I’ve been a slacker this week with posting, mostly because Alex and I were both sick Monday, Tuesday she was better but still home (no daycare until 24 hours fever free) and then I was busy with work because I had missed a day and a half.  Anyhow…

Our carpenter has been moving along on the front of the house….

Monday he got the window cap done, the bottom and side boards installed. Then the shakes were installed.  Wednesday he did the siding.

Tuesday was a rainy day so he got 5 windows (10 sashes) prepped (sanded) and primed.  That’s more than half!

Wednesday he also started stripping the frieze board under the gable.

Thursday he got the rest of the frieze board stripped, then all the soffit and frieze primed (and painted?)

Also on Thursday (probably while primer was drying) he got the red molding installed on the lower windows of the bumpout.

Last night I got the moldings for under the front porch all primed and painted (with a final coat of paint this morning before work).  Hopefully tomorrow when he has a helper they can get the upper crown installed and some other moldings.  He’s just about done with everything we are hiring him for.  I’ll do the shakes and the rest of the painting eventually.

The full crew work is now completed!  Our contractor will continue to be here working on finishing up things but the work he needed his crew for is complete and it looks great.  To help with cost I will be painting the siding that was done yesterday and all window sashes but the tower is all painted and complete which was our main concern.  I can get the siding easily with a ladder.

And now for some pictures!

End of Tuesday progress:

Tower is painted and staging is gone and cleaned up. Just have the molding over the windows to do and the siding behind the tower.

And Wednesday progress!!

Siding complete, electrical back in place

Front view

I’m looking forward to seeing what is done today.  I think he’s going to be working on the soffit, stripping it, rebuilding it.  There are two shakes to repair, a frieze board to put in and then siding to do on the front.  We’ll paint everything on the front because it’s easy to reach.

The crew is getting towards the end, I can’t imagine they’ll be here after this week, maybe just our main contractor for a few small things we’ll pay him to do (some more moldings to install) but the main work we contracted out is coming quickly to a close.

Today they came EARLY and got right to work on the panels.  Since I had pre-primed the last piece of MDO this weekend they could install it as they went along.  Tomorrow they can do the final coat of paint and install the molding over the windows.  Then it’s just siding (which I think they’re also starting today).

Half way through the day (before 11) this is the progress they had made already.

Large panels 2 and 3 completed… (1 was done friday)

number 4 done, 5 almost done!

Another view of the back

By the end of the day (2pm since they started at 6am), the panel outlines were done and just ready for the MDO (which had to be picked up).  Our contractor picked up the MDO, brought it back and primed the back.  In the evening (okay 10:30pm isn’t exactly evening but that’s when I got done working for the night), I got the front primed so at 6am when the crew showed up they could cut and install it, caulk it and when dry – paint it!  When I get home today the tower will be done, the siding along the back will be done.  That leaves us just the front part of the house and we’ll be keeping our contractor on for the soffit work and the siding around the front window.  Very excited to come home today!

Hard to see the panels just above the windows because of scaffolding but they are in and nail holes are filled.

Easier to see them from this angle.

The back side.

Well Wednesday and Thursday were completely rained out – no progress made but the weather today has been great and with all three guys here, they can probably finish the tower by end of Monday at this rate.

First they got the attic window panels painted, final coat, and then the molding above the windows installed.  Panels below the windows have been continued and this was progress at lunch time….

Staging is moving lower!

After lunch they got more staging removed and more progress on the panels.  I think if Monday is nice they’ll have the panel outlines done and MDO cut/primed.  Tuesday will be installing the MDO and final painting as well as siding the back side where the electical goes.  That of course is all weather dependent!  Coming close to the end!!

Back side – I like what they did with the panels where there’s no window (just matched the size.

This is the main progress made friday… just those square panels to go and then one smaller row above the lower windows. The lower windows aren’t yet painted so the molding above them still has to get installed once they are painted too.

Hard to get a picture of the left side, that first panel under the first attic window is done

And the best view for last … getting SO close!

Starting to look like a real victorian house 🙂

I was looking up appliques and rosettes online and found some that might work as some added red details, i just need to get up there and take some measurements this weekend.  Also planned this weekend, clean up demo and get some painting done on the other side of the house???

Monday and Tuesday this week have just been our main contractor and one helper since the other one was on vacation.  They have a routine down, one up on the tower installing the panel outlines while the other is cutting the MDO into the right size panels and pre-priming them so they can just be popped in.  So at the end of Monday they had the outline of the row of attic window panels done and the interior panel pieces all cut and primed.

Monday progress

another view, i can’t get a picture of the panels above the roof line with the scaffolding up so that will have to be revealed later 🙂

End of today they have a good start on the section between windows, and the interior panels pre-primed for those as well.  The way they are doing it, the pieces with wet paint/primer are all under the porch so even when it rains they are fine.  They will however need to get it all primed/painted in place at some point this week so here’s hoping for a clear Friday (looks promising).

The panels around the attic windows are completed on the front and a good start to the larger panels between windows has been started.

Less panels done on the backside.

I know they wanted to be done early in the week with the tower but my guess is they have 2 more days of panel installation/prep work and then friday to do the final coat of paint.  Hopefully they can also do the siding sections on friday?  Looks like scattered storms again Wed/Thur – tough to work in that!

We were away on friday but our contractor and one helper came over for the day.  They got the molding up on the tower soffit and finished up the painting so above the attic windows is now completely done.  The staging was lowered down to the attic windows so today they can trim those out and do panels.  It really came out great, I’m very happy with their work!

Today there are only 2 again, as the third guy is taking a long weekend.  They want to finish the tower early this week, here’s hoping rain holds off!

It looks like Tuesday they got rained out as well, they finished up the outline of the panels but that was about 3 pieces of wood so not much.  Wednesday our contractor came by himself and finished up the upper panels, then primed and painted them.  He said Friday he will be there with one guy (holiday week) and they’ll finish it up, add the red moldings and then bring the staging down a level so they can start the middle panels.  Hopefully by early next week the tower will be done (dependent on rain forcast).

Looking good

From the street

And now it’s long weekend time!  I love short work weeks 😉

The crew showed up Monday morning, a little on the later side thinking it would be raining, it held off, until it didn’t!  just after lunch the sky opened up and dropped buckets of rain down.  The guys scrambled to pick up and get under shelter.  It rained for hours after that but they made good progress in the morning.

Hard to see but they got the frieze board up under the soffit, it’s built out farther than the panels, a very nice effect. Then the panels were started between the windows and the top.

Another view, very hard to get a good view, plus it was still sprinkling out.

I’m trying out larger pictures, if you click them they should open full size too.  I know the pics have been kind of small lately.

The guys are up to 17 days on the job (subtracting rain days).  They hope to finish the tower by the end of the week (thursday off, working friday) but it will really depend on rain.