649 6th

sparks flew

The time had come, the unabomber siding on the back of the second floor rear had to go. The corrogated metal siding that had been lying in the front room for over a week had to be installed. The forecoast is for our first snow of the season. They're saying a couple of inches (I'll believe it when it see it). Regardless the season was closing in, and this was technically our last chance.

Galvanized metal siding seems to be the meme dour jour. I keep seeing it everywhere-- or perhaps I started noticing it more  once we decided to go that direction. There's a place up on 7th avenue accros from Greenwood Cemetary that we bid on about a year before we bought this place. Whomever bought it did quite the architecture number on it. It is covered in corrogated brushed metal installed horizonally. The borders around the windows and edges are all mitered aluminum. Quite the piece of craftsmanship I have to say. But, it does have a bit of "architects students first real project" about it-- down to painstakingly paintng the original dental work on the cornice a San Francisco muliplicity of colors.

Before cutting and putting up the actual siding we had to prep the back of the house. Clearing back some of the numerous coats of roofing product where our house joins our neighbors (row house remember). Then we cut and bent flashing for one side (the other side just got roofing goop out of a tube) and the bottom where the exterior wall joins the kitchen roof. Next we cut, squared and screwed in 1 5/8" galvanized channel to frame the edges and around the windows.

Then it was time for some metal cutting. We used a metal cutting blade on the circular saw, with a bit of shaping coming from a pair of tin snips. We laid the metal over a piece of plywood, snapped a chalk line on it and started cutting. It was loud (we wore earplugs of course), it sparked, and it smelled like hell. Since the front of the first floor is still a construction zone and it was cold outside, we did it inside. It was nice to come in and warm up, a stinky metal dust mess, but still nice to be warm. All of the sparks made it kinda hard to see the chalk line and the chalk line did'nt really stick to the the sheet metal. Other than that it was easy to cut a straight line where you wanted it. We prefabricated all of the necessary pieces to their specifed lengths and headed back out into the cold.

We wanted to avoid cutting out notches for the windows so our arrangement of whole sheets to fill vertical spaces between windows had a lot of overlap. Additionally there were these tiny 4" pieces that had to be installed under each window with a lap in the middle. Running a bead of silicon sealant on the edges of each lap was recommended by the internet so we did that too.

It was not fun work. The pieces needed a lot of adjusting, bending, snipping, and filing. We were using self-piercing tapping screws that are essetially a screw with a drill bit head. Getting them to set, cut and drive pushed both of us to our limits a couple of times. That combined with the cold (vanity note: I have a down vest on under that sweatshirt, I haven't been packing on the pounds) made for quite the frustrating day where nerves wore a bit thin.

I finished (read: I was the last man standing and it still needs more) screwing it up around 8:00pm. Granted we didn't start until 10:00am, but it's still a long day. Under the bright work lights it looked pretty damn fine (if I have to say so myself). I hope I have the same feeling when I see it in daylight.

ever so close

The siding guy came back on Monday and almost finished. All that is missing is a few more siding boards on the front, the cornice detail, and the sofits on the dormer. If it takes as long as it did to get him back out here to finish up as it did to come back this time it'll probably be sometime around the first of December.

Last night we continued to hang sheet rock. Still working on the second floor. The deal we made with each other was no power tools after 9:00. The good neighbor policy we ike to call it. That also means that the window of opportunity on any given evening is about 2 hours, which while not a lot does chip away at mountain of tasks.

more partial siding

Looks good, right? Problem is house has looked this way since Thursday, as in no work on Friday or Saturday; worse no explanation for WHY no work. So over sunny mild autumn weekend when every other construction site in the neighborhood was bustling with activity, we got zilch.

cheesy rhyme

To the one I love in Deutchland... a picture to make you smile so grand.

patch, check
reinforcement, check
flashing, check
wrap, check
siding, check

Granted there are areas that still need to be finished this same way but, at least Tracy's side is sealed!

partial siding

The guy came on Monday to install the siding. He did an excellent job trimming out around the door which even he said was a trouble. The green planks didn't start going up until after I got home from work so hopefully when they return today it will be quicker work. Stay tuned for the fully covered pictures!

tuesday night highlights

Here's the punch list on the kitchen white board from the weekend. We did get a lot of crap done, but there were a few stragglers that I wish we could have worked in. Much like last week we're taking a couple hours on week nights to finish up the big To Do list. "Finish insulation on 3rd floor" is still up there, but we determined we still need to do a bit more framing before we're ready for that. Call me crazy but I think it's impolite to run a power saw at 8:30pm on a Tuesday night.

First and foremost we had to finish the rear siding project we started this weekend: stapling up tar paper. The one thing we didn't want to do was leave it exposed for days on end (or god forbid weeks) until we'd tracked down the siding of choice. Some jobs really are better done in steps, especially when facing a considerable time span between beginning and end, and half protection is better than no protection.

Another significant accomplishment was disconnecting the radiator that sputtered at leaky coupling from the moment we turned furnace on last winter and was eventually shut down to eliminate water seaping into floor. Everyone we mentioned this to told us to be really careful messing with plumbing connections, which over time built the project up in our heads into a major ordeal. In fact the coupling loosened up without much of a fight. Almost anti-climatic. Took radiator outside to flushed it out, but no obvious sludge (unlike when we flushed the boiler) so back it went -- this time with a nice wrap of plumber's tape around the threads. Now the steam valves are soaking in vinegar, which I read will rejuvenate them, before firing up the boiler for the year. I'm sure there'll be more mention of heating progress in days to come.

color matching

We've spent the better portion of the week trying to pick siding colors to go with the mahogany door we ordered on Tuesday. Michael tried to match the colors from the Hardie site to make some mock ups. Who knew something so seemingly simple could be so difficult.

Basically we are choosing between two trim colors, Sail Cloth and Navajo Beige (upper and lower rows of the picture respectively). And for the main field it's beween, Taupe (trailing in the standings at the moment), Woodstock, Moss, and Blue. The moss in the mock up is a bit greener than the color on the site.

Tomorrow we will make our weekly pilgrimage to Lowes to see them all in person (again). This time we will have a sample of the stained mahogany on hand too. If any of you have opinions feel free to chime in.

choosing sides

This is what we are thinking about in terms of style and weight of trim to siding. We both are drawn to the simple wider plank trim.

Speaking of trim and siding, we finally saw the Hardie Plank siding in person, both styles and color. Now there's one that gets me the website, the brochure, the counter display at the "projects" section and the display at the "siding" section at Lowes, all have slightly different information. The inconsistencies run through-out but most noted in the color. Each piece of media lists a different number and range of colors and many of the colors are not duplicated from one version to the next. Makes it exceedingly difficult to choose a color.

Second odd point is not all of the colors come in the trim boards. (granted we may paint all of this but for now we would like to try the prefab colors)  I guess the idea of having a monochromatic house is not something that dawned on them. Not that I am advocating such an action, but I should have the option.

Lastly, they're saying an August 1st start date. But we've heard all that before. On the up side it will give us adequate time to have the new mahogany front door (a whimsical little upgrade to the plain grey metal door we were considering until yesterday)  But more about that later.