back to hanging cedar.

Yea - a break in the weather. And a weekend. So time to get moving on this siding. I got outside by noon and had to get everything set up - ladders and scaffolding, chop saw, shakes, air compressor -



Oh, and iPod radio. Very important. Took a bit but was finally ready to figure out how to hang cedar shakes. No better way to learn than just diving in. And so I did. The first row I knew was going to take the longest cos A) it was the longest row, B) I have never done this and it would be a learning experience (but hopefully I'd find my stride at some point), C) two or three pieces at least on each end had to be measured and cut at the roof angle and D) those architectural beams would have to be negotiated all before I could just start plowing through the row with no cutting and measuring.

In order to cut the shapes for the beams I got to use my new table saw -

That thing has come in quite handy since getting it, oh all of a week ago. I was hanging the first first row a half-inch above the flashing I had installed and once I got past the corner and then the beam I was able to snap a chalk line -

and could finally just bang away one shake after another along the line picking random-sized pieces as I went. Until I got to the other beam. Negotiated that the same way, then spun the chop saw to the other side and set it at 34 degrees -

And I admit I had the thought that even after spending something like $340 for my 12" double-bevel compound chop saw (which was the price on sale cos normally I think it's $400) today I wished I had splurged $600 for the sliding 12" cos some of the shakes were too wide to cut at that angle in one cut. I managed to get by though. But I do love power tools I will just say that. Power tools rule.

Anyway ... then repeat. The whole row.

I realized the reason you hang two layers for the first row is so that (duh) you can't see through the gaps in the shakes. Seems so obvious but until I hung them I did not really understand why that was the case. And then the first row was done -


(I didn't keep track of the time it took to finish the first row but I should have even though it was the longest and I had to do it, well, twice). So to start the second row I snapped another chalk line 7-1/4" up from the bottom of the first row (I calculated it would take me nine courses or rows each spaced equally at that height to knock out this gable end).

It started out so sunny -


but then started raining. But I discovered that I could hang siding in the rain (unlike being unable to paint in the rain) and so I kept at it. Julian made some grilled cheese sandwiches for us at one point so I took a break long enough to eat and then was back at it. The rain let up intermittently which was nice, although the higher I got the more sheltered I got which also was nice. The shakes needed to be spaced 1/8" apart to allow for swelling of the cedar when it gets wet so I used a drywall shim doubled-up for a spacer -

and nailed up a 1x4" lined up with the chalk line I had snapped to set each shake on as I went down the row and help make sure they were all as level as they could be with each other -

At one point good ol' Matt wandered over to see how I was coming along with his scaffolding and nail gun. He asked me if I had done this before to which I replied of course not it's all about learning as I go. He seemed impressed and he's a contractor so I guess I'm doing something right. And after seven hours of work I finished four courses before it started to get dark -

Then clean up. Rain or shine tomorrow I should be able to finish up the rest and - like the rest of the painting that needs to get done - wait for nice weather again in order to stain these things. I may try to figure out a way to get that chop saw up on the scaffolding (although it's pretty heavy but all the up and down on the ladders takes time). All in all a good day and another thing I can add to what I've taught myself while trying to remodel this house.

why ...

So tonight J and I headed to Tacoma for the Art Walk event held every third Thursday of the month where all the museums and galleries downtown are open for free. I wanted to check out the Washington State History Museum's exhibit on the Arts and Crafts Movement that runs through November. Duh, of course I did. Oh, and there was a chess exhibit for Julian although it was really, really (no, really) small. As in sort of buried in a closet. But there was a cool German chess set that I liked a lot - really cool. And they had a couple of chess boards set out around the museum but we didn't sit down to play (he'd probably kick my butt anyway) cos after we finished up there we went over to the Glass Museum to sit in the Hot Shop and watch them blow and sculpt glass which J thought was really pretty cool.

But anyways - I have never said much about why it is I love Arts and Crafts bungalow style houses so much so this seemed like a good time to do so. In essence, the whole Arts and Crafts movement that started in England and found its way to America in the early twentieth century can be summed up in one word ... rebellion. Reform. Rebirth. Okay, that's three. But they're all important and essential. Basically, the movement was against the whole ornate and overdone materialism of the Victorian period. It was a movement to get back to the basics so-to-speak. It proposed social and economic reform and has essentially been seen as being wholly anti-industrial.

All good things then. Even better now. Enough with the materialism. The over-excessiveness plaguing our population mired in the notion we all need more shit to be happy. And I am writing this now in 2010 but rewind a century and the same sentence would apply. Sort of scary.

