Dat da DAAAH!

(That's a trumpet fanfare, in case that's not obvious.)

For the last screw on the corner trim pieces

was driven home tonight:

We put up the last two this evening. On the last one--our very last piece, that is--we made our first mistake in measuring/cutting that really cost us. (We made one earlier, but managed to reuse the piece elsewhere.) We only had four corner trim pieces, and there are exactly four corners, so no extras. Although we couldn't cut the piece again to make it longer (har har), we recovered and I will be surprised if you will be able to tell. (And there's no prize for finding it, so don't bother looking for it and pointing it out when you're here.)

The shop is looking very trim now and I give you a few views:

(Looks imposing from this angle, doesn't it?!)

And don't we look happy about it:

Siding on Wednesday (That can't be right, can it?)

No, it's not the weekend, but Troy and I found ourselves doing siding anyway. (Apparently that is possible.)

I tried to keep my mind open to the possibility all day because, even though he hadn't said anything, I knew Troy would be interested in tackling it. But by the time he got home I was TIIIII-yeerd! Tired from mowing mostly. (Three hours between last night and today with a push mower in case you want to compare to your own endurance.) My legs would hardly hold me and my toolbelt up. Of course, wearing my 5" platform shoes yesterday didn't help either. (Now there's a workout for your calves.)

But being the good, faithful, and ever-helpful wife, I took a deep breath and suited up for siding. Before we started, the shop still looked like this:

You can see why we've been frustrated to not be able to tackle these last two little pieces!!

An hour or two later we had this:

That's a lot of good looking red!! But hold off on the party because we quit before doing the corner pieces. One last little bit to do.

Feels good, though, I must say. What also feels good is sitting in bed (which is what I'm doing now) eating strawberries I picked this afternoon.

Lookie Here!

Well what is this?!! It just might be a completed north wall. All the north siding is up. The wall is done. Can I get a loud, "Woo hoo!"?

Not only that, we got a start on the east wall:

Not to repeat myself ad nauseum, but that would be the last wall. The east wall is the final wall. I just can't say that enough. We are on the last side.

We actually had to start the east side before finishing the north wall because we ran into some territorial wasps. I fared well on the ground, but Troy was in the danger zone up on the ladder. He sprayed wasp killer and then we had to clear out for a while. (We might not be wasps, but it's still pretty nasty stuff to breathe.) So we started the east wall before going back and finishing the last of the north wall.

I made Troy use the partial sheet we had leftover to finish the wall instead of cutting up a perfectly good piece. So now we have one extra; it'll be handy in case one gets wrecked, I guess. (I don't know, but it seems a shame to "waste" it.)

Then, since I hadn't quite fallen over in the heat and humidity I pushed Troy do a corner trim piece to prove to me that it really would only take about 10 minutes per corner.

Here you can make out the white trim on the south west corner. I'm not sure it adds much, actually, for looks but it's a lot better for water impermeability, which I guess is the key.

So, one more workday (hopefully in the coming long weekend) and I think we will be done with this. And then I can stop mounting siding, and you won't have to hear any more about it!! Think of that.

How to Distract Yourself from Missing Football

Yes, I'm really missing my Sundays spent watching football. I miss the football. I miss the 1:00 game. I miss the 4:00 game. And I really miss the 8:00 Sunday Night Football game. (I even miss Madden even though he's not calling the games any more--my memory hasn't latched onto that yet.)

But Troy helps me work through it by distracting me and keeping me busy with siding. Yes, we were at it again.

Having gotten past the window last week, it was a straight run for the northeast corner. I estimated we had 12 sheets to go so we set a goal of doing at least six today. That way we'd be half way (obviously) and could be pretty sure of being able to finish next time.

The only thing slowing us down was working around the hill from the cistern. I don't know if you can see it very well in this picture but there is a ring of rocks that come within 12 to 14 inches of the shop:

(The orange line approximates the lower edge of the cistern; the yellow line, the top.) If you can believe it, Troy and Isaac completely cleared off the cistern two summers ago. The sumacs have come back like gangbusters; some of the trees are as thick as Troy's arm already!

While impeded upon by the cistern, we had to work with a smaller ladder and that meant I couldn't work under Troy. But we figured it out and progress continued...and continued...

and we got eight done!! (If you don't think that's worth bold type and two exclamation points, then you don't have enough vested in getting this stop done!) And we got them done very quickly; we were done by five. I believe we would have gotten even more up but we ran out of flashing:

Troy says that is now at the top of his list. (But the first thing he did when we were done was run out to the garden, so I think there's a lot of room at the "top" of his list.)

