What a difference a day makes

It was a busy Sunday around here with much progress on the garage siding.  Our smartest move with this garage so far was hiring a great helper for the day.  After a failed attempt at finding someone last weekend, when our "experienced help" turned out to be a twenty-something guy who quite possibly knew less than I do about construction (and I don't say that lightly) and showed a distinct lack of initiative or energy, we gave Craigslist another try and this time found a terrific former contractor who now works a regular day job but is available for construction jobs on the weekends and nights.  He was great - in addition to being a hard worker, he saved us a bunch of time with his experience.  Where we may have had to stand around and figure things out, he knew what to do and how to do it already.  Having another person on the job site also freed up a little of my time to do a couple of the essential things that get neglected so frequently around our house, like grocery shopping and cooking for the week.  But more importantly, on the construction front, we started and finished the entire back wall of the garage, including installing the soffit.  All it needs now is aluminum wrap and gutters and it will be officially finished.  And, we moved to start the big side wall as well, getting the corners, band board, and about half of the siding up.  We also installed our new pump jacks and a giant platform for them that Brian built yesterday.  After struggling last weekend with the drywall install on ladders, we came to the quick realization that we needed a better solution for the siding.  After a bit of research, we are now the new owners of a pair of pump jacks and roof braces.  We thought about getting a nice aluminum set but the price didn't make a lot of sense given that we may not use them that often in the future.  Wood pump jacks plus 2 x 4s, though, is a decent solution for the price and, although it took a bit of effort to get them set up, it's a nice, stable platform to work from now.  We'll keep working in the evenings this week, along with a little help from our new best friend, and chug away on the siding.  After last weekend's frustration with the fire-proofing, though, this was a much better weekend all around.