Siding Fixes

The scraped house was looking pretty rough!  The scraping continued on Saturday of Labor Day weekend, and on Monday we had a carpenter here to fix some boards that were cracked, sliding down, etc.  He was here for 4 hours and got the house done, and a little work done on the garage.

The white boards (on the old part of the house) are the ones that needed to be replaced...

6 boards on the driveway side

The road side of the house needed some more boards replaced because of the patch that we needed where the old kitchen stove was vented.  You can see the block of three boards next to the window below... and then there were four more boards in addition to that.

Happily, the front of the house didn't need ANY boards replaced, nor did any of the "old" part of the back of the house.

The garage needed four small boards on the front, where we installed the light fixtures (come to think of it, I don't think that I ever posted that the electrician finished that up!  Will have to fill that in later!)

The back of this garage needs a lot more work because of the amount of sun that it gets.  I think he said about 6 boards along the bottom will need replacement, plus the back window frames need additional work.  He was going to get additional supplies from the local lumberyard.

We're really pleased with the work this carpenter has done so far!  He showed up promptly at 8:00, as he said he would, and he got all of the above work done by Noon.  We'll be keeping his number handy for future projects! 

Exterior siding- 75%

They are approximately 75% done with the siding on the exterior of the house.

He also swapped out the square vent for the triangle in the peak of the house.  

It looks much better!

Unfortunately, he didn't order enough clapboards and now we have to wait for more to arrive.

Exterior siding

Here's where we left off with the exterior:

I'm happy to report that we've had more progress out here!

It's Hardy Board clapboards- a manufactured cement board that should hold up better than wood.

It's pre-primed, and we're in the process of lining up the painter.  We hope to get it done before the weather turns too cold!

Tree House- Phase 3

We're keeping things moving with the tree house...we left off with half of the siding completed...

Mike finished up the siding, and then turned his attention to building a nice sturdy ladder.

He buried the bottom support pieces to keep everything in place:

It's also attached to the tree house at the top of the ladder, so no chance of it tipping. The end of the ladder extends into the "room" a bit, which gives a nice handle for getting your balance coming in or  preparing to go down the ladder.

Next up was getting some structure in place for the roof:

 The weird angles made it a little tricky, but I think this will look great once the plywood & shingles are up. 

(Right now we have the blue tarp over it to protect the wood from rain)

I'm so impressed with how Mike's put this together. 

Just a few more steps to go before it's ready for the boys to take over!

Related Posts:

Phase 1: Building the platform

Phase 2: Framing the sides & putting up siding

Siding turned into Signs

Back when we replaced the siding on the goat barn, I had Mike store some of the old barn siding.
I told him I had big plans for it (he lovingly rolled his eyes and left me a pile of it in the workshop!)

Sorry- name has been blocked :o)

The first sign I created was to put on the front of the goat barn, which is also home to the chicken coop.
I thought it would be cute, and I love alliteration!




I bought a pack of stencils and used some old white paint that I had left over from the driveway sign.  The red was the original barn siding color.  It had faded into almost a pink, but had just the right amount of chippy-ness for a rustic farmyard feel. Once the white lettering was dry, I used a clear spray paint sealer (also left over from the driveway sign).  As I hoped, the clear coat made the red more vibrant, instead of  faded pink.

When I held it up to the barn, if felt lost with the red-on-red.  So Mike pulled a piece of the old barn door out of the scrap pile to use as a background.  I painted it white for contrast.

While I was thinking of the chickens, I made a couple of signs for when we have eggs to sell.

Mike is going to attach them to a metal post that we can stick into the ground at the end of the driveway on days that we have eggs available (though that probably won't be until around September).

Coop Scoop #3

The siding is up!

And just to remind you where we started:

Better, right?

There's still some trim work to finish up...

I love the old clapboard siding, however, this was the only side of the barn that had it.  So it's kind of nice to have the whole thing matching (once it's painted!)

At first we were hoping the old boards that were in good shape could be saved for repairs on the bigger barn, but unfortunately they're a different size. 

But I am going to find some good uses for them- some crafty projects are brewing... Pinterest awaits! 

(Mike- don't roll your eyes!)

:o)

So Checking back in on this To Do list:

-Fix rotting sill and chicken entrance- DONE!

-Replace some insulation- DONE!
-Replace some siding- DONE! 

-Paint new siding and anywhere else that needs it
-Replace the fencing
-Add a fenced top to the "Chicken yard"

-Scrub down the inside
-ADDED- Make (?) door for goats & chickens

Slow & Steady!

Coop Scoop #2

We started the repairs to the chicken coop!

First thing we did was removing the old fencing around the chicken yard, so we'd have easier access to get the tools close to the barn.

Next up was removing the siding and replacing the rotten sill.


Here is the chicken door- you can see the rotten sill there too.

 



Here is a "before shot" from the inside.
I'm sure lots of little critters, and probably a small fox could get through those holes!

