Baby It's Cold Outside

Our plan for this week between Christmas and New Years was to get a lot of the siding done. Once again, the Oklahoma weather threw us for a loop. Ice, sleet, snow, freezing temperatures put a stop to any outside work. So we moved back into the office to get some work done.

Moved the crown molding into the office to get the first coat of paint on it. That way; when it is up, after filling the nail holes we will only have to paint one coat over our heads.

 Bill put the real light bulbs in. Super bright in here now.

 Beautiful sunset with the ice laden trees. And we are suppose to get work done in this office. Don't know about that. Oklahoma's sunsets are some of the prettiest in the world.

 This is a beautiful door on the other side where I have stripped and sanded to get ready for stain. Don't want to do all that work on the side we will rarely see. When we are in the office the door will probably always be open. So I just cleaned and sanded; now to paint.

 With all these little panels I am putting on very light coats. I want to avoid as many drips as possible. It really looks bad after this first coat. Hopefully, tomorrow it will improve.

Someone Was Thinking

This siding we are putting up is really great stuff so far. It all comes from the factory pre-painted. All we have to do is paint any cuts that we make. You receive paint along with the siding. So it is an exact  match.

The best part is they also send tinted caulk!

We just caulk any edges and we are finished. No waiting for the caulk to cure and then pulling out the paint. It is just done. Love it!!!!!

Merry Christmas

While the rest of you have been enjoying your Christmas; Bill has been working. But, that's okay we celebrate with the kids on Christmas Eve. The day is beautiful so he can get a little more siding work done. I stayed inside most of the day putting the house back together after having the whole family over yesterday.

 There will be a three foot wainscoting of rock along the front of the buildings and then the garage wall will be solid rock. The rows of siding need to be level all across the front and around the corners. So Bill has to map everything out. Best drawing pad is the side of the house. The kitchen window is the starting point; we need to measure up the height of the kitchen counter then add in how tall of a back splash we will have under it and then transfer that to the outside, measure up from the ground, figuring in the starter board and that tells him where to put the trim pieces around the doors that will frame around the rock. Usually the architect has figured that out on your plans for the tradesmen to go off of. No architects here; just us.

 Inside corners, outside corners. It's just a big puzzle.

 The trim pieces go  up first and then the siding.

Ta Da!!!!

Our first wall of siding is up!!!

 You offset the panels of siding so the breaks aren't lined up.

 At the top we slid the siding under the top trim. This way no rain gets behind the wood.

 There were no screws that match the color of the top trim so we painted screw heads so they will disappear when they are put in.

 

The siding is designed to go over solid wood. Of course, we do not do anything normal; we are installing over the metal skin on the buildings.  If the end of the siding is over a space and not a rib we have to add something to brace the wood. Nothing fancy just a screw added at the right depth.

Now the wood has something to lean against. We now  have one extra ;layer of insulation on our building. The siding and the air pocket will help with utility bills.

This is what our work site looked like. Everything ready to be used and with in arms reach.









This finished wall. Takes away the look of a metal building. Once we add the awnings over the windows and the shrub bed it will be gorgeous.

Going from Metal Building to Home

Bill and Christopher got a lot done on the west wall of the West Wing. The siding is making a huge difference in how the building looks.

Bill even hung the garden hose holder as he progressed with the project.

 They started on the west wall thinking it was just a big blank wall. Good place to learn. Wasn't thinking of all the pipes going into the building that would need to be dealt with. Of course they were on the very first rows to install. The siding company had $50 boxes we could have purchased to go around each of the areas. We thought that would have made the pipe entry points more noticeable. Bill's great cutting skills eliminated the need for that expense. When we purchased the siding; caulk and touch up paint that are exact matches came with it. Put a little silicone caulking around the pipes and you won't even notice them.

 All the siding and trim pieces come prepainted. The siding just slides right up against the trim and it has the finished look. When we are finished with the install there will be caulking to waterproof everything. Normally you would have the caulking and then the big job of painting. But  no painting for us!

Love Progress

The siding got started today. I have been anxiously  awaitng this day for three months now. Bill was at a point where he was ready to get started on this big project.

 First piece up was a corner. This sight made me smile very big.

 Bill and Christopher installing the starter piece. If this is level all the boardswill be level.

 The siding boards rest on this metal and then each piece sits on the one below it. It is an almost foolproof system.

 Time to stop and add window trim.

How many generations does it take to put clips on? Three; Bill, nephew, and grandson. Christopher, the nephew, is so patient with Wyatt wanting to help. Our family is wonderful.

 The two big boys lining up window trim for perfect corners.

 Had to stop at this point. It started to snow!!! Tomorrow it will be the high 40s and sunny. Work will start again in the morning.

Where's Waldo

I spent the day with Mom and Dad running them around to different appointments. As I was heading home I called Bill and he told me to look at the West wall when I pulled in the drive. Okay, I'll look, and look and look.

Aha, he had put a temporary bit of the siding up on the wall. We chose a color as close to the existing metal siding as we could. Since we aren't putting siding up on the back walls of the buildings we wanted a smooth visual transition as we round the corner.

Tomorrow the plan is to start getting the siding up.