And what does the north wall look like now? We have made enough progress I can finally take a picture from the east side:

That looks so good, let's see another shot:

Unless we run into big trouble, two more work days just might do it for the siding! Now that will be worth bold, exclamation points and italics! (And might even be more rewarding than watching a Manning-Clark touchdown.)

Siding on a Sunny Sunday

The weather conspired to be sunny and calm on a day when Troy and I were both home, and boy, did we take advantage!

The north wall already had five pieces on it. We quickly slammed up four more and that took us to the window--the only "obstacle" on this wall.

Troy hadn't put on the J-trim so we worked on that:

The last window had some issues (something like the two side pieces being an inch different in length, as I vaguely recall) so we measured twice and got through this one without any hangups.

All trimmed out

I was relieved that the siding worked out as we anticipated (we had to make a decision about using full pieces, or starting with the half piece left over from the south side) so that a seam fell across the middle of the window. We just had to cut a rectangle out of two pieces of siding and slide them into place. So we measured, cut, and scooted the first piece in from the right:

Then measured and scooted the left side in from the other direction. Troy had to show off his strength and muscle to get it in position as the interlocking ridges couldn't easily slide over each other while constrained by the J-trim. Anyway, if you don't get the details, suffice it to say he proved himself a man and got it into place. (Yeah, Troy!)

Not willing to stop at the window we put up one more sheet. We made sure to check if we were level so that things would be ready to go next time, and we were right on. Gotta love that.

Here's a nice angle making it look like we're almost done. Not quite, but with 12 sheets up, we are past half the distance of this wall (36 of 70 feet), and certainly past half the work since the window is done.

Yeah, us!

Sun and Siding

They talked of rain today and I worried we wouldn't be able to put up more siding. (Ok, really I was kind of hoping for an excuse to knit, but I'm not sure I really have to admit that!)

In any case, it was nice and the radar was clear by the time we got home at 2:00, so we set to work. First thing was to measure and organize what we had. We moved all the 12 foot pieces to the shop so we could work on the north wall whenever we wanted, and then laid out all the long pieces in the yard.

Fortunately it was all pretty straight forward and we were reassured that we have the right pieces and they will cover the walls.

Then it was time to start putting the sheets up. It was measure, cut, carry, raise, screw and repeat. Instead of scaffolding (which wouldn't be nearly tall enough) we worked with a ladder--in fact, two ladders.
Troy took care of the top from the big ladder, and I used the little ladder to work underneath him.

For all our work, we only got four pieces up--one short of half way. :-(
Yes, it would have psychologically been nice to get half way, but I think if you include all the organizing time, we are well over half way done the work for the west wall. (That's what I'll tell myself anyway.)

Things went very smoothly with the large pieces. Troy said he was originally going to do this wall with two pieces, thinking they would be more manageable for two little amateurs like us. The guy who sold him the siding convinced him to go with single long pieces instead, and he's happy he took the advice.

We then cleaned up all the siding off of the lawn and stacked them in the garage again. But now they're in the exact order that we'll need them. Nice, right?

Easter Siding

Easter is being celebrated at Maple Leaf Gardens. Tulips, bunnies and felted eggs abound. We had a wonderful church service this morning; a bit of a work day as Troy was on sound and I had to do the PowerPoint but it's hard not to have a good time with full organ, a good orchestra and "Alleluia"s all over the place.

But with no other obligations and good weather beaming down on us, Troy and I decided to tackle the siding again this afternoon.

Last time I mentioned the siding we had stopped just short of finishing the south wall. We picked it back up again on the 18th, the week that Isaac was here and Troy took a couple days off. So on my day off, Troy and I did some siding as Isaac was splitting more wood.

We did put up the last piece of the south wall:
Doesn't it look so impressive now that it is done?!

We moved onto the north wall then because there were more 12-foot sheets on top of the pile. We figured we'd at least put them up and then go from there. (In case you haven't figured this out, we don't exactly work off a strict plan.)

Of course, the north side is not nearly as accessible. Troy had already backfilled it with dirt and leveled it out, but we really didn't think we were going to be able to get the scaffolding back there. Giving it another look, we realized there was enough room, if we could just get it back there.

So Troy gave me a break while he got the tractor out and knocked out a few hillocks that were blocking us on the northwest corner. This did the trick. We got the scaffolding back there with no more trouble.

