8.31.2019

The shingles for the dormer are all dry now.  Thankfully, we had marked the location where each shingle would go on the back; otherwise, Jim would have had to recreate the puzzle!  He sorted them by side, row and position...

Some of these pieces are very small and required Jim to do some pre-drilling...

Up on the roof getting started...

First piece in place...

That side is all done... looks beautiful!

Starting on the other side...

Almost done...

Shingles are now all done on the dormer - yay!  Time to move to the back of the stairwell.  This part had to be left open because at the time, Jim wasn't sure about furnace vent work.  

Jim has to work off the ladder back here so he's making lots of trips up and down the ladder.  Of course, he made lots of trips up and down the scaffolding and then the ladder working on the dormer!

He had to make custom flashing on both sides of the vent area...

And the top as well...

So many details...cutting small shingles to go on top of the flashing...

End-of-the-day picture - looking good!

Crazy that August is over - it's been an amazing summer weather-wise here so we're hoping that continues well into September and the fall!

High 72/Low 47 - gorgeous!

8.30.2019

We did a lot of painting today!  Jim painted all the side shingle pieces gray.  Here's one side...

And the other...

We still have some siding to put up on the back of the stairwell so we set up our siding painting station again.  It's amazing to think that we hand painted each of the shingles on the house this way!

This should be more than enough for what we have to do but you have to make sure that you have ones of all the different sizes.  Drying in the sun...

Since the paint was out, time to paint the knee braces on the carriage house!  Jim did all the detail work with the brush...

 Working on the other side...

Then he could use the roller on the outside areas...

They look so nice all painted!

A closer look...

The side shingles were still a bit tacky in places so Jim wanted to leave them dry for the rest of the day.  So he turned his attention to some pole barn work.  He put up the braces, including the one he just made and painted...

Jim was showing me how strong they are!

Once the other brace was up, Jim now has a place to store the scaffolding platforms out of the way and not taking up any floor space!

Next job is to start on the garage door.  Just a few parts!

First track up...

One of the brackets was bent, so Jim had to do a little straightening...

Marking the position of the other track...

Jim had to use some hand tools on this side because the brace was in the way.  Both vertical tracks are now up and fastened in place.

High 78/Low 48 - breezy and beautiful!

8.29.2019

Jim started the day by finishing up his steel bracket.  On the right is the one he had from Ohio; on the left is the one he replicated and built.

Looks spiffy with a coat of paint on for protection...

Then it was the beginning of siding the dormer!  Here are the first pieces cut, primed and drying in the sun...

Cutting more siding pieces...

 Pre-drilling the pieces that will go underneath the window...

Jim has the first side shingled and the rest of the pieces are drying.  Time to move on to figuring out the side pieces.  He first took a piece of old cardboard and made a template of the area...

Then he marked shingle lines and started figuring out a design...

Design is all set!  I took each row off at a time and marked them with a side, row and shingle number designation on the back so that Jim would be able to rebuild it up on the dormer.

Then he primed all the edges...

All the puzzle pieces taken apart!

Time to start on the other side.  At least now, Jim could use the first side pieces to help figure out size and placement.

Prime time!

Next side pieces all primed...

Then Jim finished off by putting the left side shingles and the bottom row on.  The only thing left on the front is the trim board on top of the window.  Jim even repainted the vent cover and got it snapped into the soffit.  I love the way it looks!

Jim needed to make a trip into Lowe's to look for a few things so once he got cleaned up and the trash out, he took off.

High 75/Low 52 - beautiful!

8.28.2019

Jim headed out this morning to continue work on the dormer.  The first thing he did was take down the temporary soffit piece...

 Then put the new one with vents in place...

The soffit looks really good!  Jim had tried two different colors of spray paint - the one we didn't use was Rustoleum and can't just be painted over; Jim has to remove that paint first.  So until he gets that done and repainted, he just taped over that last vent hole.

This morning, he remade the front trim pieces so he attached those...

Corner trim pieces all done!

 Time to get ready for siding!  First is the starter strip; we already had one piece painted so Jim just cut it to size...

In order to keep the siding pieces flat, there first has to be a small spacer board put in place.  Thankfully, Jim has worked out all these siding peculiarities when we did the house, so it makes it somewhat easier.

Then he's able to put the starter piece up...

All complete and ready for siding!

So we dug out our already-painted siding pieces plus we had a bunch of angled pieces that should come in handy for the sides.

Jim is going to have to use the car soon to pick up hip shingles and more trim board, so he did some more investigating because the car still smells.  He ended up taking the panels he had removed out of the car completely - the insulation seems to have absorbed a lot of the odor.

We had a product we used in Ohio to try and get rid of the smell but it's old and we emptied it without really seeing any results.  I just bought some of this Rat Sorb - it says it's for the control of odor from dead animals.  Fairly disgusting.  It's supposed to come Friday so we'll see if it works!

Jim spent the last bit of work time in the metal shop, working on his bracket for use in the pole barn - it's almost done.

High 76/Low 55 - nice all day; light rain in evening