Safecrackers We're Not

The floor safe which is in the wrong spot in the office has to come out. The Previous Owner had it in the front little room inside a cabinet. I would never been able to use this safe. You had to crawl into the cabinet and then lay on the floor to reach in to the safe. Not very conducive to using it. When we opened the wall between the two rooms to make on large room for our office; the safe ended up in the middle of the floor right where we would be walking. It was s tripping hazard all through the building process.

Figured how hard could it be to chisel the concrete and get that baby out. It takes no time at all on bank robber movies. Drilled holes all around the perimeter. Then we ought to be able to use a hammer and chisel and break the concrete out.  That didn't work so on to the hammer drill. After I burned up our hammer drill trying that we stopped this project and went on to something else. We hit up the Pawnshops in town and got a really nice replacement hammer drill but it didn't make a dent in the concrete.

 Next stop rental store and got a Jack Hammer!!!!! Always wanted to try one of these guys. Too tall for me, my hands were at shoulder height. A little difficult to control in that position.

 Ear protection on and starting to work.' All the hours we had spent with our little tools, the big guy comes in and makes short work of the concrete. We get the concrete jack hammered out and the safe still won't come out. We dig and dig to get the sand that is under the floor out and it still won't budge. Figured the bottom must be flared to make it more difficult for some bad guy to get the safe out.

 Sure enough after wiggling and prying when we finally got it out there is a metal plate on the bottom of the safe keeping it securely in the ground.

 Now we have a big hole in the middle of our floor.

 Filled the hole in with all the broken concrete pieces, we will mix up a batch of concrete, throw in little more rebar in and be ready for the office floor.

Transformation Monday

Today the office visually went from a work space to an actual room. It just took some paint. Still lots to do before we can move stuff in but what a difference today made.

 Started cutting in. It looks as if one coat is all it is going to take.

 Cutting in the cove corners was really exciting.

 Office shelve brackets had to be put in so they could be painted.

 Corners, wall edges, around all the electrical. Getting more and more excited.

Bill used the power roller to make the job go quicker and easier.

 Never have to stop and reload the roller. Just press the button and the roller fills with paint.

 Ta Dah!!!!!! 

It is gorgeous.

Love Valspar Reserve paint. This is a super dark color, no primer put on and we only need one coat. Still need to add the base and case, the crown molding, all the electrical plates, ceiling fan, vent covers, and the floor. But, who cares, we have a beautiful room.

Tools of the Trade

Today I did all a lot of little jobs. And they all required a paint brush.

I used one for cutting in in the office. Okay, that wasn't a little job, just needed a little brush.

One was for repainting and glazing the Powder Room from the holes in the wall we had to cut for the vacuum system.

The other one was for staining and polyurethaning an antique dresser we bought to use as a printer stand in the office.

Most of the day with a paint brush in hand. Time for some Emu lotion rubbed into those muscles.

Oops!

Our plan was to have the texturing in the office finished today so we could paint tomorrow. Instead, we cut, hauled, and burned trees from the ice storm at our house. There was almost no wind so it was a perfect day. We got close to being finished.

Since we were going to be painting I picked up the paint. We will need 5-7 gallons depending on the coverage. First coat of paint on new drywall and texture can take more than usual. I ordered a 5 gallon can but to do the color we had chosen he had  to make 5 one gallon cans. Not a problem, easier for me to carry anyway. They adjusted the price so it was the lower price the 5 gallon would have been. Love my Lowe's.

Put everything in the back of my car. Stopped at the store for Mom to Christmas shop. When I opened the tail gate to put her packages in one of the cans falls out of the car. Splat, paint all over Gordmans parking lot.

 Lid bent, can bent, loss of paint. My hero, Bill, was able to beat on the lid to get it back in shape enough to be able to go back on the can. Since we are now two days away from painting, he stopped the paint from drying out.

But, to get the misshapen lid on the can I needed to get rid of some of the paint in the can.  So  I started cutting in the corners of the office closet.

Love this color. The office will be a really rich warm color. This isn't an office where the employees need to be motivated to work  at a fast pace so we were able to go with warm and inviting instead of a motivational color.

Back to Work

It has been almost two months since we have been able to work on the house. We had planned on being in our office by Halloween, then Thanksgiving, now maybe Christmas, if not hopefully by New Years. We have had an out of town Business/Anniversary trip, ice storm that required removing tree debris from 17 houses, doctor appointments for Mom and Dad, and Bill's Sciatic Nerve problem.

Bill had half a day and said, "Let's get something done." Decided to run the vacuum system into the apartment. Easy job; right? Just run the pipe through the attic and down the wall. Cut a hole in the wall and attach the face plate.

 See, simple job.

Not so simple, the Previous Owner and his shortcuts struck again. Discovered when the electrical was run through the walls that the wire was not protected as it passed through the metal studs. Through the years the wiring has been rubbed and there were exposed wires.















Into the Powder Room with my beautiful paint job and holes had to be cut.

Job finished and only took an entire day instead of half a day. My house can be vacuumed really well now.

Vacuum plate is the bottom plate on the left wall. Usually these are put down at the same level as the your plugs;but thinking ahead for when we are older. We put it at my arm height so I won't have to bend over several times a week to vacuum.