Getting Ready for the Siding

There was a lot of small detail work done over the last week.  The electrician has put in switch boxes, ceiling fan boxes, recessed lighting boxes and is starting to run the new wiring in the walls and ceiling.  The carpenter has put linseed oil on the exposed cedar on the front porch and office door portico. 

The most visible difference are the lath 2x4s to nail on the Hardi Board siding, a low maintenance cement board plank.  They provide the support for the siding, which will hopefully be installed next week. The siding will be a vertical board and batten style, so you can begin to see how the outside will look.

The picture on the right shows the street side of the sun porch.  We have reduced the size of the windows facing the street so they are a "transom" style.  This will provide us more privacy while also reducing the hot, late afternoon sun. It is also the utility area, with the meters, propane gas tank, HVAC compressor.  So, not a pretty view.

On the bay side of the house, you can see the arrangement of the sun porch windows.  The lower windows open out to let a breeze through, while the top windows provide a big open view of the Chesapeake Bay.  We both expect that will become a favorite place. 

"There's a place for us . . . Somewhere. Sometime."

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

During our visit last Friday, we were able to see progress, though much of it is not obvious.  The plumber did get the baseboard radiators installed and connected into the furnace, as visible in this picture of the sun porch.  With temperatures dropping into the 30's at night, the thermostat set at 55 will avoid any frozen pipes.

However, the windows for the West side of the porch were wrong.  If you look carefully, you can see the two left windows have cranks to open and the two right windows are stationary.  That is not what we ordered.  Our contractor has notified the company and replacements are expected this week.

What is very different with the new radiators is how much shorter they need to be.  Here is the new radiator in the Master Bedroom.  The old radiator ran the length of that wall, turned the corner, and ran the length of the wall next to it.  The addition of 4" of insulation inside the concrete block walls and 8" in the ceiling will make a big difference.

In addition, the plumber began "roughing in" the plumbing.  Here are the pipes for the half-bathroom.  There are water lines for the sink and toilet, the toilet flange, and the vent line.  However, nothing has been done on the main bathroom.

We recently decided to place the TV on the wall above/beside the stairs to the basement.  Talking to the contractor, we decided to do a change order, and they inset a box into the wall, so the TV will be set back into the wall.  There were lots of other things affected which we are still working out, such as where to put the DVD player and other potential hardware.

The final picture is looking from the guest bedroom, through the wall that will have the TV, into the living room. The big 2x6 will hold the TV bracket.  

Closing in the Outside

The day before Thanksgiving, the roofer was able to get the entire roof done.  We were grateful since there was a lot of rain during that weekend, and it avoided more water in the basement.  The roof is not very visible from the road, but this gives an idea of the color.

In the front of the house, you can see a section lighter than the rest.  It is a transitional section between the original roof and the addition.  It doesn't have enough of a slope for regular shingles, so they built up "flat roof."  The only reason you can see it in this picture is I climbed on top of a neighbor's wall to take the shot.  It cannot be seen from the road.

When we visited today, the big picture windows in the living/dining room were installed, and the crew  was working on the sun porch windows.  I am so excited to finally get those done.  All of the windows should be in place by tonight.

You can see the very deep window sills the entire house will have.  In addition to the thick cinder block walls, there is a new 4 inch stud so that we can actually get in a reasonable layer of insulation.  That gives us about a 12 inch deep window casing and window sill.

Here is the view from our neighbor's house across the ravine.  The vinyl siding has not been entirely removed, so it is hanging down.

That swath of tall ornamental grasses is on the edge of our property.  Over 15 years ago Dad helped David an I divide up the clumps we found onsite. Then we replanted them down the slope to control erosion - which they still do very well.