looks like progress

my dad came down yesterday and got busy the minute he arrived. he started and finished priming all the new siding! it looks so good... and it's only primer! it has made us very excited to realize how great it will look when it's all done. hopefully just a couple more weeks to the outside looking a little more like we want it... here are the updates from yesterday and today.

first a fun random pic i took... i love all the chaos of materials and stuff everywhere... 

yesterday afternoon i came by the house to leave a key for dad and the siding had miraculously been finished! 

then when i came home a few hours later priming had already begun...

my dad...

and today.... look how great it looks! i thought i was sad to see the natural wood get covered up, but it looks so much better now. more unified and modern, for whatever reason. 

i am very proud of robby's hard work on the siding. in this picture you can see how well he matched up the new siding to the old. it lines up all the way around... he knows every detail matters.

i really love it... it looks so good. and it looks so big in this photo... i swear it's not that big!

i can't wait to get the whole thing painted! next week we've got guys coming in to restore the old wood siding (light pressure wash + scrape old paint off) then prime it. painting might take a little longer, but we'll get there soon. then maybe we can start the bathroom before ringing in 2009... 

thanks for your help, dad!!

hello, 1938

so i came home today from charlotte to find this:

no- the house did not catch on fire while i was away (thank goodness)... but we did get some help out here to rip off all the old aluminum siding. what was revealed is, quite honestly, a little scary to me. it is the original wood siding of the house. we were so thankful to find it under the aluminum, and i knew it would look like this, but it is just a little overwhelming to see it. and to see how much work it is going to take to get it looking good.

we uncovered some nice surprises, like tongue and groove wood in the porch ceiling...

 and some not so good things, like mold and mildew around the door and some windows... 

robby is having to repair the shoddy work of the cheap window installation  done earlier this year by the previous owner...

a little residue left near the roof from the fire here many years ago...

and my favorite uncovering: the marks left by the old house numbers and mail box. 

some of the wood is in great condition, like this area...

and other areas have a serious "crackle finish" to them... for those of you out there that love the shabby chic look, this is how nature really makes things age. i guess the house at one point was painted red.

there are some weird crackle patterns... tree rings?

so, we hope to get it power washed and scraped and painted very soon. more photos to come as that progresses. 

LABOR day

check out the rest of the weekend progress... all because robby is a rock star. sookie sookie it's feeling like home.

siding: (i did cut 17 of those long pieces... a small, but worthy contribution)

cool picture i snagged of robby in action... love the shadow of the hammer.

LOVE september. it has been my favorite month for a very long time. this blue sky and slightly crisper day reminded me why. 

and (ahh ahhh ahhh ahh ahh ahhhhhhh - angels singing) the CLOSET!!! i admittedly have a shopping problem and should get rid of some of these clothes, but i seriously love having a place to put all of them. in one place. at one time. FABULOUS.

there will be another long break in work as we are collectively gone for the next 4 weekends in a row... fun places to go like boston and boone and a cancer benefit in charlotte, but it's going to be hard to not have weekends to work. this weekend should tide us over for a little while, though...