Not Just Window Dressing

Monday, September 15

Shown: Front door, and laundry Dutch door

The exterior doors arrived on Friday as scheduled.  I took a peek at them in the garage.  It's always a surprise, even if not gift wrapped, to see what you ordered from a sketch or line drawing and see it in person. Since I'm trying to design a home that is specific to a period of 1800-1930, one thing I failed to do is research the hardware.  So the doors have come with the "typical" boring for "typical" hardware.  This is something I need to educate myself on before proceeding with the interior doors. Since security is an issue, I'm sure there is something out there that will accommodate the security and aesthetics of the door, but this is where I should have taken a deeper look before placing the order. The hardware is not part of the lumber company's scope of offerings, just the doors.  So keep this in mind when you order doors. Know your hardware needs before placing the door order.

The men are wrapping the first floor with the remaining Tyvek, and beginning to cut and install the siding.  The drawings specify James HardiePlank lap siding with a 4" exposure, smooth.   Most  homes currently use a textured siding, when installing lap siding. It doesn't affect performance, it just gives a "look" of textured wood. But I perceive the texture of showing the "raised grain", unauthentic to older homes built from straight wood boards and covered with decades of paint.  A 4" exposure is also not "typical" of today's home construction. But it does give the house an entirely different look than if it had been sided with a 7" or 8" exposure.

What's "exposure" mean?  The boards we are using are 5.25" wide.  However, when they are overlapped the surface area that is exposed to the sun is only 4".  This manufacture offers exposures of 4", 5", 6", 7", 8" and 10.75". 

Not only is the look going to be different, but the labor will also be a factor.  Imagine how much less time would be needed for the framers to install one board with an 8" exposure compared to the two 4" boards that have been specified for this job.  But the look would be very different. After visiting plantation homes in Louisiana, we knew we wanted the "look" of the 4" exposure.

While researching this home design, I was told that the fiber cement board was horrible to work with.  That it chipped easily, created large amounts of dust, and that skilled contractors don't like working with it.  As we move through the week, I don't see any evidence to support those claims. I'm sure there is a "trick" to cutting it, and my framers know what they are doing.  I don't see any waste, no chips, and the butting of joints for longer runs looks really good.  My builder has warned me that the painter might have some other "thoughts" about the amount of caulking they will face.

At 10:42 AM the first window is placed.

By mid morning the Marvin Window delivery arrives!!!!
Happy dance!  So much research went into deciding which manufacturer to go with on this one.  One requirement was wood interiors.  There are so many vinyl companies out there and that is what's used predominantly around the Dallas and East Texas markets.  But again, we were going for a look, and on a budget.  So we went with Marvin Integrity windows.  They are wood interiors with fiberglass exteriors.  Not as pricey as the aluminum exteriors.  They also have nearly the same expansion and contraction rate as the glass, so seals should have a better chance of holding up in the extreme heat of Texas.  I'm anxious to see how the framers like installing them.  I checked off the delivery sheet to make sure all were accounted for. However, we have one window cracked in several places.  The delivery men were very careful unloading them but they stacked some very small windows under very tall and large windows and the pressure cracked the glass at the time of delivery.  Otherwise the windows came boxed on all sides and plastic wrapped.  I was told by Marvin to go ahead and install the damaged window.  So this issue will not hold up the framers, who are anxious to get this house siding up.

Preparing for side door installation.

While most of the crew are busy installing windows and siding these two men are busy installing the side entry door. They have already finished installing 3 other doors, and only have 2 more doors to go.

Three windows in and ready for tape.

All windows installed on 1st floor north elevation.

 After taping around the installed windows, they install the smooth board trim,  Then they cut the 5.25" lap siding to fit in between, starting from the bottom and moving up piece by piece.

Tuesday, September 16

6:10 PM

10:42 AM

They start early in the morning, and finish no earlier than 5 PM ever! No, this is not the color of the house.  But you can order your siding prepainted. But there are so many cuts and need for caulking it didn't seem a good value to purchase the boards prepainted. The house will be painted later, before the shingles are installed, which caught me by surprise. This is done so as not to get any paint on the shingles.

Wednesday, September 17

5:40 PM

Today a team of three come out to work on the south elevation of the home.  They get all the Marvin windows in on the 1st floor on this side of the home, and get quite a bit of siding done as well.  The back part of the home is the screen porch, so that is going to be handled differently.

Thursday, September 18

Working in a space that keeps them dry.

 It's raining this morning.  My builder said they work in the rain.  So, when I arrive there are 2 teams of 3 today working. The first team is focused on the front porch ceiling.  There are 2 on the scaffolding that they installed earlier in the morning and one man in the foyer cutting the bead board to just the sizes they need.  I love how it is tongue and groove and fits tightly against each board. Working from front to back, they put up one full length of board dead center and cut pieces for each side to make up the total length.  Then they stagger each run.  It looks awesome.  We will be painting the ceiling here a pale blue. Traditional for porch ceilings, back in the day.

In the Foyer, Team #1

"Cheese".  They are getting use to my camera.

In the Gathering Room, Team #2

Team #2 is set up to cut all the siding needed for under the pantry porch.  Two men are outside the window shown at the left. The 2 outside call out the measurements and the 1 inside cuts, and passes the siding through the window for installation.  Everyone is under cover during the rain.  At noon they stop for lunch.  The sun comes out. All crews abandon their respective undercover areas and head outside to continue the open areas where unprotected walls still need siding.  Okay, I'm going to say it again.....I'm so impressed by their work ethic and good planning.

At day's end on Thursday

Friday, September 19

I was busy baking a homemade apple pie for the women's luncheon today, so I left the men alone today.  I did go over to the job site after lunch and they were continuing to make great progress!!! They finished all the decking for each of the side wings off the main house. This meant adding the vertical studs to the open spaces that you see left in the picture above.  They finished almost all the decking on both sides of the house, the decking for the art room dormer and most of the Tyvek, AND installed the 2nd floor windows on each of the wings and finished ALL the siding on both the north and south wings(lower ridge portions of the home).

If the weather continues to stay bright and sunny they will probably be taking on the rest of the north and south elevations on the main house.  

Still to do, as far as siding, is the front and back elevations.

We were blessed by their constant efforts 5 days in a row!  So much was accomplished. But there are other jobs that need tending to, other homeowners anxious to get further along in their projects as well.  This is a balancing act for our builder.  A great place to be when business is good, and you have the clientele that have made the decision that this is the right builder for the job.  We truly appreciate all his efforts, his team, and their honest desire to give us the best product one can get.   That being said, we are not so sure that everyday will have contractors on the job, but when they are there, they really give us their all.  For my husband and I, we are truly grateful that we have the right team in place.

Excited to see what next week brings.