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.