Front done - 3 days work

The in-law's came to visit, so I took advantage. Tony (father-in-law), my dad and I worked for about 3.5 days.

Here's the "before" picture. I've already got a walkboard set up on the left.

I think Dad is scraping old caulk. Since we were focused on getting siding up while Tony was here, we didn't completely re-work the window yet (caulk, reapaint, etc), but we had to get the outsides cleaned and painted to put siding against it. You can see my mom tearing off siding on the right. She enjoys demolition, and I think she'd like to manage this project since she's always wanting to give advice. We're usually too stubborn to listen. Sorry, Mom.

We're putting up this 1/4" polystyrene board on top of the blackboard and then we cover it with Tyvek, taped at the seams. The blue board, as we call it, comes in pieces about 4'x50', folded every 2 feet (for about $34). It only provides about R1 insulation, but it also brings the new siding out a bit, which works better around the windows. It's probably overkill to have both Tyvek and blueboard, but you can't seal around corners with blue board.

That's Tony, Dad and about to put up the last board.

It looks much better! But, there's a lot still to do.

We left a lot of details incomplete because we just wanted to get the siding up. We have to replace the ~1x8" board that runs against the house just below the eves (Is that also called a fascia?), replace the soffit under the 2nd floor bump out, paint (and eventually replace) all soffits, eaves and gutters, do some work around the downstairs windows, etc. Still plenty to do. Everything takes longer than you expect.

You can see the new insulation that I added under the upstairs bump-out. The insulation was really lame. I hope it's worth it.

Finishing the side

Here's an update on the siding project, and some unusual pictures. I haven't been posting much, so these pictures are at least two weeks old.

This is a weird sight to see out of your window.

And then there's this just outside the window...

This stuff kicks up a lot of nasty dust. Sometimes I'd rather dress like a fool in garbage bags than get that stuff all over me and in my hair. I don't care how stupid it looks, but I guess it is a little embarassing since it loks like I'm in a plastic dress. Here I'm cutting a strip of siding off of the front, near the corner so we can wrap Tyvek all the around the corner (we're still working on the side of the house). I nailed up one of the old corner boards to use as a guide. It makes a much neater cut than freehand off a ladder.


You can see the Nick and me on the ladder jacks on the 14 ft. aluminum walkboard on the left. On the right is a pair of pump jacks with a 14 ft. aluminum walkboard and a wooden workbench. I can't imagine doing this without walkboards.

I don't let them up the ladders often, but Nick is bringing me a tool here. They love to climb.

The whole side is actually completed, except for the facia. I haven't been able to get by Home Depot to get the 16' boards yet.