Journal of Progress October 21 - November 11
Sunday, October 28, 2018
Haven’t written much the last two weeks. Finished the stairs. Tarp in place in the balcony doorway. Helped the roofers. We now have more than half the roof covered in metal roofing. Looks GOOD.
I’ve been extremely frustrated trying to buy siding. Home Depot doesn’t have what I want, and everybody else is unbelievably flaky. Spent an entire DAY at Lowe’s in Orem, trying to buy siding, and didn’t manage to buy ANY. Spent another entire day online and on the phone trying to order it from them, and STILL didn’t manage to buy any. Applied for their Pro credit card, and, after an hour and a half applying, was turned down.
Back to Home Depot, even though the stuff they have isn’t exactly what I want. Spent another day online trying to buy siding from them, also without success. Example: I want the upper corner of the gables to be sided in fake cedar shakes, with scalloped edges. Home Depot has something they call, “Cedar Dimensions Round Cut 24 in. Polypropylene Siding Sample”, which is a 24" long sample of a two-row panel. Costs fifteen bucks. For the SAMPLE. No information about the size or price of the actual product. No information about delivery schedules or prices. Called The Home Depot. Was told they sell it by the box. Have to buy a whole box. How many in the box? Can you believe it? NO INFO. But I did manage to find out the price-- sort of. It’s $250.00 per box. How many boxes will I need? NO INFO.
Spent most of another day researching other manufacturers and dealers. Same story! There’s an entire INDUSTRY composed of businesses that won’t tell you the information you need to buy their products! You go online and find lots of sites with names like, “REAL information about polypropylene cedar shakes”, or “Buy polypropylene cedar shakes HERE”, but even they don’t give you the actual information you need to actually buy the stuff.
Monday, I’m going to call some siding contractors and ask if they have some actual information about it. What makes it especially frustrating is that “round cut” fake shakes are actually my second choice. What I really want is “reverse scalloped” shakes. (They come to points, instead of being circles.) Nobody even seems to know what that means, much less where to find them.
Monday, October 29, 2018
Carpenter and roofer got the lower half of the north half of the roof finished. Tomorrow, they anticipate finishing the dormer roof and the upper half of the main roof. At that point, the roof will be done, except for the soffits. Still no soffits.
Started insulating today. Finished half of the south wall downstairs. Once again, things are going fast. About time!
Thursday, November 1, 2018
Yesterday was a busy day. Finished putting up the metal roofing, and most of the trim. Installed the upper door. Closed off all the rafter bays and caulked them with Liquid Nails, which doesn’t shrink, dries hard and rubbery, and contains chemicals that insects don’t like. It does cost a bit more than silicone, but it’s what I’ve been using throughout the house. I even got one piece of insulation hung.
West side lookin' good! This is the view as you're approaching from the west.
Tomorrow will be even busier. I’m expecting a shipment of siding and sheet rock. The siding can remain outdoors, but the sheet rock will need to be stacked inside. First thing in the morning, I’ll have to clear a place for it. That means carrying the workbench down to the basement, a two-man job.The female carpenter will be here in the morning to help, but I don’t know who I can get to help carry all the sheet rock into the house and stack it. Ninty sheets. At half an inch each, that’s a stack over seven feet tall. It’ll make quite a stack! I’ll probably have to make two stacks, which will take up a huge chunk of the floor space downstairs. Eight feet by eight feet, by almost eight feet high. Wow!
Lookin' like a HOUSE! (at least on the outside)
But things are definitely moving along. Bought an electric heater to use in the basement bedroom where we’ll be living in Eureka until the house is livable. Then found out our landlady bought us a heater. So, now I’ve got a way to heat the house while we work.
Thursday, November 1, 2018
Rain mixed with snow this morning, so the delivery was cancelled. Supposed to be good weather tomorrow, and I’ll have more help for schlepping. Which I will need. About two and a half tons of drywall, and who knows how much the siding weighs. With a little bit of luck, we’ll be ready.
Got a lot done today. Moved the workbench, the table saw, and the chop saw down into the basement workshop, which I cleaned out yesterday. Then realized we have no outlets there yet, so moved the chop saw back. Also moved the generator there, for storage. HEAVY! Started on the insulation in earnest, and got the whole south wall downstairs finished, plus parts of the east and west walls. Moved everything out of the middle of the room, to make a place for the drywall. I’m thinking three stacks of thirty sheets. Hope the floor is strong enough! That’s five thousand pounds of drywall, not counting the siding. Ack! Maybe I should rethink where I’m putting it! If I stack half of it outside, with a tarp, I could reduce the weight on the floor. But I’ll need a GOOD tarp, sixteen feet by twelve feet. I’ll call Lowe’s tomorrow EARLY and see if they can add a tarp to the package.