But beyond anti-materialism and anti-industrialism, the movement also promoted the use of local materials (so, in the Pacific Northwest, lots of fir used from the structural to the decorative along with cedar and stones and so forth found here in the Northwest) and honest craftsmanship. Both of which you would be hard-pressed to find in today's build-it-as-cheap-as-we-effing-can-so-the-developer-can-reap-the-biggest-profit construction industry. If you want honest craftsmanship you have to pay a fortune to buy a 'custom' home or something with some other lame nomenclature. There is even a pathetic magazine I have seen in the checkout aisles at the Home Depot called 'New Old House' or something stupid like that. Because in today's way of thinking everything is about maximizing profits. Cutting corners. Using cheap materials.

Not a century ago. Locally-found materials and true craftsmanship - beautiful details, trim, nooks, built-ins etc. etc. - were the name of the game. The norm. And people did not have to pay a fortune for it cos that's just how it was. Rather than the outlandish Victorian mansions dotting American suburbia, the Arts and Crafts movement epitomized the middle-class with its modesty both in architecture and size. You will be hard-pressed to find an Arts and Crafts bungalow larger than two thousand square feet. A true 'bungalow' by definition is only a single story dwelling. Their architecture and size are both what can honestly be considered 'tasteful.' The movement promoted simplicity. Simple but refined aesthetics, hoping to make individuals more rational and society more harmonious.

Truth to material, structure and function. Sounds like a page out of Apple's industrial design philosophy (well, the Apple maybe a decade or two ago at least). Or any company more intent on putting out quality over quantity. The Arts and Crafts movement was influenced by the social criticisms of the day, which sought to relate the moral and social health of a nation to the qualities of its architecture and design. Those behind the movement thought the machine and industrialization were at the root of many social ills and that a healthy society depended on skilled and creative workers. Like its founders, Arts and Crafts artists tended to oppose the division of labor and preferred craft production (i.e. assembly line production which turned people into essentially dumbed-down robots), in which the whole item was made and assembled by an individual or small group. Not only that, but they were concerned about the decline of rural handicrafts which accompanied the rise of industry, and they regretted the loss of traditional skills and creativity.

Sound familiar?

There is a resurgence a century later to these same ills and ideals. The idea of buying local. Of walking to the downtown farmer's market to get your produce and plants. To appreciate handicraft again which supercedes the shit that crowds our hypermarket aisles mass-produced and over-priced always at a social and/or environmental cost many are beginning to discover is too high. A return to simplicity. Of riding a bike instead of hopping in the car. Of breathing fresh air, an ideal of the movement evident in the enormous porches and extensive windows exhibited by most bungalows. Of the value of community and neighbors, again harking back to the architecture and design of the porches which were used as family gathering places and to welcome neighbors.

Basically the whole idea of the return to simplicity.

Why do we need all this shit? Why does everything need to be so big? Why do we need four, five, six etc. bedroom houses? Three car garages? All built with an eye only on the bottom line rather than the honest craftsmanship, design, style and materials used.

This ... this is why I love my little bungalow. This is why I set out to buy one when I went looking for my first house. I was very particular. There was a very astute reason for it all. The idea of Arts and Crafts falls completely in-line with my own ideals. I get a ton of satisfaction out of restoring its charm just covered up by a few decades' worth of wallpaper and bad paint. I am teaching Julian the value and meaning of taking something old but well-built, well-designed and to care for it and make it new again.

Restoring this old house makes me smile. For all it stands for.

shakes continued.

So last night as planned J mowed the lawn and I prepared to hang the 30# roofing felt over the plywood nailed up the day before. Thankfully cutting and hanging this was much quicker and easier than cutting and hanging the plywood. Just took some measuring to figure out where to cut and using a piece of scrap plywood with the roof angle cut in it as a guide.

