Busy Busy... stain...siding...door... and so much more!

Originally posted Sunday, September 4, 2011 

Wow, I have been working my butt off... literally! I’ve lost 22 lbs since starting this project, and at this point I think it’s just melting off me. I’ve been out working on the house for the past 7 days straight while Chris is at work. Putting in about 11-13 hours of work in a day, so I’ve gotten a lot done! Just about every part of my body hurts, and my legs have so many bruises that I’ve stopped counting. But, I’m proud of what I’ve been able to do this past week!! 

Here is a little break down of everything:

Day Thirty Seven was a very misty morning, Chris had the day off, so we spent 12 hours staining and re-staining the siding of our house. The sun came out later in the day, so the cedar siding dried very nicely! We worked as a great team, Chris would apply the first coat set it on the plastic in the sun to dry and once dry, I would apply the second coat. This made it go much faster for us.

Day Thirty Eight was spent on my own, working on the window framing and some inside work. I knew it would be hours before Chris would be out to help, and I didn’t want to wait for him to show up to start working, so I went to it. I started framing the back wall, putting up the trim boards and cutting the window framing. On the windows, I made a 20 degree cut on the top of the trim, this will make it so the water flows away from the house.

 Day Thirty Nine I spent the whole day putting up siding on the back wall. It was a challenge to do this without an extra hand to help hold things in place while the other nails the siding to the wall... but I figured it out... Clamps to help you get going, really work well. I was able to get as far as the top window before having to call it a day. It was a lot of work, and I’m very happy with the results.

 Day Forty was a fun day! I was able to finish up the siding on the back of the house and build the box that will go in the front of the house to hold our Breaker Box and Solar Inverter. I must say, the top of the house siding was a challenge, all the little pieces, I was afraid of the siding cracking on me.

 Day Forty Two was work on the framing of the bottom windows and putting the first coat of stain on the front door. In the morning when I first got out to the build site, I was just planning on getting the front of the house set, but then I decided the frame the bottom windows out. I figured they needed to get done sooner or later, so might as well do them now. It was late in the day, so I was rushing to get the framing cut and stained before the sun went down, since the stain doesn’t dry fast enough once the sun goes down. I was able to get them all done, just in time for Chris to show up, after work, to help me stain the door. We picked up a little work light to help see inside the house while we work. The sunset is much earlier now, and we don’t want that to prevent us from getting work done.

 More and more staining... Originally our order for siding got messed up really bad, and we only got half of the siding delivered, so we got the rest in and it was back to staining... and I’m still not done, still have 24 more 16’ cedar siding to stain. Did that for a few hours and then decided to put up the first board on the bottom of the house. I couldn’t go any further then that, since I needed the door to be in for the next piece to fit. So, along came Chris and bam.... the door is in!