The kitchen and dining room. Notice the three small, electric heaters and the insulated wall.
Wednesday, November 7, 2018
Yesterday was perfect example of why it’s taking so long to build this house. While the carpenters were hanging siding, I found the scalloped siding I wanted for the top corner of the gables at BMC West in West Jordan. No one else in Utah carries it, and if you order it on line, there’s a four to six week wait, plus delivery charges. So I was happy to drive to West Jordan to pick it up.
Of course, yesterday was the day I had promised my missionary friend from the Dominican Republic that I would come and help him mix the paint he is giving us. He lives in American Fork. It was also election day, so I had to drive to Nephi to cast my ballot, as I had missed the mail-in deadline. Opposite direction. And as if that is not enough, the electrician ran out of wire and wire nuts, and Barbara had to go to a viewing for her cousin who died, and wanted me to accompany her. In Spanish Fork.
My local friend was going to accompany me, but begged off at the last minute, as his wife was sick. So I was late getting started. Got to Nephi about ten and voted. While there, I visited the local DMV office to pick up some Drivers Licence manuals for the Spanish-speaking refugees we’re teaching English to. Turns out the Spanish manuals are ONLY available online, not in print. And no, they cannot take the exam in Spanish, only in English, a language they do not yet speak. More wasted time. Left Nephi about 11:00.
My friend with the paint had a medical exam (in Salt Lake City) at 1:00, so we decided to eat lunch first. I volunteered to take him to Salt Lake, as I was going there anyway, if he would buy lunch. Got there in time. They told him the exam would take 60 to 90 minutes, plenty of time for me to drive clear across town to BMC West, buy my scalloped siding, find a Home Depot and pick up the stuff for the electrician, and make it back across town. We thought.
BMC West is full of the biggest collection of incompetent dolts I have ever seen. The gal who I spoke to on the phone was there, and insisted that I had asked about cedar shakes, which they had. They do not even carry the scalloped fake shake panels I had described to her on the phone. I had even given her the manufacturer and part number, but that’s not how she remembered it! At first I thought she was lying, but no, she really was that stupid.
After wasting an entire day, and driving over a hundred miles, I couldn’t afford to leave empty-handed, so I bought the fake cedar shakes, which come in panels four feet wide by one foot high. She wanted to sell me panels one foot wide by four feet high. When I finally convinced her that they weren’t the same thing, she over-calculated how many I would need by ten-fold. Finally, another sales woman took over for her and helped me out. We then had to go through the same song-and-dance (minus the ten-fold) before I could actually buy the panels I didn’t want.
That was just the beginning. At BMC, you can’t just go into the warehouse and buy stuff. You have to order it and pay for it, and they bring it to you. Okay, so I paid for it and got a receipt. Then, I had to drive to the warehouse to pick it up. But you can’t actually go into the warehouse, either. You show your paperwork to the guy at the gate, and he calls the warehouse on the other side of a huge dirt parking lot, and they bring it to you. More waiting around.
Finally, here comes a guy on a big forklift, carrying my three little bundles of siding, balanced on ONE fork. He has the forks three feet off the ground, and is driving at high speed across the parking lot. Of course, they fall off the fork. I finally took matters into my own hands and drove my car over to where he’s trying to put them back onto the fork, which is still three feet in the air. Obviously, he’s never driven a forklift before in his life. He doesn’t know how to adjust the width of the forks, so he can get the four-foot panels across both forks. He doesn’t know how to lower the forks, so he doesn’t have to lift the bundles of panels three feet in the air. He doesn’t know how to drive slow over rough ground.
But he’s a big, young guy, and I’m a little, seventy-year-old man, so I tell him to load the panels into the back of my mini van for me. The back of the van is four feet wide, internally, over the wheel wells, and the panels are four feet long. A tight fit, but they should fit. When I look up, he has them lengthwise, with six inches sticking out of the back! I say, “No, they go in crosswise.” So, he tries to slide them around. Of course, that doesn’t work either. I have to show him how to put a four foot bunch of panels into a four foot space, picking them up and dropping them into place, where they fit exactly.