Meanwhile, I was not just sitting on the couch...I decided to see if there were any issues with starting the north wall using the half piece of siding we cut off when finishing the south wall. The only thing I had to take into account was the one window on the north wall. After some figuring and having Troy double check things, we figured out that using that partial sheet would make the window fall in the very middle of a piece of siding. Well, that won't work! So we put the half sheet aside and started with a full sheet.

After only a couple sheets, I got too hungry to continue and we all packed it in and headed to the burger bar down the road. (mmm)

The north wall has been waiting for us ever since. Today Troy and I were roaring along until we ran out of 12-foot sheets. So the north wall is done this far:

We started to evaluate what was next in the pile: short ones for the east wall. We set out to measure for the first piece, but Troy noticed the flashing wasn't done yet! Ok, so we'll do the west wall. We put aside the short pieces and get to the really long ones.

West wall and Isaac & Troy's great landscaping

Troy gets the ladder out, climbs up and actually measures for the first one. As we're gathering equipment to cut the sheet to shape, the ladder is blown down. We stop and consider. The wind is pretty strong and gusty. The sheets are up to 18 feet long. Troy makes the call: no more siding today. (And as I am now writing this, raindrops are making splash marks on the window as big as my fist!)

So we are waiting for a calmer day. The first thing to do will be to lay out all the siding we have left and sort it by size. This is a case where it would be good to have a plan.

In other news, Troy has started wiring the shop. He had to flip the breaker box over to make the wiring simpler and more elegant and has supplied the biodiesel station with some outlets. It's definitely a start!

Happy Easter to you all. Hope you are rejoicing in the new life Christ bought for you!

Back to Work

Earlier this week Troy and I agreed this weekend would be a great time to resume the siding. (More specifically, I suggested it and offered him my time, and he didn't want to repeat a previous mistake and say no.) This weekend was so good because we had no other commitments and it was supposed to be sunny and in the 40s (F).

This morning I heard we had a 50% chance of rain in the afternoon...that put a damper on things! But the rain hadn't started by the time we got home from church so we decided to run out there and do what we could until the rain started. Our attitude was that if we couldn't work a full session, even a half hour or full hour would get us that much ahead.

An "early" start meant we were out there a little after 2:00. Wait, do I need to remind you of where we left off? We had got the south wall done up to the door last fall:

Before we started today

Hmm...I just looked back in the blog archives to refer to the last siding update, and it looks like I never did show you how far we got.* (Shame on me.) But this is how the shop has looked since December (?) or whenever we got taken over by the cold and snow. (We were lucky the scaffolding wasn't frozen in place when we tried to move it today.)

We recommenced today

Partway through today's work

and almost got done the south wall.

At the end of the day

I was very eager to put up one more piece, but Troy called an end to the day at 6:00 because he had other things to do.

We're adding the base pieces as we go, so Troy had to take some time today to work a corner fitting.
The weather, by the way, turned out perfect; it never did rain. It was warm enough to work in just a sweatshirt (even me!) and not too bright and sunny. I commented to Troy at some point just how perfect a day it was for working outside and that if it were sunny I would regret having to work, even if I was outside.

And you know? not 10 minutes later the sun came out. I felt like it was taunting me.
But you know I love the sun; I can't hold a grudge.

*ETA: I did update you on the shop; it just wasn't labeled properly. If you need proof, it's here.

Inside Parking, and How I Made My Honey Happy

Great news: We are currently parking inside the shop. The three vehicles are parked in a row. (Actually, I think the tractor is back there somewhere too.) We just have to think about who's leaving first in the morning and make sure they're first in line! With the recent cold weather, including a little ice and snow, I am very happy to not be scraping the windows.

Ever been on a ferry? Remember that first time? when you are directed into your line by a nice parking attendant and he waves you forward, and then more and then more. And you're thinking, "There's no way...I'm going to hit that car in front of me." But he just keeps waving you forward until you're inches from the car in front of you. (Because of course they have to pack them in to make as much money as possible and move as many cars as possible.) Remember that?

Well, that's kind of how this feels:

except I don't have a parking attendant waving me forward and telling me when to stop.

But so far so good...knock on wood.

And how did I make my honey happy? Today I managed to put in a second shift on the shop and we got the weather stripping put up around the big overhead door. Troy's been waiting to put that back up for a long time.

This afternoon between 3 and 6 we got the siding trim cut and put around the opening. And then this evening we went back out and got the weather stripping up. This is something better done on a "moderate" day so that the stripping is put up when it is neither too cold nor too hot. It can expand and contract with the temperature quite a bit.

