Month: October 2015

We’ve finished the trim.  We didn’t agree on how to do the windows so we compromised.  5 1/2″ on top, 4 1/2″ on sides and 2 1/2″ on the bottom.  The house will be better to have 5 1/2″ on top, 4″ on sides and 2″ on the bottom to keep in with a Folk Victorian.

We needed to match the siding on the house which is narrow lapped wood.  We chose an 8″ manufactured siding that we ripped in half.  The planks were 16′ long so a special set up was devised.  We discovered that we could safely rip two planks at a time.  We ripped several at a time.

The siding was primed but each cut needed to be primed to protect it.  Before installing I primed the ends and primed the top edge of the cut piece after installation.  I caulked the joints after installing each row.

We started with the west (street) side to have the most impact for the community.  The north (garage door) side would have been fun to start with but it used small pieces for each side and was best to wait and use smaller pieces left over from other cuts and make more efficient use of our siding.

We overlapped the siding onto our cement starter board 1″ and that gave us a wider board at the bottom to more closely match the house.

We got to the windows and a row of siding just fit under them perfectly.  We will need to go back and install a narrow piece of siding under each.

We finished most of the west side before it got too dark to work.

Rain and cold are forecast for the next two days with a warming on Saturday.  Amazing weather for this time of year in Minnesota (end of October).  Halloween is Saturday and we’ve had blizzards in the past.

We had a quick bon fire to begin a long 3 day weekend of rest and renewal.  Steven is going to a men’s retreat and I am relaxing at home after catching up on house cleaning Friday morning.

We finished the trim board under the eaves today.  The garage is now not only weather tight but also critter safe.

We also installed one corner trim board and one cement board for starting the siding.  I painted all the cement boards for the starter boards today.

This past week we have had two people stop (on different occasions) and tell us they had been watching us all summer work on the garage.  They both complemented us on our work, said we were doing a good job and then saying they admired us for doing it!  One man asked if we hired out – he wants a steel roof.

Wow.  So here is the finished roof.

We have discovered that we can install one panel every 20 minutes.  There are a total of 42 panels plus two edge panels on each gable and 3 ridge vents.  We have 6 panels left, two edge panels and 2 ridge vents.  We’ll finish tomorrow!  We’ll have the blessing of an unusually warm October day in Minnesota.

We have been adding a few panels of the steel roofing whenever we can.  The weather is turning colder and it has been very windy.  Before we were battling rain, now we are battling wind and cold.  Frost tonight and then turning warmer for a few days before rain comes again.  Steven took two sections of a ladder and roped them together so they hang on each side of the roof.  We install one panel on each side and then move both sections of ladder over.  The wood ladder on the right has carpet around it so it won’t scratch the steel panels when he goes up to install the ridge vent.  Steven works on the roof and I hand up the 145″ panels.

We purchased our service door from the clearance section of our local home improvement store.  We got a great deal because it has a slight ding in the upper trim.  We like the half circle leaded window and the paneled look.  The garage is now secure and we are happily storing tools within.

We have put tar/felt paper around the windows and the bottom part of the OSB on recommendation of our building inspector

We found a set of glass blocks that someone was getting rid of.  We purchased a section (in the middle) that opens for each window.  I installed my first glass blocks today!

We got the fourth panel with windows on the garage.  Steven has the tracks and spring almost ready.

We have the felt paper on so today we decided to work on the garage door.  We got four sections on, one left.  Hopefully we’ll finish tomorrow.  It may rain so a good indoor project.