Battening Down the Hatches

We're right in the path of the so-called Frankenstorm so we spent a good bit of the weekend finishing up the garage siding and it looks great!  Brian finished siding the dormer, a task made possible by the platform and pump jacks but which still led to one of my least favorite moments of this project when I had to climb onto the roof next to the dormer to help hold up some of the soffit.  While I clung to the roof, Brian walked around on the roof cleats and stood up and nailed the trim into place.  So, clearly, I was not the most helpful person out there.  Heights are just not my thing.

But, all of the siding is now installed, along with the soffit, and we even got the front gutter onto the garage.  Brian also assembled and installed the garage door so the garage is now all buttoned up for the storm.  We still need to hang and install the tracks for the door, as well as install the opener (once we run the electricity to the garage, of course), so there's still more work to be done but for now, the garage is weather tight - just in time!

Random day off

It was slow at work and 80 degrees today so I took a vacation day to knock out the dormer siding. I got the whole front done and most of one side before my snips broke and I ran out of daylight. This weekend we should be able to finish the siding completely and maybe even install the garage door. I'm hoping we can tackle the driveway before it gets too cold out too. I forgot to take a pic before it got dark so check back this weekend.

Garage progress take ten

Every project seems to take a lot longer than we planned, but the garage is starting to shape up. Two solid days of work and the siding is just about finished. The dormer is going to be a pain, but it should go quickly. I can't take all the credit as Juan the helper showed up today. With two people we got a ton of work done. The list of work before its done is still pretty long so who knows what project we will be working on next weekend...

A little more

It's getting dark way too early these days. Even with flood lights it's hard to see my marks on the siding so I've been only able to get an hour or so in a few nights. But I've done most of the tricky cuts so we should fly this weekend. Another two weekends and I think we may be finished.

Siding Progess

We're at the end of a long weekend and it went by quickly!  Fortunately, so did much of the work we had to do.  First up, more siding.  As so often seems to happen with temporary helpers, ours disappeared this week so we were on our own but we've done enough at this point that it wasn't a problem.  We fully finished the fire-proofed side of the garage and the back, including soffit and fascia trim to make it watertight - and we owe many thanks to our neighbors for letting us into their yard so we could put up and then take down the pump jacks.  Pump jacks may be our best investment for this garage yet - there's just no comparison between having a platform to work on versus clambering up and down and moving around very large ladders but it's a good thing Brian isn't afraid of heights!  He was up about 14 feet in the air to reach the top of the garage.  Then we started the remaining side and front of the garage...although somehow I neglected to take pictures of the front so all we have to show is the side.  We've installed the door and window, the J-channel, and got the siding started.  We ran into a small delay when we realized that the roofing store sent the wrong color of light outlet trim so we could only go as far up as the outdoor lights but we'll get them swapped out for the right color this week.  And, in the meantime, we set up the pump jacks and platform on the other side of the garage and Brian started the garage wiring.  We ran a 50 amp subpanel to the garage so while we're only putting in some lights, outlets, and the garage door opener for now, we've got plenty of power to later add anything we might like whether we finish the second floor or not.  All in all, a good weekend and the garage continues to move along....

Garage progress

Lots of progress on the garage, but very few pictures. I had off Friday and yesterday so I got a lot done. Even these pics are a bit outdated. Friday was the side window and the trim. Then we installed all three of the dormer windows and the door Saturday and I finished the electrical rough in yesterday. We installed a sub panel in the garage to make it easier to upgrade new circuits. Right now there's only 5 circuits and I doubt we will install ac and heat in there, but we thought it was best to leave it as an option. Two sides are completely sided so only two to go. Hopefully we will knock that out this weekend.