 - Drywall