I couldn’t get the electric wire and stuff at BMC, so I had to go to the Home Depot for it. Fortunately, there’s one around the corner. As I’m walking in, I get a call from my friend at the clinic. It’s only been half an hour, but he’s done and wants me to pick him up. I tell him I’ll be there as soon as I can get there, but I’m clear on the other side of the valley. I race through my shopping at the Home Depot. I’m in such a hurry that I forget several items. So, now I’m going to have to go back for them some day soon. Maybe tomorrow.
Finally get back to pick him up, and drive back to his warehouse in American Fork, where he does NOT have the paint he is giving me already mixed up. So, we spend the next hour or so mixing paint. I’m not dressed for it, but manage to not get any on my clothes. But I do have to spend another half hour scrubbing my hands.
During all this, Barbara is calling. I’m supposed to meet her at the Deseret Book store in Spanish Fork, where her carpool friend has dropped her off. Ever try to answer a phone that’s in your pocket, with your hands full of wet paint? Without getting any paint on your clothes?
My friend feels bad about my day, and gives me about three times as much paint as I’m going to need. I appreciate his generosity, but we have to mix each gallon and try to color match it. I finally tell him, “Look, that’s good enough. I have to go pick up my wife, who is stranded in Spanish Fork.”
After scrubbing my hands forever, I finally get them clean enough to use the phone, and tell Siri, “Directions to Deseret Book in Spanish Fork.” She gives me directions to Provo. She gives me directions to Salt Lake City. She gives me directions to American Fork. I call Barbara to get the exact address. It’s on Canyon Creek Drive. Turns out there’s a Deseret Book on Canyon Creek Drive in American Fork, too, which is where I end up. It’s rush hour, it’s dark, and I’m tired, so my eyes are flashing every time a bright light shines in them, which is constantly. I don’t know where I am, I can’t read the tiny print on the phone screen, a gazillion cars are honking at me, and I’m already fifteen minutes later than the time I told Barbara I would pick her up, twenty miles away. And I’m hungry.
I finally give up on Siri, who keeps insisting that Spanish Fork is American Fork, and just get on the Interstate and drive. After ten minutes or so, Siri settles down, and I call Barbara and tell her I’m on my way. She takes me to dinner at the Olive Garden across the street, which helps. Then, we have to go to the viewing of her cousin, who I have never even heard of. She had forty-nine. Everyone is friendly, but there’s no way to avoid seeing the corpse. Since I don’t know him, it’s just a dead body to me, which is NOT what I need. Finally, we escape and I drive back to Eureka. What a day!
Thursday, November 8, 2018
Yesterday, finished the north side siding (except for the dormer) and got most of the east side lower level siding finished. Also nearly finished insulating the east side of the main level. After supper, Barbara and I nearly finished cleaning the trailer.
The south side siding (unpainted). Have to put up the siding, insulation, and sheet rock before we can install the stove pipe.
Today, the carpenters finished the lower level east side siding, except they ran completely out of 2" nails and had to quit. I went into Provo for more nails and some misc. hardware, plus a little farther to Lowe’s to order the siding, which will be delivered tomorrow morning. Came back and painted the trim I bought (primed it). Also made a run to Eureka where we are staying to bring over a dresser. I couldn’t find the drawer pulls, so I bought some more at Home Depot. Tried to install a knob lock on our room door, but it will need to be mortised for the latch bolt. I don’t doubt that they will let me do it, but I wouldn’t dream of trying without asking. I had also meant to pick up a closet box from U-Haul, so we can hang up clothes that need it, as the room has no closet, but didn’t have time.
Friday, November 11, 2018
Nearly finished all the lower level siding. It was difficult, working on the west side, as we had to work around the part where the wall above the basement door is removable. That was designed that way so that if I ever build anything big there, I’ll be able to get it out of the basement without demolishing a bearing wall. But it was designed and framed before I knew the exact dimensions of the siding, which, it turns out, made it just 3/4" too tall. That’s not enough room to piece in an extra strip of siding without splitting the siding. So, we had to rebuild the removable section before we could side it. Took about an hour. As you can see from the photos, the carpenters covered it with siding so well that the seams are virtually invisible, even from close range. Wonderful!
The West side almost sided. (downstairs)
Close up of the removable panel. Hard to notice the seams in the previous photo!
On Thursday, I made a run to The Home Depot for trim boards, which I primed and painted on Friday. LOTS of them! The little heaters kept the room warm enough to dry the paint, even though it got as cold as 18º F overnight, and never did get above freezing during the day. Winter comes early at 7000 feet!
Haven’t written much the last two weeks. Finished the stairs. Tarp in place in the balcony doorway. Helped the roofers. We now have more than half the roof covered in metal roofing. Looks GOOD.
