Siding

It's been too long for me to even remember what my next step was.  I'm going to guess since I was still worried about the fall weather setting in that I pushed to get the siding up.  I had decided on cedar from the beginning.  I liked that cedar works well in my wet climate, resistant to bugs, and especially that it has the cabin quality that was important to me.  I did some research but pretty early on knew I wanted to buy from a local shop that has been an institution in my town.

Issaquah Cedar http://cedarexperts.com/

I stained the cedar first with a brush, than a sprayer when that took too long, and then back to a brush when I realized how much expensive stain I was wasting with the sprayer. The stainless steel ring shank nails were also crazy expensive but I really wanted the outside to be done correctly as the outside would be my introduction to the world.  That cedar needed to be the face of my project and so the extra expense for the good nails and stain should be worth it.  You better believe that ever screw I dropped I climbed down off that ladder to retrieve it.


Once my good helper Junko showed me that my siding didn't look quite right because I was putting it on upside down and backwards the rest of the install was surprisingly easy and quick, right up to the point where I fell of the ladder and broken two ribs.  I know, I know, I should have learned my lesson after falling off the roof but apparently I'm both not the smartest kid in the class and plagued with enough enthusiasm for this project to repeatedly overlook my own safety in order to not have to move the ladder so I could reach the board I needed to screw down.  I take some satisfaction that the ladder didn't get off unscathed either.  My ribs bent the ladder pretty good and I'm told I needed to be extracted from the ladder but honestly I'm a bit fuzzy on that part.  The notching of the planks to fit around the widows and doors was also tricky but since no angles were involved I managed it eventually.

The cedar siding was definitely one of my more expensive additions to the Manor but I think well worth it.  I'm really pleased with the results.  Those results wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't for the help of my friends who took one look at my gimpy leg and came over to help.  I'm pretty impressed that it looks just about exactly how I wanted it to look.

The last step is to seal the cracks between the planks and any other piece of wood such as the windows, doors, corner studs, and wheel wells.  Since it hasn't stopped raining long enough for me to do much outside work that project remains on the to do list.