The previous owner said a fox had gotten the last chickens that she had... yikes!

So Mike patiently got to work, removing the siding, the insulation, and cutting the necessary pieces.

See those sheets of siding leaning against the back of the barn? 

We'll share a story about those in a few minutes...

First back to the barn...

The bottoms of the studs were also rotting, so he fixed those too.

That board in front of the new wood was the old rotten sill!  Pretty bad!

Then it started getting dark... so Mike packed it in for the day.

Here's the only bump we've hit so far...

We were hoping this barn work was going to be done on the cheap- having the tools, and lots of scrap wood already.  The biggest thing we needed to buy were the sheets of new siding. 

Mike went to the store, purchased the wood, and used bungee cords to strap them down to the top of our crossover (aka: my car!).  About two miles from home, one of the bungees snapped, and the wood slid forward over the windshield. 

Thank God no one else was on the road, and the only damage done was a big crack in the windshield.

A father & son were outside a house nearby and helped Mike re-secure everything.

And that, my friends, is how 4 sheets of siding end up costing an extra $250!

What can you do?

Anyway, the siding got up the next day... I just have to snap some new photos, so more to come!

Barn #2

It's time for another Barn Spotlight! 

All because we started to do a little bit of work on this one:

I've been researching the history of the house, and in one of the old permit applications it lists this barn as the "Chicken House".  Hmmm... now those screened windows, low hanging light bulb & the water spigot up the second floor make some sense!

I'll share pictures of the second floor, but only if you excuse the mess!  ;o)

You can see the screened windows on the left. 
All ripped and needing to be replaced!

That pipe thing on the right of the photo is the water spigot.
There's a hole in the floor under that pile of wood...
apparently to shovel chicken poop down to the 1st floor.  (Yuk!)



Stairwell, looking down from second floor. 
There's a ladder up to the third floor "attic"

Unfortunately, this one is in much worse shape than the goat barn!

First thing we had to do was remove the tangled mess of vines that were climbing up the right side, since they were pulling the siding away from the structure! (See first photo)

Luckily the boards were still in good shape, they just needed to be rehung.

Before- from the inside

Before



After



After- from the inside

To Do List: (ugh- some big ticket items!)
-Remove vines and brush on right side of barn.
-Re-hang the barn siding.
-The roof.  Needs to be replaced BADLY!  Mike & my brother plan to tackle this in the spring.
-Do something about the ugly pull down garage door.  It's missing some panels & glass.  I'd love to put a barn-style door back on there, but for now may just fix up the existing door.
-Replace screens on second floor with windows.  We hope to re-use the windows from our enclosed back porch, which will be torn down for the kitchen extension.
-Replace first floor window on side of barn.
-Fix spots where there's rotten wood (probably due to rain coming in from that broken window)
-Replace door on side of barn, again- perhaps we'll re-use our current back door after the kitchen renovation?
-Reconnect the electric.  It was obviously running at one time, but was disconnected at some point. 
-Paint or stain- pretty obviously needs a good scraping & painting.

Once all of that is done, we'll get to figure out how we'll use the barn besides just storage (of mostly junk we're afraid to throw out because we'll likely need it as we go through the house restoration... extra wood, trim moulding, drainage rocks, etc).  Then we'll expand the to-do list!

Here's a photo of the barn from the town's files, taken in the mid-1980's:



Up on a Roof Top...

Two recent developments to discuss in this photo:

This past week, we addressed some of those "not-so-noticeable, but very-badly-needed" items. 
By the way, I hate these!  I'd much rather spend money on things that can be seen, but I guess that's the price of home ownership!

The first is the chimney. 
We had to get a new flue liner & a cap for the furnace chimney.  During bad weather, rain was pouring down it & flooding the new boiler- definitely NOT a good thing. 
We also wanted to keep out any critters (the fireplace chimney already has a cap- thankfully!) 
It's hard to see, but it's the chimney on the left.  At least we can check that off the list!

Second item is the fascia board.
During the house inspection, a hole was found above the second window from the right (2nd floor, above the gutter) that went straight from the attic through to the outside, so we knew this needed to be patched. 
By the time we moved in (April) we had a birds nest, and from the sound of it, little baby birds. 

Yeah- I'll now admit I was afraid to go into that side of the attic all summer!

Once the birds flew the coop attic, we boarded up the hole.  In the process, Mike had to remove some of the blown in insulation from the floor of the attic.

Can you guess what he found (besides the birds' nest)?

Take a look...

When Mike pulled up the first one, he thought, "Oh man, there must have been a raccoon or something up here!"  But there are several HUNDRED corn cobs.  We showed my mom (she's a historian) and she confirmed that long ago they used it for insulation!

Now I'm off to research the R-value of corn cob insulation... aka- do we need to remove it (fire hazard?), or better to just leave it (since we have additional insulation on top)?