Exterior Siding On The Shop

The exterior paper was hung just in time before the rain started.  It can withstand the weather for 6 months.

During the summer, I took several vacation days to hang siding on the shop and the house.
I must say, I'm pretty good at hanging exterior siding.  There are a couple great tools that make it pretty fool proof once you learn how to use them.  We're using Hardi Board, which is a cement product, and it already has a harvest yellow primer.


The power shear is a must-have.  It has three blades--the center blade has the cutting action.  It zips through the cement as if it were paper and there is very little dust.  It removes about 1/8" of material which allows for the clearance needed between the sides of the board and the trim.  Measure twice...sometimes three times, the cut!

Start the installation at the bottom of the wall and work your way across the wall then up, making sure each board is level and aligned with the rest of the row.  The two Gator Clips slide under a board and are adjustable; all I had to do was lay the next board right on top and start nailing. This made it easy for me to hang the 12' boards by myself.

Fred was always a willing helper when it came to holding down the boards.

The east side of shop with sliding door:

 

The front of the shop:

 

Every seam had to be caulked to prevent water from getting behind the boards.  Definitely not my favorite thing to do!

This is the back of the shop.  The bottom half is now completely except for the shingles. I still have to do the siding around the eyebrow windows on the upper area.

Then I started hanging the shingles on the front of the shop under the two windows.  I thought that was going to be the easy part, but it turned out to be a hassle.  The shingled area is 5' wide and the shingles come in 4' lengths, but only two different patterns. They were not long enough to easily stagger the patterns and seams so I had to lay it out on plywood and put the pieces together like a puzzle.  We may switch to individual shingles for the house.  It will take longer to nail them up, but it will be easier to mix up the sizes to avoid overlapping seams.
 

 

The west side of the shop has two windows and a door on the bottom half, and a round window in the center of the top half.

 

We still have to put siding on the shop's dormer windows, but I don't want to work on the roof  and I certainly don't want Gerry up there.  It's pretty steep on the front side, and too close to the edge for comfort.  We may need to get different scaffolding to do the job.

 

 

Kitchen Window and Pocket Doors

There's lots to be done before the insulation and drywall can be installed.

The kitchen wall facing the great room has a window that will open to so Gerry can look into the backyard or watch the TV while doing dishes.

Gerry has finished the custom opening to include a gentle arch over the window.

 

He built the custom window frames and installed them on sliding tracks.  Each side of the window will slide back into the wall like a pocket door. 

The windows will be leaded glass but we haven't decided on what type of design to use. I think we'll know better once the kitchen cabinets and counter tops are installed.  No hurry, Gerry plans to build the windows himself, but he has many other projects to do first.

I requested 4 pockets doors: between the kitchen and dining room; the entry to the laundry room; the door on the master toilet room; and my closet.  These are all areas where a regular swinging door would take up valuable floor or wall space when open.

We bought kits to construct the door frames and pockets.

 

Even though the new house will be bigger, it doesn't seem to have as much wall space for hanging art work, etc.  I asked Gerry to fill in the spaces between the pocket door frames so we could use nails in those areas and not worry about breaking through the drywall and into the pocket doors.  It was easy to do and the door frame walls are new very sturdy.

Kitchen to dining room pocket door before and after:

 

Master Bathroom Mockup

I asked Gerry to mock-up the master bath so I could see the cabinets in the space.  It will be nice to have double sinks and our own drawers and medicine cabinets.

 

He built the platform for the spa tub.   I can't wait to use it!

 

The large window over the spa tub will eventually have a leaded glass window. We filled in the space between the studs on the left side wall, between the master bedroom and the spa tub, for stability and sound proofing.

The shower floor has been started.  Gerry's not going to hot mop it; he plans to use a new waterproofing product call the Schluter-Kerdi Shower System

Kitchen Mock-up

It's been many months since Gerry's accident.  You've probably noticed I haven't been updating this house remodel blog; but, I've been taking pictures along the way.  Now I'll attempt to piece them together so they make sense.

Gerry installed cardboard mock-ups of the kitchen cabinets and island so I could get a better feel for the layout, sizes, and space.

We hung upside down plastic coffee jars (red caps) to represent the placement of the pendant lights over the peninsulas.

 

 

 
This is the wall where the oven and pantry will be installed.

The wall at the back of this picture is the west side exterior wall.

 These two walls will become the peninsulas that will the separate the kitchen from the hallway.