One of the odds-n-ends I had picked up at the Depot Saturday included plunking down twenty bones for a hammer tacker -

Holy cow I cannot imagine trying to hang felt with a lousy staple gun and all the force at a weird position that requires. I am pretty convinced I would have fallen off the ladder at some point during that process. And I imagine getting some mileage out of this bad boy. But anyway bam! bam! bam! and the felt was up pretty quick -


And while doing that my neighbor Matt ran across the street again to ask me if I needed a staple nailer (er, actually he handed me one as he was asking). Uhh ... considering I had been researching them online earlier that day I was like 'well yes!' So today I ran to the Depot to get a 50' hose and some connectors to hook it up to my trusty but small 2-gallon 100psi compressor I picked up for like twenty bucks or something at a yard sale shortly after buying my house. But that little guy has enough juice to power the 18-gauge narrow crown Senco stapler Matt let me borrow -

Took some adjusting (and a 5/64 hex wrench from good ol' Trevor cos the two dozen different wrenches I had did not include that gem of a size) to get the pressure right and not drive the staple a quarter-inch into the plywood but then all was good -

Perfection. Had to plunk down eighty bones for a box of 5000 stainless narrow crown staples. Ugh. I could find them online a little cheaper but then have to pay and wait for shipping so I just grabbed the ones I found at a random mom n' pop shop near work that apparently only carries staples (and probably other fasteners and the air tools in which to use them). But the much cheaper galvanized option will end up bleeding black on the shakes after they get wet. Uh, yeah ... no.

Then I installed some flashing to protect the bit of water table-esque molding above the porch and keep this job running up to spec -

Draped the felt back over it. And now am ready to rock and roll on the shakes. I'll pull my chop saw out on the porch or somewhere close and convenient, setup Matt's scaffolding rig and effing get to work. I'm excited.

Oh, and a quick stop at Mclendon's on the way home from work tonight to pick up the semi-solid stain I'll be using on the shakes. I think it's going to look good and pretty close to that picture I mocked up months ago -

And another little bit of fun - when I was up in the attic Sunday pounding out the siding with my 8-pound sledgehammer guess what I found quite a bit of ... ?

Yep, that's right - cedar shakes. Haha - just another mystery about this old craftsman ... as in, where were they installed? The siding is original so hmm ... ? Were they up before the siding at some point? No idea - but another reason I love old houses. And I guess in all the work I am putting into this little house I am just trying to restore some of the originality and beauty to it after years of aesthetic neglect (the house had and has good bones and was structurally kept up - that's why I bought it).

Anyway then I finished up and headed in to make myself some flippin' coffee -

I am excited to hang and stain the shakes. The forecast is looking somewhat dismal though so we'll see - as soon as I can they are going up effortlessly thanks to a Senco nailer from a generous neighbor ...

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 ...

painting day three.

Well, day three of using a brush. Week three of the project as a whole. Another kick ass day. I opened my blinds at 10 and Dana was parked in my driveway. Hurried and made some coffee in a mug and got to work. I put her to work painting the secondary trim colour (sandy hook green) under the rafter tails and got to work caulking and spackling the last bit of the porch that Trevor had so spectacularly primed the day before. We won't mention the part about me leaving her stranded on the roof (hey I will never quite understand why a climber is so petrified of a ladder even though she tried explaining it to me and it sort of made sense but still) for a while yelling to me from the back of the house but I couldn't hear though the neighbors were probably getting a kick out of her situation. Her cries for help must have been drowned out by the chick a block away screaming bloody 'CAR WASH!' the entire flippin' morning. But then my trusty iPod radio put the kibosh on that crap. And I rescued Dana from the roof. Eventually. Then we started painting the front of the house.

Trevor showed up around 1ish I think it was. No worries. After a few minutes of trying to pick up where Dana had left off he confessed he was better at putting paint on large blank sections of wood rather than more detailed work. So he and Dana switched places so he was rolling and I was brushing behind him. And after a few minutes he promptly fired me and said he could do it on his own. Or he politely suggested that I follow a bit behind doing touch-up cutting in around all the trim. Ha no worries I enjoy the detailed painting and he rocked it on the north and west sides of the house.

After a few hours as the evening went on his zest tapered off and he fessed up he wanted to, you know, spend some time with his family this weekend. That guy was incredible. With a wave of my hand I dismissed him to his side of the fence and picked up where he left off. Dana had finished the trim she was working on under the porch and wandered back to help me do the last bit of the back of the house.

I finished with a headlamp maybe ten minutes after it had gotten too dark to see. Not bad. Not bad at all. Another awesome day with a ton of progress thanks all to a couple of awesome friends.

cheers

Pulling off the fabulous lamp that will find it's way (BS description and all) onto Ebay. It's totally original afterall. And fell from the ceiling to the porch floor (uhh, oops) and didn't shatter. They certainly do not make ugly lamps like they did back in the 20s. And that copy is totally going in the ad BTW.

My trusty and most awesome paint bucket.

A shot before taking Dana's opinion and cutting up all along the side face of the trim with the house paint rather than leaving it white like this. I was going for the relief of the trim from the siding but with it cut in like she thought would look better it was a cleaner line. She was right. Sigh.

