Monday, July 6, 2015

Finally, Some Siding on The Shack

The Fourth of July holiday provided my husband with a three-day weekend, and he wanted to use it to accomplish something.  Weather was predicted to be cloudy and cool (for July, you understand), and he suggested that we work to start reinstalling the siding on The Shack.  It has been months since we worked on this little building.   

The Shack looked like this last time I showed it to you:



One afternoon in February, when the weather was nice, we installed 2x4 trim, sealing tape, and roofing felt around the picture windows.







Over the holiday weekend, Day One was installing the corner trim on this wall.  This was more involved than it sounds, because we had to remove some of the siding and install sheathing on part of the west wall of the building in order to accurately install the corner on our target wall.


The longer piece of sheathing is temporary.


Yes, the siding was originally installed 50+ years ago with the seams lined up like this.


On the other corner, we cheated and used a strip of plywood on the adjacent east wall and some spacer blocks to place the corner trim in the correct spot.



With corner trim in place, and primed, we could FINALLY begin the actual installation of the siding.

A rare photo of me at work, tacking up the starter strip at the bottom of the wall.


Here is what the wall looked like at the end of Day One.

Corner trim in place, and one course of siding installed.


Day Two began with a whole lot of figuring and profuse amounts of math.  We wanted approximately four-and-a-half inches of exposure on the siding, and we had to calculate how to get that amount AND to reach the bottom of the window trim with a whole board.  This took a while.

We are reusing the siding that we removed from this wall in January.  It is scraped and repaired, and primed and painted.  The installation layout will be different than it was originally, because we are staggering the seams (like it's supposed to be done) and because we have large windows now, where this wall had no windows originally.  It took more time than anticipated to choose each piece of siding to minimize waste and to have as few seams as possible.



By the end of Day Two, which ended at lunchtime because we went to our daughter's house for a cookout on the 4th, we had worked out a rhythm and were beginning to see results much faster than at the beginning of the day.  Notice that our calculations worked out and the the siding spacing came out exactly as we planned.  I love it when stuff like that happens!

I am thrilled with how the repaired/repainted/reinstalled original siding looks!


We got to work bright and early on Day Three, and we accomplished a LOT ... installing all of the stack of siding that I had prepared ahead of time.  

In progress photo, with siding between the windows.


End of day, 7/5/15.


This is all that we can do for now, till I get some more siding prepared ... which I will do as time permits.



Here's a short summary, to show you how far we have come.

Photo of this wall, before we started working on it.


My husband's Photoshop rendering.


What this wall looks like right now.


What started out as a tired little building, with tons of character and a whole lot of promise, is slowly beginning to truly look like the studio that I have always hoped it could become.

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If you are new to this project, or you want to refresh your memory on how it got to this point, here are links to previous posts.

Reframing and Sheathing
Beginning to Install the Windows
Finishing the Window Installation
Preparing the Siding


If you're visiting here from Metamorphosis Monday, thanks for stopping by!!

11 comments:

  1. That shack is going to be an awesome retreat.

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    Replies
    1. I sure hope so!! It’s only future purpose, as of now, is to be a hideout and (maybe) a studio. Anything beyond that will be the fulfillment of a dream.

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  2. Replies
    1. It’s a little too soon for that … unless it takes years for you to pack a bag. I would love to have this finished, but it’s going to be a while. Truthfully, the delays make it better. It’s during those times that I come up with additional ideas (other people call them wild-hair-schemes). I will be happy if I get this one side finished and the heat hooked up in there by winter.

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  3. Thank you! This has side of the Shack has been sided in just the sheathing for so long, while I worked in the garden this spring. It feels like a dream to have it done this far ... even with so much farther to go.

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  4. This is great! I love it when projects come together from a dream. Working together is always great too.

    Have a lovely week ~ FlowerLady

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    Replies
    1. I can see this little building so clearly in my imagination ... it's very exciting to watch it take shape in real life. Even better because it's something that my husband and I are doing together.

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  5. What an amazing job you all have done thus far! Love your 4th of July weekend progress. :-) Thanks so much for sharing the process with us all.

    Shirley

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  6. Connie, I have a feeling you will have to rename the Shack--it's looking great! ♥

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    Replies
    1. I can’t imagine calling it anything but the Shack … as it starts looking better, the name will be ironic and I think that will make me love it even more. Besides, if I ever decide to have sales or the like, I just happen to own the shoptheshack.com domain. :)

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  7. You blow me away!
    AMAZING.
    It's going to be the perfect ultimate Shack!
    LOL!

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