A little more

We progress a little more. Almost 40% complete on the siding. More than halfway done on 3 sides. At this point I can only reach a handful more boards without a ladder or scaffolding. This is where it gets fun.

Only 12 more courses to go.

Working the windows into the coursing has proved tricky. Nothing is perfectly level or at quite the right elevations. I think I have it worked out for two of the windows. I'll let you know.

One issue with all the rain/moisture is that the wood is swelling. My 1/4" gaps are down to 1/16" in some places. This was expected at some level (thus the reason for the 1/4" gaps) but not while I was working on it. It is proving more difficult to get pieces of the same width in one continuous course. The break-up of the boards by windows, doors, and open joints is proving useful at this point. My fear is when I get the next load of wood (we only have enough to do half the siding at this point) is that it will be dry and not as wide.

Paul (and Eliza) Part II

Well Paul came up again, this time with Eliza, and we managed to get a fair amount done in the short time they were here. Siding is now almost 30% complete. Paul and I established coursing for the next 9 rows which will make our work easier from this point on. We also got all the "down" work done meaning that we will be working up from this point on. Eliza went through a box and a half of screws, diligently fastening the siding to the strapping. We were slowed down a bit with relocating the cat door (originally placed based on 1x4 siding. Oops) and cutting off the strapping that was too long. But things picked up quickly before stopping for dinner.

We then went down to Unity to make a quick stop at the Commonground Fair. All in all, too short a time but hopefully the next time Paul and Eliza come up at Thanksgiving the siding will be complete. Fingers crossed. I sure as hell don't want to be doing this in December.

Photos courtesy of Paul and Eliza.

End of Day 1: Paul inspecting the cat door.

Corner detail.

Eliza intent on the screw at hand.

Day 2: More boards in the morning before heading off to the Fair.

The newly relocated cat door. Ramona still managed to get in the door 36" off the ground by climing up the siding. She's lucky I didn't catch her in action.

Isn't that the cutest bunny you ever saw?

Eliza with the homeowner.

A little further...

As I have been able to steal time I have been able to get more siding up. It is certainly much easier going up than down, especially when working by yourself. Anne pitched in on Saturday to help get a few boards on and again a little last night so that she could use the driver. We finished getting the first board on the north side and so now have a basepoint on all 4 sides. The tricky part will be working the windows into the equation. I took some quick measurements last night and discovered that the first two windows are very close to the module but for some reason the last two openings are a couple of inches off. So I'll probably spend the next couple of days working out the layout for the boards on the back side before getting any further on the north and west sides. I'll try and post more often...

One board at a time

Well we managed to get Paul up here, though it was sans Eliza (she is in Aspen) and started on the siding. We also finished up the last bit of decking and cut some trim for the pocket doors. But the siding was the big task.

We ended up using cambera again due to cost issues, this time in 1x6 form (fewer boards, fewer screws, less labor, hopefully). The biggest trick here was establishing a level line on all sides of the building to set the first board. Josh came by and we bought some tubing to make a water level. We ran it around the building and marked several points to measure from. It seemed to work pretty well until we needed to double-check some measurements after a while, in which case we found some discrepancies and re-filled the level. We made some new marks and started with the first board by the bedroom deck. We got 4 boards on before calling it a day.

The next day Jim Robinson came by with his laser level. He established new marks for us to work from. We snapped some lines and stretched some string to continue that 1st board around on all 4 sides. We did find that the marks from the laser level and water level were within 1/8" of each other at most, and so that helped justify some of our efforts the previous day. Paul and I got the first board run on the south and west sides. When we went to check the east side we discovered that the east side deck dropped quite a bit from one corner to the other, about 3/4" over 14'. However, we think this 3/4" will be less noticeable on the north side when spread over 68'. We'll see...

All in all we got a little over 6% of the siding up and the deck finished off. It should move faster from here now that we have something to work from. Hopefully Paul will return again with Eliza in a couple of weeks and we'll cruise through some more cambera. In the meantime I'll plug away at it while there is still daylight.

Paul admiring his hand work. Time for a break.

Day 2: The first board under the doors. More time consuming than one would think.

The first board around the corner.

The deck needs a haircut.

These boards will be fun to put in. Well let's get started. Paul? Paul? Where did you go?

