So… let’s see…. since Jan 10, we’ve applied the siding all the way to the tippy top of the wall, I’ve got siding on the wall above the stairs door up past the tricky part and into the zone that will be under the 1×8 trim. On Jan 14 & 15, Paul wrapped trim around the top of the last column, installed the posts for the stairs, wrapped those two posts with 1x material, made the two skirts for the staircase (see above), installed the last section of eaves, and installed the 1×8 around the west sides of the porch (whew!). I barely kept up painting to keep up with Paul.

Becky had the tummy flu yesterday and I was feeling iffy AND the weather is unsettled so we told Paul NOT to come today. But then Beck stopped barfing, I didn’t start, and the rain stopped. So today, I finished making the trim for the stairway door and installed the four pieces, put the inside corner 2×2 on next to the stairs and installed five rows of siding up alongside it, finished trimming out the office window up on the porch, and started installing siding along the western wall column. That was pretty good progress. I love how that door looks all trimmed out and pretty. With the trim on, I’m certain that I like the door color.

While I did that, Chet tackled a bunch of electrical issues that have been hanging. We finally have a working outlet in the office – and a dedicated circuit at that! So next time we overload the kitchen circuit with space heaters, toaster, and microwave, we won’t crash the computer as well. AND  – even better – we got rid of THREE extension cords and a bunch of duct tape! Hooray!

Chet also replaced a bunch of old outlets that wouldn’t hold plugs anymore and hooked up the guesthouse porch light to the switch by our back door. Now we can operate that light from the main house. Then he started moving the doors we’d had stored in the girl’s room down to the basement and in the process rearranged the girls room & put a door on the office. We couldn’t find the door for the kitchen, so that is still a plastic curtain “door” – wierd, but it does help hold the heat in the kitchen.

Oh – I forgot – a cold front came in this week dropping temps in the house to below 40 and outside the house to below 30. It was so, so cold. We basically stayed in the kitchen the whole time. Then a storm came in and I realized that I had to sand and prime the edges of the columns before the rain hit. It was a messy, noisy job, but it is done. I still have to apply another two layers of primer, but the wood is protected now.

In this photo you can also see the 1×8 that Paul installed under the porch curb.

We took the pics, then went to dinner at a Thai restaurant where we had a yummy lemon grass soup, bbq chicken, cucumber salad, and rice.

The girls and I then went back to review the pics and select our choices for printing. This took a long time. Poor Chet has a head cold so he just had to suffer through the choosing phase. Finally we awaited the printing and were on our way home a mere three hours after entering the mall. We were all sleepy when we finally got home.

See Flickr for our favorite pics!

Fortunately I got to practice on these small pieces you see in the photo. The one I’m nailing up is my second try for this spot. I’d gotten lucky on the other side and was able to recut (and recut) the same 3′ piece of siding till it fit properly.

We had to chisel off some old caulk, extend the Tyvek, and span some uneven spots in the old wall, but we managed to get everything cut and installed on Monday & Tuesday. I’m pretty psyched to be past those two columns and up to the top of the wall. I still have to cut siding aroudnd the OUTSIDE of the columns – so that will be a challenge for another day.

Paul Jr will be back this coming weekend and we expect to start work on the skirts for the sides of the stairway.

Here’s what the back of the house looks like right now…..

Here is a photo of the back porch from December 4. You can see the bare wood under the eaves and on the porch  ceiling. The walls are a mixture of old board-and-baton, new siding, and tyvek.

In the next couple of weeks, we put the new (lower) back door in, added the cap/curb around the bottoms of the columns, installed the hardware needed to hang a porch swing sometime in the future, and installed exterior plywood over the ceiling.

This next photo is the back porch on December 19 – just before we stopped work for the holidays. Since returning to the back of the house, we’ve got the curb/cap applied around the bottom of the columns, the eaves boxed (all but the left most side) and vents are installed, the three beams wrapped (all but the inside of the long one on the front of the porch) Paul got the two columns against the house wrapped with 1x stock, and Chet and I applied the siding from the deck level up about ten courses. I stopped where the cuts started to get tricky, but I’ll have to tackle that soon!

