Final Door and Window are in, trimmed and sided around

Yesterday, (Monday 10/21) our last door and window arrived so we installed it.  I was pretty excited to be working inside since the temperature outside is at least 20 degrees below normal for this time of year.  The highs this week (for those of you reading who don't live in MN) are projected to be in the low 40's (like 41 and 42 - not much above that).  For the first two days they have been right.  It feels more like early December than mid-October.  Of course, you might imagine that my excitement at being inside was curbed a little bit when I took a look at the thermostat:

Yep it was 44 INSIDE the house yesterday morning

Mark and I are having contests guessing the inside temperature when we arrive in the morning.  So far I am the WINNER!

When we started the day yesterday the view out the kitchen was this:

Before Shot of the Window

Before Shot of the Door Opening 

Within a couple of hours it looked like this:

New Door and window will let me see the trees while I cook

Even though we installed so many doors and windows already that I think I could apply for a Window Installer job, I insisted we get the directions so that we didn't make any mistakes.  There are so many steps I just knew we would do something wrong.  It was a breeze!!!  We were only slowed down a bit by having to get a portable heater out of the garage to warm the ProtectoWrap (that asphalt like stuff that we flash the windows with).  It was so cold (both inside and out) that it would not stick to the house wrap.  Once I heated it (and my hands in the process) it was much easier to work with.  

Today we got back at it and moved to the outside.  Another cold day but I managed to work up a sweat moving tools, saw horses, planks of wood, and Hardy Board up onto the deck.  It didn't hurt that I had little winter gloves on under my work gloves.  The first job on the list today was to trim the window and door that went in yesterday.  Once that was done we moved on to putting up the siding.  Today was a super productive day.  After a few long runs of siding we focused on the spaces on either side of the window.  

We were working off the deck frame today and since it doesn't have deck boards on it, we needed something set up so that we could walk on a flat surface instead of balancing on the 2 inch joists.  Most people would just install the deck boards to ensure the worker's safety.  But Mark knows that OSHA won't be stopping by anytime soon so he doesn't always worry about that safety stuff.  Here's what he was standing on part of the day to put up the trim.

Using plank to extend the "walkable surface" 

It's a good think Mark only weighs 40 pounds so he could stand out there and the board didn't move.  Although there were a few times where I had to stand on the other end of it because he was way at the end and reaching as high as he could to measure or nail something up.  It's so nice to know that I am needed.

Good thing he has small feet too! Makes balance beam walking so much easier

And in case the plank on the deck wasn't risky enough, putting a crate - that is slightly wider than the plank - on it, standing on it and reaching up really increased the intensity at the work site.  It's a good think he is in the habit of always looking down before he steps or I might have had to scrape him off the concrete below.

I didn't get a picture of it but the plank had another use as we moved on to siding the portion to the right of the window.  We balanced it on the top of a 10 foot ladder placed on the ground below and we then had a true balance beam that enabled us to reach to the end of the house.  As a result we made so much progress today.

After a good day's work

We will be back at it tomorrow.  I am hoping that we get the rest of the main level in the back done.  Since there are 3 sliding glass doors there is not that much wall space to side.  But there are lots of details to tend to so I am not sure we will get it all done.  

Can we do these 5 small "walls" in a day?

I think our first order of business tomorrow will be to put up new insulation in the walls since it was 39 degrees when we arrived this morning.  Hopefully it won't take us too long and it will help to keep it a little warmer.  Then maybe we will even turn the heater on.

Stay tuned for more details of the "Money Pit"