Clipped deck. Things mostly aligned.

Found out the wall bowed at the east end. Unfortunately not until after the deck had been trimmed off. That's the problem with striking a line and then cutting in the dark. Not too noticeable from the ground though.

Our Newest Delegate!

This is not a building related post. It's main purpose is to congratulate Anne on becoming a national delegate for Barack Obama to the Democratic National Convention in Denver. For those that do not know already, Anne fabricated a dress out of Obama stickers to help secure her election. The competition was stiff with people form all around the state vying for a few spots to the national convention. There were posters, signs, pamphlets, speeches, etc. Anne's only campaign promise was to make a better dress for the National Convention. Be sure to watch for her in August. You can also see her at the following links:



http://www.politickerme.com/jessicaalaimo/1686/delegate-hopeful-makes-obama-dress
http://www.turnmaineblue.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1224
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/1/18139/98043
http://politicker.com/taxonomy/term/16967

Quick Update

Well the cantilever is fixed. Tobin's crew did it in about two days which was much faster than I thought it would take. The corner looks much better without a supporting 2x.

And many Ibuprofen and 1508 screws later the first deck is complete. Almost. I still need to cut off the ends of the joists to make them all the same length. Unfortunately we had some waviness in the joists. I am not sure if this is due to the quality of the lumber or the angled cut at the end of the joists. But the wood is down and we can now officially call it a deck. Now for the next one...

Cats and Decking

Well we've not gotten as much done as hoped. Our first decking weekend resulted in 14 boards going down before we succumbed to rain. Last weekend was bit more successful and the long deck is now nearly complete. I have been trying to work out the numbers on this and it doesn't look good. I have been averaging 8 lineal feet every 10-12 minutes. At that rate we should be done with the siding sometime next year. We might need some help on this.

I knew I never should have left the camera lying around.

The boards were in long lengths which was good but the longer they were the more like spaghetti. Every board needed to be straightened which was quite time consuming. At least there's only 4 times as much siding as decking. Bad knees + bad back + decking = very bad combination.

We also got the cat door installed which has prevented Anne from throttling Marlum. He now comes and goes as he pleases without the melodic meow that would inevitably arise in the middle of the night. The downside is that he likes to bring his food into the house - and play with it. I don't know how we resolve that one.

We were not sure if Ramona was going to make it through the hole. Proportionally she looks like a tennis ball perched on a basketball. But she manages to suck it in and squeeze herself through.

Come on, suck it in.

Can you believe that cat fit through that door? This is her skinny side.

On a down note, we had been fostering a cat from the SPCA where Anne volunteers, Chloe. She had been diagnosed with cancer and they removed a tumor but had no idea how much time she had left. She was the perfect lap cat, never cried. Unfortunately she passed on last week and so we said goodbye. Rest in peace.

What's next

Well we've got a few things on our list for the coming weeks. Decking arrives tomorrow so we will get a start on that this weekend. Hopefully we will be repairing the cantilever next week. For those of you that missed this story the steel was undersized at the roof overhang. We need to add a 3/4" x 11" piece of steel on to the flitch beam in place. It will be fun work.

We also need to make another IKEA run and are gearing up for that (when do those tax rebate checks arrive?). Once we get the cantilever fixed it will be on to siding. And there's still the clearing, interior trim, tile, painting, and so on. The list seems to grow longer the more we do. The most immediate task: the cat door. For everyone's sanity.

Hopefully next week we will have some new photos to post.

How many pounds of screws did you say?

Ahh...the Maine dooryard detritis.

I kind of like it black let's leave it. Ow, ow, ow - alright we'll side it.

The cantilever in need of support.

No, that is not decking.

We know, we know

We've been pretty bad about updating this blog. There's probably no one out there still checking it. But if there are we will be posting pictures soon. No, we are not complete; still a lot to do. We've mainly been doing some interior work: trim, kitchen, paint, etc. We've been gearing up to get going on the outside putting in some missing deck joists, Simpson hangers, furring strips, etc. Anne has been busy cutting down trees and digging up stumps.

Although the IKEA cabinets have caused us much frustration we do like them and will be making another IKEA run soon to finish out the cabinets in the main space. Right now the next goal on our list is to get that cat door installed to shut up that damn cat.

More soon...