All In A Weekend’s Work

Since the last post, progress was made on the concrete garage pad. A local contractor did a superb job setting the foundation for our future attached garage.

We headed up for the long weekend with the intention of getting some siding done. With just two of us, and Rocky, the plan included scaffolding and communication.

Before setting up scaffolding, we had to remove some lower siding from the front to install a ledger board to attach the future front porch to the front of the house. With the concrete garage pad, we also had a change of plans to do a full covered porch.

Scaffolding assembled and we were siding, as long as the weather would let us.

When it rained, we went indoors. We installed a pocket door for the downstairs bathroom/laundry room to maximize space and allow a shower as well.

We framed the second floor, creating a large bathroom, and two bedrooms: one large primary bedroom and a smaller guest bedroom. The original plan was for three bedrooms, but once we framed the space, we thought that we would love both sunrise and sunset views.

When the sun came out, we sided. One of us had the job of climbing on the scaffolding, the other executed the precision cuts. (Take a guess who did each job… )

We had the added challenge of adding headers for the front porch roof. These treated 12 foot 2x8s were heavy, requiring two of us on scaffolding to hold and install. The first went well. The second slipped as we were leaning, crunching J’s left thumb. Ouch!!! After a night’s sleep, we decided to install braces to give ourselves leverage when putting up the higher header.

Our final day was mostly dry, which allowed us to use up all the full pieces of fiber cement siding. 2/3 of the exterior cabin complete!!

We cleaned up the site, packed up our tools, and headed back to our lives. It was a very good weekend. Next trip, hopefully electrical, and any further siding will need a cherry picker rental to reach the peaks. Hooha!! J+M