The siding continues....

I know it's been a while since I posted but rest assured everyday that I have been away from this blog we have been moving forward on the siding job.

The weekend after Halloween, we were making our way around the front of the house.  The garage was done and we were working on the area around the front door.  On Saturday, we made great progress on the area to the right of the doorway.  We managed to complete the whole job in one day.  But that wouldn't have been possible without our "Family Crew".  While Mark cut the siding pieces, Grandma held them for him and then delivered them to Tim and I who were hanging the pieces that day.

The Family Crew - Grandma Nancy, Uncle Tim and Mark 

 After a hard days work we rewarded ourselves with the first bonfire at our new house.  It was a lovely night for conversation around the fire pit.  Dixie and Cooper (Tim's dog) had a great time chasing each other around in the dark.

On Sunday, Mark and I worked on the area to the left of the door and we almost completed it.  It is so much slower with just the two of us. 

The front after a productive weekend of work

We got back at it on Monday and finished the rest of the section.  If it wasn't for the dumpster front and center on the lawn, the house would have a welcoming appearance. I can't wait till Spring when we get it painted.  It will look so nice.

From this angle, you'd think the front was all done but that's not the case.  It really looks like this:

Our next task was to get the side of the garage sided.  We had to set up "the plank" to reach this higher area.  I hate being on that thing, especially with Mark on it next to me.  It is hardly wider than a balance beam and not nearly as strong.  Whenever one of us moves the whole thing shakes.  I thought for sure that one of us (probably ME) would fall off of it but we never did.  It was quite fun in the morning when there was a bit of frost on the board.

By this time I was getting pretty sick of my daily routine..... wake up, walk Dixie, eat breakfast, go to Comet to side the house, eat fast food lunch, side some more, go to High Tower, eat dinner, go to bed, REPEAT!!! I had to find a way to make it more fun.  So here's what I did:

The Countdown

We had 15 courses to hang on the garage.  I wanted to be done by lunch.  Seems so simple, only 15 to do.  The problem was that there was only 2 of us so we had to climb up and down over and over again to cut the boards.  This was the first time that we encountered the angled roof too which gave us (really Mark) a challenge in cutting.  Made a few mistakes but we eventually got it.

Ohhhh so close 

We cranked out course after course and almost finished before lunch. When we came back from whatever "Hwy 7 & 101" fast food restaurant we chose that day we had two full boards to put up and then one cut down piece for the very top.  

Here's how I felt about it when we finished:

There was still daylight left so we were not done.  The next monster to conquer was the West side.  Intimidating for sure.

Mark contemplating how to get started

For this side of the house, we knew we would start it from the ground and then when we couldn't reach anymore we would set up scaffolding to get to the top.  We measured and leveled and measured some more to get the first row started just right.  We put up two rows and then called it a day!  We came back the next morning to a frosty surprise: Our first snow of the season! Certainly didn't slow us down.

Getting started in the morning

We worked throughout the day to get several rows nailed up.  It was pretty straight forward once we got past the gas, electric, phone and cable boxes at the bottom.

Progress at day's end

 The next couple of days we worked on details on the bump out (or "dog house" as we call it) for the fireplace that we will be putting in the living room.  We had to put trim around it and shingle the roof.  Once that task was done, the scaffolding would go up so that our hired siding crew - Mark, Ray and Paul - could finish the side.  

I was super excited for this next step since it meant that the siding would get done faster and I wouldn't be doing it.  I had visions of when I used to live in California and I would leave for work in the morning and when I got home my house would be clean from bottom to top.  I have visions of showing up after my 5 hour work day at the high school and the siding would be DONE!  

See my next post to read all about it.