Paul Jr was here over the last THREE days (Dec 31, Jan 1, and Jan 2) because we don’t need no stinkin’ holidays around here!And as if Paul’s help wasn’t enough, Aunt Miriam offered to take the girls Sunday, Sunday Night, and Monday so that we could work without interruption (and the girls could have more fun). We gratefully agreed to her generous offer and tried to work hard enough to have deserved it!After two and a half days of work, we now look like this! The inside wrap for the long beam is on, the four columns on the front of the porch are wrapped, Paul has the 1×8 trim mitred around the tops of all the columns, Paul has the plinth blocks made and applied to three of the four columns, I’ve got the siding applied to the sides of the lower door, and Chet has relocated and replaced the porch light.

I’m very  happy with how it is turning out. We all think there is a little too much white right now, but we’ll see how it looks once all the siding is on. Now that the light is moved, we can continue installing the siding up the wall.

And look! Here is a photo from Jan 2, 2011. This is what the porch looked like a year ago today!

Here is a close up of the three columns Paul worked on today – he got the 1×8 wrap around all four columns and got the plinths up at the  column / beam joint. We wasted about 1.5 hrs today trying to build these plinths out of the wrong material. I finally found a scrap of 2×8 redwood that we ripped to the right size for the plinths. Typical time-consuming detour. My fault for not having the right materials on hand.

You can also see the new light a little bit – you can see that it sits on a rectangular block. I made these blocks for the electrical outlets, and was trying to figure out how to make one big enough for the light out of materials on hand. I finally noticed the 2×8 redwood castoffs and 2×8-ish yellow cypress scraps in the basement. We used the cypress scrap to make a nice solid block for the light to sit against. When we get the siding up there, we’ll cut the siding in around the block and it will all look very tidy.

Joe visited on Saturday. He’s doing great and it was nice to see him. He worked on his bike a little and then pitched in doing some prep work on the house – priming screw holes.

He even let the girls “help” him out for a little bit. It was great having his help and even better to hear that he loves his job at Home Depot and is still doing well.

Its been a nice long weekend with lots of family around. Mom and Dad are here for a funeral, so we have their company most days. The girls love visiting them in the RV (it’s *warm* in there and Tata has *cookies* !!)

I like having family drifting in and out. Makes me wish we saw everyone much more often. Mom and Dad will be here till Sunday and then they take off to keep an appointment down south.

We spent the night at Uncle Tim & Aunt Kelly’s house with the cousins and then we went to the LA Zoo to see all the animals – especially the two new baby tigers – and resist the girls’ pleas for every sweet treat they saw. Urgh.

We drove back to Burbank, picked up our stuff and then drove to Hollywood to meet Uncle Myron and Aunt Liza and the boys for a 7pm dinner at their favourite Chinese restaurant, Yang Chow. We had a little time for window shopping in Chinatown, but were surprised that the stores were all closing up at 6pm! We stopped by a bakery and bought Coconut Bread and some other yummies for breakfast.

Myron and Liza had described this restaurant for years and we’d always wanted to eat there. We were not disappointed. The Spicy Wonton soup was the absolute highlight and I wish I could find the recipe! Liza has been coming to the restaurant for over TWENTY years and we relied on her to order for us. Everything was delicious and we ordered an extra supply of soup to take to Aunt Cindy’s house.

We walked down to a cool little square where there were a few shops open. Chet remembered the wishing well from his childhood and we brought a bunch of pennies for the girls to throw in it. Unfortunately it was all dark, but the square was prettily lit and we browsed in some shops that were still open.

We managed to get to Aunt Cindy’s house before the jacuzzi closed and we finished a fun-filled day with a dip in the spa.

We slept well and the girls jumped in bed with Aunt Cindy the next morning. We’d planned a quieter day of sewing. Cindy had a bunch of organza that she needed turned into table runners for daughter Priscilla’s wedding next summer. Priscilla came over and we had two sewing machines and one iron going.

The girls watched several movies and took the dog for a walk while Chet fixed some shelves that Cindy needed put back on the wall.

Cindy made yummy pasta for dinner and Chet and I accepted her offer to watch the girls while we went to see the musical Wicked on Broadway. We’d noticed the signs when we drove to Chinatown the night before and on a whim, bought tickets off stubhub at a big discount. The production was amazing and we had such a great time  (thanks Aunt Cindy!!).

