Bring on the Winter!

As I write, the last siding boards are going up on the back of the house. By the end of the day, the siding on the additions will FINALLY be complete. We were hoping to have it done by Thanksgiving, but once we accounted for all the details, the days lost to bad weather, and Ryan's time spent away from the house, the goal became to get it done before Christmas. We decided on the style together, reverse board and batton. It's much more common to see the battons (thinner pieces of wood) on the outside and the boards closest to the structure, but for a more modern stream-lined look we decided to put the battons under the boards. I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it on the blog, but our original thought had been cement-board siding. It's just what it sounds like, siding made of cement, and it pretty much lasts forever with little maintenance. Well, you know how it goes, the project progresses and the budget shrinks. It just seemed like too much of a stretch to go with the cement-board, so we decided on locally grown, sustainably cut hemlock. We used it for both the siding and soffits. The siding will be stained green and we've already stained the soffits a charcoal color.

This is one aspect of the house work that I grossly underestimated. I never imagined how much time, energy, and precision the siding would take to put up. Not to mention that it gets tougher as the weather gets colder and you add snow and ice into the mix. We tackled the large back addition first, battoning the entire structure and trimming the windows. Ryan had the forethought to realize that stainging everything before we put it up would take too long, so we decided to only stain what we absolutely had to. He figured we could stain at the end of the project or wait until the spring if we had to. Looks like we're waiting until spring:) So, on the battons, the ends needed to be stained to insure that they don't soak up any moisture over the winter. We also stained the strips for around the windows, so that we wouldn't have to stain them once they were on the house and risk getting stain all over the window frames. Next, the siding started to go up on that same section along with he soffit. We took on once side at a time from the bottom up. The pieces of soffit were easy to stain and put up and we did the same thing with the boards as the battons, staining the ends and the backs in order to prevent any moisture damage before we are able to stain them completely. The soffitting required a router, which I have to say I was able to master, in order to cut the pieces in a tongue and groove fashion, so they would fit together and be weather tight against on the passive solar overhangs. The siding had to be measured, cut, and then pieced together up on the walls with levels. In going for a sleeker, more modern look, we decided not to do any more than basic trim around the windows and leave the surface of the walls almost flat. In order to achieve this, the boards that fell over windows had to be put up, measured and then brought back down to have the cut-outs made.

The last part of the back addition to be finished was the second floor deck that opens out of the master bedroom. Ryan had a string of bad weather days and kept having to put-off finishing that section, because the waterproofer that needed to go on before the deck went down required quite a bit of dry weather. After loosing one coat to a surprise snowfall, we finally got a good coat down and were able to put down the decking, the same Cross Timbers material as we used on the backyard deck. Once that was done the battons, soffit and siding went up around the deck. We finished off that section of the house with three back deck lights, one above each exterior door into the house off the deck, one on the upstairs deck, and a flood-light over the backyard for Maci's nighttime outings.

It wasn't until just last week that we started on the smaller back/side addition. I was dreading it, but it really is considerably smaller and we are considerably better at what we're doing and so it's gone much more quickly and smoothly. We've braved some frigid days, but with the help of friend Dave Lawrence, father of Matt Lawrence whose house Ryan is working on, the job is within a few hours of completion. Dave has not been our only helper on the siding. Our friend Katie lent a hand in some staining and another Dave, a friend of Ryan's from high school stopped by for two 3-day visits and put in quite a bit of work for us. It was great to see him (as well as his engineering degree:) Since the stain does not apply as well below freezing, we are probably going to wait until the spring to do the full application. However, for now, our neighbors don't have to look at house-wrap all winter long and we can be confident that the house is ready for the winter.

Although the siding has been the largest project of the last few months, the weather has caused us to take on some others when we can't be outside. We have slowly been priming more and more of the house. We are down to just the front two bedrooms and the upstairs hallway yet to be done. When we had all the drywall done back in August, we didn't have the time or the money to have the last coat of mud and taping or the sanding done in the those rooms or the hallway, so we've got a drywaller at the house this week, not the same group as before, but one they recommend and he's doing a great job finishing things up for us. I'm hoping to get some primer up in all or most of those areas by Saturday, since we are headed out to visit friends and relatives for Christmas after that. We're having some friends from out of town for New Year's Eve and I'm hoping to upgrade their living quarters as much as possible before they arrive! We tested the waters on entertaining in the house just a few weeks back. Of course we have had friends over, but we branched out a little and decided to be of the host houses for a progressive holiday party that our block had. For those of you unfamiliar with the progressive concept, it refers to migrating from house to house for different food and drink throughout the evening. So, we brewed up some mulled apple-cider and even made homemade donuts. Turns out that most the neighborhood couldn't wait to check out the inside of the house they had been watching from the outside, so no one seemed to mind the dusty, informal setting.

We have been living without any interior doors up to this point, including the bathroom, but we decided to get some up for the overnight guests coming for New Year's. We have had the old doors from the house back for a while after they were stripped. They still need to be stained, but Ryan put some of them up temporarily and they look great!

So, as I said, we are taking a much needed holiday break. Just after the new year, I am off on a training trip with the team, which essentially kicks off the rowing season for me. Things start to get busier through January and February and then once March hits, my free-time and weekend are virtually non-existant through June. What I'm saying here is that this will be mostly Ryan's show for quite some time now. We have some exciting projects coming up. Ryan is hoping to put in a chunk of time, up to a month, on our house. It's mentally tough to switch back and forth from different projects, but you really loose time when you have to move all your tools every few days. So, a solid block of tim at our house, should be very productive. Mike, Ryan's dad, will likely come down and help lay and finish down the hardwood floors that will cover most of the first floor. Those are now back from the guy who milled them down for us after we salvaged them from the house. Since the entire temporary kitchen has to come out for this to happen, we will be putting in the kitchen as soon as the floors are down. We are going with an IKEA kitchen. That might surpise some people, but the modern look and quality for the money just can't be beat and you'd be surprised once you look into it, how much customization can be done. We are really excited about the kitchen and hope to have it in by mid February? We will still have plywood countertops for a while, as we aren't going with IKEA countertops, we're having concrete tops custom made. On the horizon after the floors and the kitchen are the stairs, which I know some of our friends and neighbors will be happy to know. Our neighbor Bonnie who we see every day hasn't been upstairs since we bought the place:)

Still figuring out a better way to do pictures. I'm not sure if people were able to get onto Snapfish to view the ones with the last post, but i'm going to continue posting there until I figure something better out. In order to access the pictures you have to end the email address: zellerhouse@yahoo.com and the password zeller. Just go to www.Snapfish.com and enter that email address and password. The trick is to check out "Friends Albums" in the menu on the left when you login. You'll then be able to view all the photos of the house so far divided into 2006 and 2007. Most recent are obviously under 2007.

Happy Holidays to all, check back in 2008 when the Zeller House project enters its third calendar year!