We couldn't change the weather, so Troy put the stripping in the warm living room all day and then we brought it out one piece at a time to mount it. You do what you can. And I have to say, even though the weather wasn't "moderate," it wasn't half bad being out there. If it's not windy and not raining, the temperature can get pretty cold before it really bothers you.

The long hours of darkness, however, have really cut into my ability to take pictures of anything we do. It's frustrating that every time I think to take a picture, it's already dark out!

Meanwhile I'll leave you with the latest pic I have of our progress on the siding:

Moving Mud

It's been a wet month, but Troy has managed to make progress on back filling dirt around the shop. The south and east sides are pretty much done.

A couple days ago, Troy got the bulk of the work on the north side done. It's tight back there and it was a lot of shovel and wheelbarrow work. We're going to have to get back there soon (I presume soon) for siding, though, so it had to be done.

He has dirt in place on the west side, but it still needs the hand work.
Apparently I can get to that any time I'm bored at home, or if I felt I needed a workout. So far, I've kept myself busy with other things. Strange.

Siding Commences

That's starting to look like a building, isn't it?!

Yes, we have started putting up siding. I should backdate this post because we actually started a good week and a half ago. Got most of what you see up on the wall, and then the Friday of Thanksgiving weekend--working between hosting family and working--we put up the one [very tricky] piece around the window.

It's been going well and we are learning how to do yet another job together. They say you should be learning all your life, right? If you're ever looking for new ways to learn, just try doing a job with someone else. One thing you'll definitely learn is that there are at least a hundred ways of doing almost anything.
If the rain holds off, we'll try to put in another couple hours tonight. (Well, I say, "If the rain holds off..." Troy might be counting on working in the rain. He's much tougher than I am in that way.)

I must remember, however, much colder weather is coming...

Flashing (The Kind You Do With Your Clothes On)

Earlier this week I offered to help Troy with the flashing on Sunday. He was a little confused since it wasn't really a two-person job and he hadn't asked me to help. When I explained that I was just offering some assistance to make the job go faster, he got right on board.

So today while he was finishing up the cement board on one of the fiddly corners by the garage door

(northeast corner finished)

I was set up on the sheet metal break. After appropriate training, I proceeded on my own. And here, if I show you how it goes, then you can just fly through your training should you ever be called to run your own sheet metal break.

We start with a roll of veeeeerrrry thin aluminum.

(The hammer is just keeping it from rolling off the work surface, essentially just a fancy paperweight.)

Step 1: Mark the length. We're using a square purely to keep things neat. It doesn't really make it function better, but we live in a world that likes straight lines at 90 degree angles. So we try to comply.

(The screw is the marking pen. The aluminum is so soft you can easily mark it with the point.)

Step 2: Cut the strip to length. Use an old pair of scissors.

Step 3: Lay the strip onto the sheet metal break.

Step 4: Position the clamp bar at the fold line:

It's a little hard to see the bar in that pic, so here's a better view:

It's the thin pointed edge that you want to have right on the fold line.

Step 5: Clamp the bar and aluminum sheet exactly in place. (Not only does the world like straight and 90^, it also likes even and level. Again, we try to comply.)

Step 6: Placing a hand on each black handle, rotate the break up to fold the aluminum.
There's a mark on the right (circled in red) that tells you where to stop. Bring the break back down, then up to the mark, then down, then up again, and down. Yes three times.

Remove the clamps and bar, and you now have a piece of flashing instead of just a strip of aluminum:

And repeat...and repeat...and repeat...until you have a nice stack like this

and have gone through the last two rolls of aluminum and Troy tells you that that is probably just enough.

Here's a little shot of it installed:
If you can make out what all the pieces are, you can see that the flashing starts on the wall and then covers the joint with the cement board (which is over the foam as you may recall). The siding will, of course, cover the top of the flashing and the water will stay out of places it does not belong.

After Troy finished with the cement board, he got busy with the flashing I made:
This is the south wall when it was partially finished. By the time we ate supper, Troy had finished the south and west walls. By the time I got around to loading these pictures and writing this, he had almost all of it done. Yeah for Troy!

All that needs to be done yet is one final screw on the bottom of every joint between the separate pieces of flashing. Troy doesn't have the right screws on hand (gasketed siding screws, I believe he said) but we'll get to that another day.

And that was our day of flashing. No trench coat needed.