The sewing continued on Christmas Eve. In the end, we got through 14 of the 22 table runners before we stopped to clean up for the dinner.

The whole family came over for a yummy dinner – even Grandma Hoo Hoo drove down from the mountains to join the fun. Uncle Myron hands out each present and everyone gets to open their gifts. We’d let the girls open their presents from us earlier in the evening so that we’d have a little more sleep overnight before Chet had to go to work. We left the party at 7:30pm to drive home. The girls fell asleep fairly quickly and I was able to stay awake most of the time to chat with Chet and help keep him awake.

It was a long drive and we were so glad to be home safely. Fortunately the traffic was really light.

We got home to a freezing cold house and a kitty with a big swollen abscess on her tummy! We quickly got under our quilts and tried not to worry about Lilly (the cat).

Chet got up a few hours later and drove in to work. When the girls got up, we opened our stockings and packed Chet’s up to take to him at the station. Lilly didn’t seem really sick – just had their weird plum-sized swelling on her tummy (ack). We cleaned up and drove over to Uncle Paul & Aunt Miriam’s house for a Christmas visit.

After a short visit, we drove over to the fire station to join Chet and his crew for a casual evening of tamales and football.

Steve taught the girls how to play table football and I don’t think anyone was able to score a point! It was fun hanging out at the fire house and we were lucky that the guys didn’t get a call while we were visiting.

We drove home not too late and got a good rest before waking up and taking Lilly into the emergency vet ($$). By morning her abscess had popped and was draining, so I guessed it was an infection and not something weirder and more expensive.

The vet and staff were really nice, but poor Lilly wasn’t very happy. I think she’s saying, “You guys got lots of presents and fun for Christmas, but all I got was this crazy hat!”

While Chet fiddled with the outlets, I built two little mitered boxes with a hole in the middle for the box to go through. They turned out okay. Paul would have done better, but I was satisfied enough with the outcome.

Once the electrical was done, we were able to patch up the Tyvek wrap and install the bottom piece of siding. This piece runs the full 15′ of the wall. The siding has to be continuous and fit under the door
threshold. Also, the deck is out of level a little bit and it slopes 1/4″ from the edge out to the wood in the middle. So we had to cut the bottom edge of the 15′ long board down from 1/4″ cut to 0″ cut.

With that piece in, I’d hoped to start putting siding up the side, but no. Life interferes.

The girls decided that the Perrys were the perfect addition to their improvised playground. We’ve moved the hammocks off the porch and the girls have lots of fun swinging on them. They’ve got much more room to swing under the tree. With the Perry as a jumping platform, they’re entertained them for hours.

Paul was here the next day and I got some siding up the back wall. Here’s how the box turned out after I got siding around it.

We decided to go with this one (see black rectangle over Paul’s head) because we could bend it to fit into the plywood the way we desired. I don’t generally like soffit vents, but these look pretty good.

Note all the clamps holding the two sides of the first beam we’re framing. I ran downstairs to get all the clamps that would fit across this distance and came across a tiny little clamp. I arranged myself so that it was convenient to ask me to get them a clamp, when Paul put his hand out for another clamp, I put the teeny tiny clamp in it. We all got a good laugh out of that.

We have to take all these steps in the right order so that sometime soon we can start putting siding up on the back wall and cover up that Tyvek that keeps flapping in the wind and letting in the cold, cold air. Hopefully, it’ll warm up in the back of the house once we don’t have cold air blowing in through the HOLES and paper covering. Just for fun, here’s the order of work for the back porch (along with a pic of the girls decorating the tree on the same day):

1) get watertable run along east and west walls of house so that we can figure out how to incorporate the watertable into the porch wall caps.

2) install porch wall caps

3) install porch ceiling (install blocking for porch swing)

4) wrap beams (“wrap” means putting 1×4, 1×6, and 1×8 stock around the doug fir beam to make it look pretty and protect it from weather).

5) wrap posts

6) add trim and moulding to top of the tall posts

7) install new electrical outlets and porch light

8) add siding to back wall.

We’ll put battens up over the plywood to simulate a board-and-batten pattern.

I wish I could say that I made lovely cuts, but they were really rough. I wish I could say I understood WHY I did such a sloppy job – but I just can’t! It was weird. Luckily, the battens will cover up all my messy cuts.