The Historic District

mick, I commend you for this rather heroic undertaking...I always worry about the can of worms lurking behind whatever it is i'm working on....5 bucks??? now, that's a deal!...can't imagine what you paid for the siding...I just picked up a bundle (10 pieces) of 8 foot cedar claps and they were about $130....I loaded it myself, so no $5 deal for me!

...jade

Mick, nice view of your creek, nice view all around I think. The coverd bridge, every thing built on the side of a mountain, fast running clear water. I think I 've seen that image on a tin chocolate box lid.

Quick project update. I'm a good ways in, I am working at a kind of 45 degree angle from left to right, focusing on the left hand side and bottom of the wall first. Current progress is all old clapboard is gone, all sheathing is re-screwed to the studs with 2.5" deck screws (that tightened it up a bunch), repairs all complete, Tyvek installed over 80% (will finish up the final 20% as pump jacks are moved over for finishing the right hand side, about 40% od the clapboard is now installed.

I trimmed out the old door and window openings. The idea is that they will look like ghosts of old windows and doors that have been closed over rather than be hidden. You seem to see this kind of detail on houses round here a lot, where either a window or door did exist, or it was done for aesthetic reasons and never had an opening in the first place. Anyhow here are a couple of in progress shots:


Over the Tyvek I have used builders felt strips on the studs to give a little more room for air circulation behind the boards. The boards I am using are a composite material called Boral http://www.boralamerica.com/TruExterior I chose this over wood as the back of the house never gets sun and has some tendencies to stay damp for a long time. So far I am liking this product, it works and installs like wood, with no need to prime cut ends etc.

Quick update pic - new siding installed, now to get on with paint and finishing details

Mick, looks like it'll de a sound wall for another 200 years. Did you date your tyvec art work, so in two hundred years some one will get a smile and a historical record?

Gothichome wrote:Mick, looks like it'll de a sound wall for another 200 years. Did you date your tyvec art work, so in two hundred years some one will get a smile and a historical record?

I most certainly did, signed and dated in a couple of different spots

Looking good.

Another quick progress pic - got the primer on yesterday. I am repainting it in it's original red (a VT tradition was that backs of houses would be painted in red - not often seen now), maybe a slight shade darker than the original red paint I found but it matches the red (BM Cottage Red) that I used elsewhere on the outside (window sashes and doors). The trim, and likely the sashes on this side, will be in Tudor Brown when I finish

Wow - looks great. I love the Cottage Red.

Mick, this may be a silly question but why red only on the back side of a home of your period?
A bit of yanks thrift maybe, red paint was the cheap paint back then, all the money was spent on good (expensive) paint for the front for all passers by to see?