The Historic District

I finally found a contractor who was able to continue the stucco that's on the second storey of the main part of the house, so that it includes the sleeping porch. Originally there were only screens, but during WWII, it was enclosed. This part of the house was in the worst condition, with three damages: fire, termite, and rot. I bought old casement windows a few years ago (found by Bonnie on this forum), which perfectly match the windows on the first-floor addition.
In the 1950s, the screened in porch on the northwest side of the house was also enclosed and an addition was built to wrap around to the old kitchen door (beneath the sleeping porch). This section was covered in cement board shingles which were continued around to cover the wood siding on the rest of the house. When removing these shingles, I discovered the original siding on the two-storey section is intact and in reasonably good shape.



Some repairs and trim will be necessary but nothing major. The one-storey section will be getting new clapboard siding.




In the second photograph you can see the shape of original screened-in porch on the north-west side of the house, the plywood filled in where the screens used to be. The only way that room would have been tolerable is if it were heavily shaded by trees. In the summertime, the afternoon sun on that side of the house is brutal.

After some consideration, I decided to paint the sheathing before applying tar paper and siding. The reasons are twofold: 1. Anything that helps the preservation of the wood is welcome in this climate and, 2. There may be a delay of a week or two before siding gets installed and this is the rainy season.

So I went to my local paint store and checked out the "oops" shelf for oil-based paint, mixed a couple of cans together and oh, the irony!



The color I've spent hours with a heat gun trying to eliminate from the interior of the house is suddenly (but mercifully, temporarily) on the outside! I had to laugh when the mixture resulted in a color identical to that dreadful interior trim.

There's an area of rot where the rainwater splashes by the back door. That will be remedied with a diverter on the roof and a repair, of course.

The siding is up. It took longer than expected because I had to sand one face and apply primer to front and back of all boards, which I did with remarkable inefficiency, so it took forever.



Some pressure-treated wood was also used, so painting will have to wait until it dries.



At 8", corner boards are double the typical width, and 1.5" thick. The casement windows on the north side are small and don't have much presence, so I thought beefier corner boards would look more substantial. I don't regret it.

I think the wider corner boards look great, these sort of things I see as classic craftsman style along with rafter tails and earthy colours Sure is better than pink. What’s next on the list?

Gothichome wrote: ↑Thu May 09, 2024 8:32 pm What’s next on the list?

10 windows

Always windows isn’t it! I have two sashes out now waiting on some lov’n