This week, like many of the past weeks, felt like not much was accomplished. Most of our laborers were sick this week, meaning that Steve was at the house by himself, working on siding. He got a pretty decent amount done given that he was working by himself and having to do a fair number of trips to the hardware store to get supplies as well.
One minor clarification came this week as we watched siding go up... we had agreed with the contractor to install trim around all the windows to really finish off the look of the house. We also had planned on adding soffit materials under the eaves to make the finished house look a lot smoother. When the siding started to go in neither of these was happening.
A few calls later we were back on track, but the siding has to be retroactively cut to fit the trim, so that is a pain.
Chris spent the weekend doing demolition of our MC Escher steps. Sad to see them go, but very excited to be one step closer to having a lovely flower bed in this location. We also reused the risers and rebar in the steps in our garden step project you see below!
One minor clarification came this week as we watched siding go up... we had agreed with the contractor to install trim around all the windows to really finish off the look of the house. We also had planned on adding soffit materials under the eaves to make the finished house look a lot smoother. When the siding started to go in neither of these was happening.
A few calls later we were back on track, but the siding has to be retroactively cut to fit the trim, so that is a pain.
Chris spent the weekend doing demolition of our MC Escher steps. Sad to see them go, but very excited to be one step closer to having a lovely flower bed in this location. We also reused the risers and rebar in the steps in our garden step project you see below!
 Before |  During |
 After (ish) |  Final |
The roofers also delivered a lot of roofing materials to the house on Friday of last weekend and finally got started on insulation this week. The roofers, if possible, are the slowest people we have had working on the house. We had a promise of getting the house water tight and ready for the metal roof today, but that clearly didn't happen as they are not even done with 1/3 of the roof. This is a HUGE problem as the insulation absolutely cannot get wet or we are faced with serious mold issues down the road.
The contractors told us to get started on painting the trim if we were able this weekend, as it will be way easier to paint before all the flashing for the metal roof goes in. We (and by that I clearly mean Chris) got up on ladders and hit as much as we could reach!
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While messing around and waiting for the trim to dry, I attacked a small section of our side yard and created a walkway from the back of the house to the front. I quite like how it turned out, and will like it even more when the roofing materials don't cover everything up any more.
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As a side note, our property tax assessment came back and while the value of the land went up 30K, the value of the house was put at less than 25% of its last assessed value, which is actually pretty funny. We will enjoy the lower taxes for this year, though, as we know next year they will go up as the place starts to look better and better.