I’ve been extremely frustrated trying to buy siding. Home Depot doesn’t have what I want, and everybody else is unbelievably flaky. Spent an entire DAY at Lowe’s in Orem, trying to buy siding, and didn’t manage to buy ANY. Spent another entire day online and on the phone trying to order it from them, and STILL didn’t manage to buy any. Applied for their Pro credit card, and, after an hour and a half applying, was turned down.
Back to Home Depot, even though the stuff they have isn’t exactly what I want. Spent another day online trying to buy siding from them, also without success. Example: I want the upper corner of the gables to be sided in fake cedar shakes, with scalloped edges. Home Depot has something they call, “Cedar Dimensions Round Cut 24 in. Polypropylene Siding Sample”, which is a 24" long sample of a two-row panel. Costs fifteen bucks. For the SAMPLE. No information about the size or price of the actual product. No information about delivery schedules or prices. Called The Home Depot. Was told they sell it by the box. Have to buy a whole box. How many in the box? Can you believe it? NO INFO. But I did manage to find out the price-- sort of. It’s $250.00 per box. How many boxes will I need? NO INFO.
Spent most of another day researching other manufacturers and dealers. Same story! There’s an entire INDUSTRY composed of businesses that won’t tell you the information you need to buy their products! You go online and find lots of sites with names like, “REAL information about polypropylene cedar shakes”, or “Buy polypropylene cedar shakes HERE”, but even they don’t give you the actual information you need to actually buy the stuff.
Monday, I’m going to call some siding contractors and ask if they have some actual information about it. What makes it especially frustrating is that “round cut” fake shakes are actually my second choice. What I really want is “reverse scalloped” shakes. (They come to points, instead of being circles.) Nobody even seems to know what that means, much less where to find them.
Monday, October 29, 2018
Carpenter and roofer got the lower half of the north half of the roof finished. Tomorrow, they anticipate finishing the dormer roof and the upper half of the main roof. At that point, the roof will be done, except for the soffits. Still no soffits.
Started insulating today. Finished half of the south wall downstairs. Once again, things are going fast. About time!
Thursday, November 1, 2018
Yesterday was a busy day. Finished putting up the metal roofing, and most of the trim. Installed the upper door. Closed off all the rafter bays and caulked them with Liquid Nails, which doesn’t shrink, dries hard and rubbery, and contains chemicals that insects don’t like. It does cost a bit more than silicone, but it’s what I’ve been using throughout the house. I even got one piece of insulation hung.
West side lookin' good! This is the view as you're approaching from the west.
Tomorrow will be even busier. I’m expecting a shipment of siding and sheet rock. The siding can remain outdoors, but the sheet rock will need to be stacked inside. First thing in the morning, I’ll have to clear a place for it. That means carrying the workbench down to the basement, a two-man job.The female carpenter will be here in the morning to help, but I don’t know who I can get to help carry all the sheet rock into the house and stack it. Ninty sheets. At half an inch each, that’s a stack over seven feet tall. It’ll make quite a stack! I’ll probably have to make two stacks, which will take up a huge chunk of the floor space downstairs. Eight feet by eight feet, by almost eight feet high. Wow!
Lookin' like a HOUSE! (at least on the outside)
But things are definitely moving along. Bought an electric heater to use in the basement bedroom where we’ll be living in Eureka until the house is livable. Then found out our landlady bought us a heater. So, now I’ve got a way to heat the house while we work.
Thursday, November 1, 2018
Rain mixed with snow this morning, so the delivery was cancelled. Supposed to be good weather tomorrow, and I’ll have more help for schlepping. Which I will need. About two and a half tons of drywall, and who knows how much the siding weighs. With a little bit of luck, we’ll be ready.
Got a lot done today. Moved the workbench, the table saw, and the chop saw down into the basement workshop, which I cleaned out yesterday. Then realized we have no outlets there yet, so moved the chop saw back. Also moved the generator there, for storage. HEAVY! Started on the insulation in earnest, and got the whole south wall downstairs finished, plus parts of the east and west walls. Moved everything out of the middle of the room, to make a place for the drywall. I’m thinking three stacks of thirty sheets. Hope the floor is strong enough! That’s five thousand pounds of drywall, not counting the siding. Ack! Maybe I should rethink where I’m putting it! If I stack half of it outside, with a tarp, I could reduce the weight on the floor. But I’ll need a GOOD tarp, sixteen feet by twelve feet. I’ll call Lowe’s tomorrow EARLY and see if they can add a tarp to the package.
