That’s right – we hired someone for another project. This time we decided we really want the porch to be stripped (lead paint) and re-painted before winter so we decided to hire someone to do that work. Interestingly enough I could probably do this stripping faster if we just hired a babysitter, but the work is getting done and I don’t have to do it so bonus.

What are they doing? We are having the soffit and frieze board around the top of the porch all done, the tops of the posts (the bottoms are being rebuilt by Ryan’s Dad). The soffit and frieze along the roof line on the driveway side of the house and the shingles in the peak (those are not being stripped but just sanded and then painted). Finally the siding next to the side door is going to get stripped and painted. It’s easier to show in pictures.
Rather than strip a lot of this, they are actually just taking down the wood and replacing it, fine with us and cheaper for them.

This section of siding will be stripped and then painted green with yellow for the trim.

Here you can see the posts are stripped and that upper frieze board was replaced, the piece between the posts and the top has also been stripped but needs some repair work (they are going to screw it up to secure it better than putty it up). The posts and frieze/soffit will all be yellow.

The outside frieze/soffit removal is started. I believe they remove the entire thing and replace it because the moldings are all standard and easy to replace rather than strip. The carpenter is waiting for confirmation on that from the contractor so he’s waiting on that.

The work up here hasn’t been started yet but they will replace and/or strip the soffit all along the roof there just like the porch. The shingles will be sanded and painted red, the soffit yellow and the molding they are going to add in will be red. There are also 2 sections that were rotted a bit so they are going to repair that up as well. The only section they aren’t touching (except to sand and paint) is the shingles and frieze around the shingles.

So that’s our house progress while we have no time to work on the house just yet.  I have the shelves for the built-ins primed, ready to be painted.  I also made one of the two curtains for the nursery so some progress is being made here and there.  Hopefully this weekend will see more progress.