Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Things we learned while residing our house ourselves

1. It will take longer than you expect.
2. Rent the scaffolding on a monthly rate (see #1).
3. Have it bid out by a contractor. It may be cheaper when all is said and done.
4. Your kids will love having a siding store (see picture #1 below).
5. When all is said and done, we surpisingly had very little waste. So far most of our waste has fit weekly into our little 11 gallon trash can. Pallets are being burned by a neighbor in bonfires. Old vinyl siding is going up to Bill's dads house. Scrap ends of new siding so far have ended up in siding store (see #4).
6. No matter how well you plan, you will always have the hottest, most humid weather of the year while you are siding.
7. Don't forget to pull the doorbell wire through the new siding or door jam. Good thing they now make wireless doorbells!
8. Remove window screens before tearing off the old siding (especially the ones you rescreened last year).
9. Picking up nails/staples with a magnet is the same as vacuuming the lawn.
10. It is possible to side your entire house with a broken wrist that is just taped and have it heal well (see picture #2). (Bill broke his wrist the first night of starting this project when he fell after grabbing a bees/hornets hive by accident. He didn't go to the doctor until today (3 weeks later). Doctor was impressed. No cast. Needs to make an appt. with an orthopedic specialist to make sure there won't be any long term problems.)





It is almost done. We are thankful for Bill's boss being understanding and allowing him to take 3 weeks off to get as far as he did. The scaffolding should come down this weekend with mainly just touch up stuff, painting trim, hanging lights and installing wireless doorbell (see #7) remaining. After that, it's inside to stain the back door, insulate and trim both the front and back doors.

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