The kitchen and dining room. Notice the three small, electric heaters and the insulated wall.
Wednesday, November 7, 2018
Yesterday was perfect example of why it’s taking so long to build this house. While the carpenters were hanging siding, I found the scalloped siding I wanted for the top corner of the gables at BMC West in West Jordan. No one else in Utah carries it, and if you order it on line, there’s a four to six week wait, plus delivery charges. So I was happy to drive to West Jordan to pick it up.
Of course, yesterday was the day I had promised my missionary friend from the Dominican Republic that I would come and help him mix the paint he is giving us. He lives in American Fork. It was also election day, so I had to drive to Nephi to cast my ballot, as I had missed the mail-in deadline. Opposite direction. And as if that is not enough, the electrician ran out of wire and wire nuts, and Barbara had to go to a viewing for her cousin who died, and wanted me to accompany her. In Spanish Fork.
My local friend was going to accompany me, but begged off at the last minute, as his wife was sick. So I was late getting started. Got to Nephi about ten and voted. While there, I visited the local DMV office to pick up some Drivers Licence manuals for the Spanish-speaking refugees we’re teaching English to. Turns out the Spanish manuals are ONLY available online, not in print. And no, they cannot take the exam in Spanish, only in English, a language they do not yet speak. More wasted time. Left Nephi about 11:00.
My friend with the paint had a medical exam (in Salt Lake City) at 1:00, so we decided to eat lunch first. I volunteered to take him to Salt Lake, as I was going there anyway, if he would buy lunch. Got there in time. They told him the exam would take 60 to 90 minutes, plenty of time for me to drive clear across town to BMC West, buy my scalloped siding, find a Home Depot and pick up the stuff for the electrician, and make it back across town. We thought.
BMC West is full of the biggest collection of incompetent dolts I have ever seen. The gal who I spoke to on the phone was there, and insisted that I had asked about cedar shakes, which they had. They do not even carry the scalloped fake shake panels I had described to her on the phone. I had even given her the manufacturer and part number, but that’s not how she remembered it! At first I thought she was lying, but no, she really was that stupid.
After wasting an entire day, and driving over a hundred miles, I couldn’t afford to leave empty-handed, so I bought the fake cedar shakes, which come in panels four feet wide by one foot high. She wanted to sell me panels one foot wide by four feet high. When I finally convinced her that they weren’t the same thing, she over-calculated how many I would need by ten-fold. Finally, another sales woman took over for her and helped me out. We then had to go through the same song-and-dance (minus the ten-fold) before I could actually buy the panels I didn’t want.
That was just the beginning. At BMC, you can’t just go into the warehouse and buy stuff. You have to order it and pay for it, and they bring it to you. Okay, so I paid for it and got a receipt. Then, I had to drive to the warehouse to pick it up. But you can’t actually go into the warehouse, either. You show your paperwork to the guy at the gate, and he calls the warehouse on the other side of a huge dirt parking lot, and they bring it to you. More waiting around.
Finally, here comes a guy on a big forklift, carrying my three little bundles of siding, balanced on ONE fork. He has the forks three feet off the ground, and is driving at high speed across the parking lot. Of course, they fall off the fork. I finally took matters into my own hands and drove my car over to where he’s trying to put them back onto the fork, which is still three feet in the air. Obviously, he’s never driven a forklift before in his life. He doesn’t know how to adjust the width of the forks, so he can get the four-foot panels across both forks. He doesn’t know how to lower the forks, so he doesn’t have to lift the bundles of panels three feet in the air. He doesn’t know how to drive slow over rough ground.
But he’s a big, young guy, and I’m a little, seventy-year-old man, so I tell him to load the panels into the back of my mini van for me. The back of the van is four feet wide, internally, over the wheel wells, and the panels are four feet long. A tight fit, but they should fit. When I look up, he has them lengthwise, with six inches sticking out of the back! I say, “No, they go in crosswise.” So, he tries to slide them around. Of course, that doesn’t work either. I have to show him how to put a four foot bunch of panels into a four foot space, picking them up and dropping them into place, where they fit exactly.
I couldn’t get the electric wire and stuff at BMC, so I had to go to the Home Depot for it. Fortunately, there’s one around the corner. As I’m walking in, I get a call from my friend at the clinic. It’s only been half an hour, but he’s done and wants me to pick him up. I tell him I’ll be there as soon as I can get there, but I’m clear on the other side of the valley. I race through my shopping at the Home Depot. I’m in such a hurry that I forget several items. So, now I’m going to have to go back for them some day soon. Maybe tomorrow.
