September in Creede (and at CRT) is like a magical unicorn. You think you'll never see the day and then, out of nowhere, there it is. (Well...I have yet to see an actual unicorn, but I can imagine... Whatever.) Anyway...
The point is: summer is winding down here and my days are slightly more free for other things. Like the house. It's a constant project, people! And we've got about three specific projects going on at the right now, and though I thought about waiting a few more days until one was nearly completed, I remember that this is a blog about the journey, the progress, the process. So I'm writing now.
We've pretty much tapped out the small second mortgage, which is fine because save for a bit more cedar for the interior trim, we've got just about everything we need to finish up the big projects. Since we had company for a wedding a couple of weeks ago, the downstairs bathroom is about two thirds of the way done. You can do everything but take a nice, warm shower in it. And some custom switch plate action has to happen--we suffer for our unique ideas at times--but it's looking real fine.
On Monday, RJ and I finished putting up all but the gingerbread trim on the back side of the addition.
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| Last piece of long siding on the back! |
The gingerbread will go up in that triangle at the top, and will look similar to what we have on the front, which is cream and purple. It's more consuming to make because we'll have to cut out a bunch of little cedar pieces individually. But yesterday, in spite of intermittent rain, we completed the siding and most of the priming on all sides of the addition. I'm not sure I mentioned this the first time around, but the primer is grey in order to make the red cover better. I've probably mentioned this before (I'm at the point in this project where every post is starting to feel like I'm repeating myself.) With bright colors, if you put them directly over pure white, it'll take coat after coat after coat to cover the white. If you tint the primer, you can get the look in no more than two coats. The primer is a bit of a pain. It's oil-based, for-the-outdoors which protects the wood really well from the elements. It's consistency is very thick and though you only need one coat, it is fairly laborious. I can't wait to start with the red. It'll be a easy breeeeezy.
We also took on the task of back filling the last side of the house. When you do an addition, you have to dig out a big hole so you can lay the foundation. Even if you don't have a basement, you still need to dig down so you can at least access plumbing under the house if you need to. The west side was still a pit, filled with random rocks we'd found, and a pile of dirt beside it taunting us with the threat of physical labor. For months. It was a pain to put up a ladder there because there was no even ground to balance on at all. As I was about to give RJ the first piece of siding for the west side, he said, "crap, do you think we should just go ahead and fill this in?" I agreed that we should. It'll make the whole process of putting up siding WAY easier. Off to get a shovel and away we went. I threw more rocks in the pit (gives the soil something solid to pack down upon) and RJ shoveled dirt on top. This is the definition of hard labor folks. RJ told me a story about being in his early 20s working at the Wolf Creek Ski Area and having a 12 hour day when he just hauled 100lb oxygen tanks, among other supplies a mile up a mountain. For 12 hours. So very Greek. He also noted that he's not 25 any more...
But we did it and it's amazing.
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| Ahoy! It's dry and even land, Capt.! |
The siding went up from there.
Yesterday, in between bouts of rain, we completed the siding on the final side. And as I write this, RJ is finishing up caulking the back side of the house and momentarily, I'll start painting! Then it's "just" soffit, gingerbread, and then onward to lower insurance rates! Wooooooooooo!
More soon, folks...
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| Taking a break on the back of the truck. Doo too. |
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