time for cedar.

OK, still painting. Not finished but close after a day spent on it again yesterday. Today - change gears to start looking into the task of hanging those cedar shakes in the porch gable. There's not a ton of info on it on the interwebs, but it looks simple enough. Hang two rows on the bottom (which is where you start) and then go up from there snapping a chalk line level for every course making sure to use stainless or zinc nails and put them at a certain height and so on but not rocket science.

Neither is demolition. It's just fun.

And that's where I got started today climbing up into my attic to see about having a go with a sledge hammer literally pounding the siding out from the inside. And ... it worked. Like a charm. It was tough work but I got most of it out before I had to break out (wait for it ...) my sawzall!!! It's been too long since I've held that baby (and done any major demo) and it felt good to take a whack at the siding still careful though cutting it just on either side of those architectural beams to maintain as long a run as possible in an attempt to salvage as much as I can (or enough) to re-apply it where there is currently a butt-ugly window in our Jack and Jill bath that will be going away. Far far away. The window that is. Not the bathroom.

But anyways after an hour or so I ended up with a pile of siding on my front lawn.

And then my neighbor wandered over and insisted that I take him up on his offer to let me borrow his ladders-turned-into-scaffolding setup so he ran back across the street and grabbed everything and came back to set it up against my house.

Alrighty then - for the record it made it a ton easier and I'm not sure how long this project today would have taken had I only had a ladder. And then I finished tearing out the last bit of siding. It felt good. Quite good in fact. Not that I don't like the siding. That original fir stuff is incredible but I am just excited for the cedar shakes.

And it took long enough. Had to run to the Depot for plywood, roofing felt and some other odds and ends before coming back and setting out cutting said plywood. Oh look there's Stuart!

And I only took one photo of the plywood process as it became literally a race against the darkness. I first had to figure out the angle of the roof which I did and verified with three different means including my roofing square set against pieces of torn-off siding along with two different angle finders (it turned out to be thirty-four degrees). Then it was all about the circ saw and cutting plywood.

And that's the only photo I got of the process but there is now complete plywood where there once was siding (and then a gaping hole). And I hung the last piece by headlamp before tearing down the scaffolding and tossing it into my garage for the night. Tomorrow evening I'll have J mow the lawn while I hang up the roofing felt. And then it's on to hanging all the cedar. Must find a nail gun. Must find a nail gun. Must find a nail gun ...