Finally get back to pick him up, and drive back to his warehouse in American Fork, where he does NOT have the paint he is giving me already mixed up. So, we spend the next hour or so mixing paint. I’m not dressed for it, but manage to not get any on my clothes. But I do have to spend another half hour scrubbing my hands.
During all this, Barbara is calling. I’m supposed to meet her at the Deseret Book store in Spanish Fork, where her carpool friend has dropped her off. Ever try to answer a phone that’s in your pocket, with your hands full of wet paint? Without getting any paint on your clothes?
My friend feels bad about my day, and gives me about three times as much paint as I’m going to need. I appreciate his generosity, but we have to mix each gallon and try to color match it. I finally tell him, “Look, that’s good enough. I have to go pick up my wife, who is stranded in Spanish Fork.”
After scrubbing my hands forever, I finally get them clean enough to use the phone, and tell Siri, “Directions to Deseret Book in Spanish Fork.” She gives me directions to Provo. She gives me directions to Salt Lake City. She gives me directions to American Fork. I call Barbara to get the exact address. It’s on Canyon Creek Drive. Turns out there’s a Deseret Book on Canyon Creek Drive in American Fork, too, which is where I end up. It’s rush hour, it’s dark, and I’m tired, so my eyes are flashing every time a bright light shines in them, which is constantly. I don’t know where I am, I can’t read the tiny print on the phone screen, a gazillion cars are honking at me, and I’m already fifteen minutes later than the time I told Barbara I would pick her up, twenty miles away. And I’m hungry.
I finally give up on Siri, who keeps insisting that Spanish Fork is American Fork, and just get on the Interstate and drive. After ten minutes or so, Siri settles down, and I call Barbara and tell her I’m on my way. She takes me to dinner at the Olive Garden across the street, which helps. Then, we have to go to the viewing of her cousin, who I have never even heard of. She had forty-nine. Everyone is friendly, but there’s no way to avoid seeing the corpse. Since I don’t know him, it’s just a dead body to me, which is NOT what I need. Finally, we escape and I drive back to Eureka. What a day!
Thursday, November 8, 2018
Yesterday, finished the north side siding (except for the dormer) and got most of the east side lower level siding finished. Also nearly finished insulating the east side of the main level. After supper, Barbara and I nearly finished cleaning the trailer.
The south side siding (unpainted). Have to put up the siding, insulation, and sheet rock before we can install the stove pipe.
Today, the carpenters finished the lower level east side siding, except they ran completely out of 2" nails and had to quit. I went into Provo for more nails and some misc. hardware, plus a little farther to Lowe’s to order the siding, which will be delivered tomorrow morning. Came back and painted the trim I bought (primed it). Also made a run to Eureka where we are staying to bring over a dresser. I couldn’t find the drawer pulls, so I bought some more at Home Depot. Tried to install a knob lock on our room door, but it will need to be mortised for the latch bolt. I don’t doubt that they will let me do it, but I wouldn’t dream of trying without asking. I had also meant to pick up a closet box from U-Haul, so we can hang up clothes that need it, as the room has no closet, but didn’t have time.
Friday, November 11, 2018
Nearly finished all the lower level siding. It was difficult, working on the west side, as we had to work around the part where the wall above the basement door is removable. That was designed that way so that if I ever build anything big there, I’ll be able to get it out of the basement without demolishing a bearing wall. But it was designed and framed before I knew the exact dimensions of the siding, which, it turns out, made it just 3/4" too tall. That’s not enough room to piece in an extra strip of siding without splitting the siding. So, we had to rebuild the removable section before we could side it. Took about an hour. As you can see from the photos, the carpenters covered it with siding so well that the seams are virtually invisible, even from close range. Wonderful!
The West side almost sided. (downstairs)
Close up of the removable panel. Hard to notice the seams in the previous photo!
On Thursday, I made a run to The Home Depot for trim boards, which I primed and painted on Friday. LOTS of them! The little heaters kept the room warm enough to dry the paint, even though it got as cold as 18º F overnight, and never did get above freezing during the day. Winter comes early at 7000 feet!
Sorry to let you know, Nov 11 was a Sunday, not Friday (Nov 9th). Seems like you were having a wonderful time last week (ha, ha)! Is the whole house covered in siding now? Not sure from various descriptions of work. Remember you telling me you wanted 3 kinds of siding in front ( East side). If roof, siding, and exterior now finished, are you starting on the interior this week? Or still finishing exterior? Best wishes and good luck.
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