Apparently it is basic physics

Good news - found the camera.  I thought I had lost it, but low and behold it was in Len's rain jacket pocket.

We have still been dodging thunderstorms, but the weekend was good and quite a bit was done.  One thing I did was stain and coat the soffit material.  I also got quite a bit of painting done on the front and side of the house.

Soffit material ready to go

One of the big challenges for Len was getting a small portion of the garage loft wall done.  It is very hard to see from anywhere.   Look closely at the house, upper left of the covered deck frame.

He is up there... where?

Oh, there he is

Apparently it was not any fun doing either the wall or soffits in this area

 With much up and down and up again, the back of the garage and loft was totally done.  You can see the board and batten at the top.  Everything was caulked and painted - no more going back up there.

The finished product

So then the challenge was to move around to the north side of the garage.  At the back corner the land drops off severely.  In order to get the scaffold up and level, we had to build up the one end.  This is where physics come into play.

Len up on the completed scaffold - perfectly safe?

 Apparently all the forces are down forces, so as long as things are level and secured, no problem.  The scaffold is clamped to the house.

Yes, that is a saw horse and a couple of planks holding up the whole business

Another little section of soffit and wall to be done.  Much up and down for Len.

My role in the up and down of scaffold is to stand at the bottom and either hook up or unhook the rope from the frame piece or platform and either move quickly out of the way (when they are going up) or move the pieces out of the way (when they are coming down).  I am getting slightly better at being helpful, but Len could sure use another set of muscles.  He is being very patient.  Today I am working, so he will be on his own, using the pulley system to get boards and tools up there.

We are leaving for a vacation on Wednesday so we will do a posting on Tuesday evening and then you get a week off.

Cath

Dodging Raindrops

The weekend did yield some progress, even though the weather was on and off thunder/lightening/rain.   Len put the scaffold up the full 4 layers to get to the top of the back of the garage.

You can see the siding is done up to the top level

The scaffold is clamped to the house and is very secure

You can see a bit of the vertical siding is up with trim still to come

The loft window is handy for handing tools through, also for photo ops

When it started to thunder and pour, Len went off to play music and I stayed behind to paint the wall under the protection of the covered loft.  Got the whole end done.  Then later Len started to work on putting the media room together.  He has mounted the projector and tested it out.

Today the rain is holding off so Len is able to be up on his perch again.

We are also calculating for window trim and baseboard to be ordered, so that we have work for those rainy days which I am sure are yet to come.

Cath

Hot Days for Siding

Len got back last Thursday and after a nice break visiting family, he got back at it.  Some days were pretty challenging with 30+ degrees to work in.  Slowly but surely he is working his way around the house.  I got back in time to help out for the weekend before the work week started again.

The north side done to the belly band

Garage done

Typar around the outside of the garage

The first few rows were done using ladders and Len's patented device

Up he goes

See how easy it is?

Put in the screws and voila!

working around the back on the hill called for the scaffold

 Meanwhile, I put caulking around the window trim joints and between the joints of the siding on the north side of the house.  After work today I started staining the soffit material.

Fir soffit tongue and groove

All stained, tomorrow varathane

If the driver's window in my Golf hadn't dropped out, it would have been an excellent week.  As it is, Len has the door apart and is trying to buy the tiny plastic bit that broke.  It seems that you have to buy the whole window assembly for $150 even if all you need is a 10 cent piece of plastic.  Len isn't giving up, and has been calling wreckers far and wide.   Right now I have tuck tape keeping the driver's door window in place.  Very classy.

 If you care to take a look at my pitiful garden, go to the gardening blog.  If you have a garden, you will  feel good about it, in comparison to my efforts.

Cath

Len's work

So after Michael and Shannon left, Len got back at it with occasional help from me.  I was also getting ready to go to Sechelt tomorrow including laundry and cleaning up.

Here is what Len got done.

That's it for today

So for a few days, this is it.  Talk to you when we get back.
Cath

Michael's last day here

The boys started off the day with a plane ride and a bit of visiting, so there went the morning.  But they made up for their distraction by doing a whack of work on the east and north sides of the house.  They called it quits at 6:30 when they ran out of easy stuff to do.  The rest will be fussy work, so I guess I will do my best to assist Len with it.

Here are the happy guys with their handiwork.

Father and son team

It was a really warm day, so they were happy to be working on the shady side of the house.

Tomorrow morning we say good-bye to Michael and Shannon who are heading home to Edmonton.  Safe travels!
Cath (Momma)

Our house is turning green

And that's a good thing!  The siding is going up.

Michael and Len have been busy measuring, cutting and putting up not only the siding, but flashing and belly band wood.

The week started off rainy and cool, but that didn't stop them

Putting on the first siding on the covered deck

The assembly line for cutting

Team work

Done to the soffits

 My contribution was caulking all the corners with a very sticky goo and then painting it 24 hours later.

Brown caulk

The painted result

All the corners need to be caulked, but this will be left to the perfectionist to be done as there won't be any cover-up paint.

This morning Len and Michael took a couple of hours off to go flying, but will be working on the north side of the house later today.  Alas, Michael leaves early tomorrow morning - he sure will be missed.  Len will be on his own when I am not available to help.

Cath

Fireplaces and thinking about siding

Kyla and Len have been spending a lot of time "thinking" about how to best do the siding.  As a result, although they got the windows trimmed, the corners done and the belly band mostly done, not a single piece of siding is yet to be put up.

here is a window with all but the upper wood

 Of course Len got up on the roof one last time and put the cap on and then the inspector came and said it was all good.

Happy this is the last time

The cap goes on

There he is

 Kyla and Len were busy beavers

More window trim

Finished

Measuring and cutting

The last bit of flashing on the top

Belly band done

 Usually at the end of June, beginning of July, lighting the fire would be the last thing on our mind.  But  the geothermal system is down due to a  coolant leak, so we thought the fireplace might be useful.

We didn't load it up too much for the first fire

I lit the paper and voila!

A fire!

Kyla joined me on the  wood piles

Soon replaced the wood piles with a couch

All I need is a book and a glass of wine

Michael and Shannon arrived on Saturday evening.  Michael was game to help clean out our gutters.

Michael up the ladder

Finishing off the belly band

Alas, the rain began to fall and so we had to move back inside.  More fires (bigger ones), and starting to look at the floor - measuring all the dips in the sub-floor.

That's it for now.  More when we get some more VP.
Cath