It's done...... for now

Well we did it.  After our 15 hour drive home from NY on Monday 12/3 we got back to putting up siding on the back of Comet Circle.

We started out on Tuesday (12/4) and my goal was for us to finish the higher areas on the back side of the house. It looked like this when we started:

The last 3 high areas to side

I really wanted to get this done on Tuesday so we could avoid working in the rain projected for Wednesday.  We started with the course right below the window.  The boards for that row required cut outs for the bottom of the windows.  So we had to measure more and make those cuts on those pieces.

We attempted this piece as the last thing we were doing in the dark the day before we left for NY but it didn't go well.  The edge of the saw horse that was supporting the cutting station slid off the support board and crashed off the side of the deck.  I lost my balance and fell forward catching myself with my left hand which broke the board.  Mark was not happy! We had to give up and stop for the day.

Our second attempt was much more successful. We finished that course then simply had to tackle the relatively short areas between the door and master bedroom window (far right in the picture above), between the master bedroom window and Emily's bedroom window (center of the picture) and the area to the left of Emily's bedroom window (left side of the picture).  There is a section on the far, far left in the picture above (the part that is green) that we are leaving until spring.  It has to be done from on the roof so it's gonna be a pain in the butt.

We also have these two little sections that I was hopeful we could finish this week too.

We worked until dark on Tuesday - so dark I couldn't take a picture but when I got to the house on Wednesday early afternoon, I was able to capture our work of art.  We did it!

Back is done for this year! The green section is being saved for Spring.

We just couldn't catch a break on the weather on Tuesday.  It was foggy and cold in the morning.  The fog cleared only to be replaced by rain. There was a small part of the late afternoon when the rain stopped but by then it was getting dark.  It was very unsafe as we finished since we worked from the right to the left which had us finishing on the part next to the roof.  In order for us to do this section, Mark had to be on the roof and I was at the top of the 10 foot ladder (which I hate).  Mark had no problem climbing up on the roof but he had to stand on the slanted part that was wet.  Not a good combo.  And he couldn't get down by himself.  He had to hang his leg down and I had to guide it to the top step of the ladder.  Now there's husband/wife trust. In the end, we got it done and I don't have to climb on scaffolding or a ladder again to side this house!!!!!

Snow was on the way so after a day of siding we had to make a pass through the yard cleaning up anything that might get buried in the snow. We opted to wait until Wednesday to dis-assemble and move the scaffolding back to the front yard so it will be ready for pick up on Friday.

Wednesday I had to work at the High School so Mark was on his own.  Snow was already coming down.  The morning commute was terrible.  Most people who had the choice stayed at home but not Mark.  He attempted to finish the two lower sections. But the conditions stopped him.  It was just too dangerous on the deck because everything was covered in ice.  Adding climbing on a metal ladder was just asking for trouble so he did as much as he could reach.

Progress made on the left side

We won't be having a fire anytime soon!

The scaffolding has all been moved to the front yard for pick up at the end of the week. Now it's on to inside work.

One of our first tasks was to fix the furnace.  It turns on, runs for a minutes, cools down and shuts off.  So Mark took it apart, checked the flame sensor (yep I can now recognize what a flame sensor looks like and I know how it works!)  and looked at the troubleshooting stuff. (I held the light so he could see!!!!) We couldn't figure out the problem so we started looking at the documentation on the furnace and discovered that it was installed April 8, 2013.  Wow! Something is new in this house.  We had the furnace guy out today and it appears that we had the temperature set too LOW!  Apparently furnaces are not designed to run at 46 degrees.  He checked it all out, replaced the batteries in the thermostat and suggested we turn it up.  So now we have it set to 51 degrees and it seems to be working just fine.  Who knew.

We will have a break in visual progress for a while as we host the Highland Road Progressive Dinner next week, welcome the kids home from college, enjoy the holidays and plan our attack for the inside.  It kinda depends what happens with our High Tower house.  We may find ourselves living in Comet sooner rather than later.  More later........

Mission accomplished...... siding is DONE for 2013!