Sunrise Over Garden Valley

Sunrise Over Garden Valley
The deer watch an early morning sunrise above Garden Valley

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Windows/Siding

A week of big changes...with siding going up and most of the windows installed, a lot of progress has been made. The siding is very technical. Jeff had to keep the siding in mind when doing the framing. Nail patterns have to be just right so we pass inspection and don't have nails showing when the cedar is put into place. It's all labor intensive but soooo worth it when it's complete.

Devin joined us again this week. His help has been priceless. He is one of the hardest working people I've ever met. Kendra and I think the world of him, and love having him around.

Monday - May 16, 2011

Started the morning staining the rough sawn mahogany plywood boards using Sherwin Williams exterior semi-transparent cider mill stain. A very monotonous, but necessary job. It's much easier to stain these before they are hung into place, but it takes hours, and each board needs two coats.

Received our window delivery. It was very exciting to see the truck pull up and even more gratifying to see 38 windows and 2 sliding glass doors being pulled from the truck (the other four will be delivered next week - they were a custom size with angles so we couldn't give them the measurements until after the roofing was done, so we knew the exact size). For the garage we bought Empire Pacific Windows. Since then they were bought out by Cascade Window. The reason we went with them is because they offer a painted vinyl window (I'm just thankful Cascade Window kept that as an option). They are the only ones I know that are offering this - and they have a good warranty on them. I didn't want to spend the time and money on a stained house and have white vinyl windows ruining the look. Yes, the painted windows cost extra, but they are worth every penny! We ordered the windows through Carlson Hardware and Cascade Window sent a rep to the house to get the dimensions and other specifications. Great customer service!

Toward the end of the day Green Guard Waterproof House Wrap was put on the lower level of the house.



Let me take a minute to say something about Sherwin Williams...Jeff has been using them for years, but I had never bought anything from them until we built the garage. Just like the garage, we are doing a board and batten siding on the house. As previously mentioned, the boards are mahogany and the bats are cedar. We have to use two different colors of stain because of the two different species of wood. We picked out the cider mill color for the boards and had to come up with a custom color for the cedar bats. The first custom color we took home was awful. When it dried it turned out very gray. It looked horrible. Unfortunately, we had bought fifteen gallons of this atrocious color, which is not cheap. Knowing we couldn't use it, I took it back fully expecting to pay for another fifteen gallons of a better matched color. To my surprise Sherwin Williams traded us straight across for the color we ended up using. They simply said "we want our product to look good and our customers need to be satisfied". Saved us money and they gained a loyal customer.

So, back to present time, we just bought over one hundred gallons of stain from them and will be buying more in the next couple weeks. We will also be buying the interior paint from them when the time comes.


Tuesday - May 17, 2011

Stained more siding, put on more house wrap, and intalled some flashing & strapping. Started putting in the windows.


Wednesday - May 18, 2011

Finished staining the boards, installed more flashing, and began putting up siding. The siding will take several days to put up because, with all the windows and corners, almost every piece has to be cut.


Thursday - May 19, 2011

Completed putting up all the house wrap. Installed all the windows but the four they are delivering next week. Put up a little more flashing and finished all the required strapping. Continued putting up siding.






Monday - May 30, 2011

That's right, Jeff is working on Memorial Day. What a workaholic. I guess after a week of bear hunting, he couldn't wait to get back to work. Devin won't be joining us. He found a job at Oregon State University (The University of Oregon must not have been hiring, so he had to settle for second best). Although we will miss his hard work, we are very happy for him and wish him well in his new job. They are lucky to have him.

Finished hanging the siding and flashing on the lower floor. Stained batten siding - not the funnest part of the job, but necessary. We are using various sizes of cedar. As mentioned previously, we are using a custom stain from Sherwin Williams for the first coat. We will use Cider Mill, the same color we used on the boards, for the second coat.


Tuesday - May 31, 2011

Started hanging the siding/flashing on the upper floor. Applied more stain on the batten siding.


Wednesday - June 1, 2011

Same as yesterday. Hung siding/flashing on the upper floor and applied more stain on the batten siding.


Thursday - June 2, 2011

Finished hanging the board siding/flashing. Stained more cedar bats.

The Roseburg Roofing & Supply Company installed the weatherproof flooring on the deck outside the master bedroom. We used material normally used on a flat roof since the deck is exposed to the weather an sits above the lower floor. Later, we will install a floating deck over the weatherproof material

Brenda brought down the last four windows. The window dimensions were slightly off, so Jeff had to do some custom fabricating on the rough openings. It took a little time, but the windows are in and it turned out great. I think most builders would have thrown a fit, but Jeff just fixed the problem and moved on. This is one of the biggest reasons he's so great to work with...he deals with problems really well. His low stress level keeps the homeowners stress level low as well.


Friday - June 3, 2011

Finished staining all the cedar bats. Started putting up Facia.


For the next several days we will probably be roofing in the morning and putting up siding in the afternoon, so I will be working on two posts at the same time, Siding & Roofing, so make sure to check on both of those posts for updates.

View of the house coming up the driveway

View of the house from the front




Monday - June 6, 2011

Applied caulking around windows and began putting on window trim and cedar bats.


Tuesday - June 7, 2011

Continued caulking around windows, putting on window trim, and cedar bats.

The cascade window rep came out today to fix some minor problems and see if he could modify our kitched screen so that it can open.

Washington Federal came out for our montly inspection. We must be doing well, they keep giving us money.


Wednesday - June 8, 2011

Finished caulking windows and putting up window trim. Started putting up soffits. Much more time consuming than I ever imagined, but there are a lot of careful measurements and cuts. Looks great though!


Thursday - June 9, 2011

Removed all the temporary bracing. Did some touchups on the exterior stain. Started staining the columns.


Friday - June 10, 2011

Bunnell's Overhead Doors is coming out to install the gutters. Figured we would have them come out while we still had the lift, they will come back out to do the rest of the gutters when we get the porches/patio done.


Monday - June 13, 2011

Continued putting up cedar bats.


Tuesday - June 14, 2011

Finished putting up cedar bats. Mostly done with siding. The rest will be done when we complete the porches/patio. Exterior turned out great. Next up, Plumbing!




1 comment:

Herb Koguchi said...

Haha, wow, the progression of pics from start to finish keep getting better and better. Nice place, and it's not even done yet! You guys put quite a lot of thought for the siding and it definitely shows! Well, good luck with the plumbing then!