A fine mess of empty paint cans. And flowers.

Painting underneath the porch. My porch is going to rock when this is all finished. I am even getting a porch swing as I have previously mentioned in an earlier post or two.

And sometime in the afternoon before I had cut in along all the trim on the front of the house.

Getting there. Just detail and trim work left. Albeit a lot of that but I enjoy that stuff. Painting really is quite relaxing - music on and just get into a groove. Good times. There are a couple of cedar shakes above the porch cos I was testing the espresso oil stain I bought. And the lattice still needs to be painted of course. Oh, and yeah I should probably actually build the stairs I have in pieces in the garage. I cannot believe it is almost September.

Where did the summer go .... ?

another fine day to paint.

Uhh, I should not stay up until 2am the night before I am supposed to be out painting my house by 9am. I think I woke up at about 8:55 and five minutes later Matthew knocked on my front door (props to him for getting onto the front porch sans any stairs). Uhh ... good morning Matthew! He had gotten coffee for himself at Meg's. Then Trevor came by with coffee in hand. Damn them! I needed to make some - did and got rolling soon thereafter.

It was cloudy to begin - even thinking it might rain even though the forecast was supposed to be sunny (to Matthew's credit he said it wouldn't rain but I reminded him he also sports his glacier glasses during cloudy climbs in anticipation of the sun coming out). But we grabbed ladders, paint trays, buckets, rollers, brushes. These guys are both contractors. Well, Matthew is. But they both built their own houses from the foundation up. They rule. And we rocked it. I worked on finishing up the priming I underestimated the day before while they got to work painting underneath the rafters on every side of the house.

Around one o'clock or so I made a run to Don's Drive-In to grab some lunch for all of us. Then Dana showed up and I put her to work priming the trim board that ran underneath all the rafter tails all around the house while us dudes all sat on the porch eating lunch and watching her work (she had lunch before she came up). We were wondering what anyone passing by might have thought. Dana joked she should start crying to increase the dramatic effect.

Then the sun came out.

And after three weeks of me prepping scraping sanding scraping sanding filling caulking scraping sanding we started putting on some f'ing colour. It started out rough trying it with just a brush and on the crap siding some lame moron put on instead of even trying (come on I figure at least try) to match the original beautiful fir siding. Like it was going on pretty thin. At which point the sprayer debate arose with Dana and Trevor siding with having me cave and going out to rent one while Matthew and I arguing it would be too much hassle and likely - in the hands of someone who has never used one (umm, that would be me) - cause a lot of overspray on all of the trim that the two of them spent the morning painting.

In the end the homeowner rules. I guess. That and we switched gears to try loading a roller with paint and using that to apply it. Then I would follow with a brush to get the nice effect of the brush strokes on the siding and to even it out. And it worked quite nicely and looks like it'll go on in one coat. I will have to come back and cut in around all the trim but that's OK. And so rolling with that plan we started to make some progress and in maybe 3 hours or a little less had the longest side of the house complete and were starting to wrap around to the front of the house when the pizza kid arrived.

"Whoa, it looks nice. You doing this as a job or does one of you own it?"

"Uhh, yeah I own it and thanks. But to be fair it looked pretty crappy before so any change is a step in the right direction."

Then I tipped him and sent him on his way and for the first time in a long time I retired from painting before the point of having to switch on a headlamp to keep working. Meaning it was still light, but we washed up and headed over to Trevor's to have some pizza.

So some pics then of what happens all in a day's worth of working on one's home with a few fabulous friends ...

Trevor being his awesome self and priming the entire flippin' porch railings and details.

Umm, this was totally staged and quite the moment. Good times.

She's got the rolling part under control.





Damn you Dana. That's what I get for leaving my camera on the grass.



And what we all accomplished in a day (well from two sides anyway) -



Friends are the best thing ever. Cheers to you guys and thank you much for all your help ...

historic colour schemes.

So totally random every now and then I check comments to my comments on Flickr. And I noticed today that this photo of Daily Bungalow's came up with a new comment. It's a colour scheme from a 1916 Arts & Crafts kit catalog (yes, the whole idea of Arts & Crafts houses is that you would buy the kit and, well, build the house yourself).

And from that photo she's put up links to photos of houses gathered together in varying exterior color schemes. And mentions that you should have at least three colors for your palette. Check. And it turns out the green I randomly chose (albeit from the Benjamin Moore Historic Collection palette as I've mentioned in the past) is pretty close to the color at the bottom of the second (from left) column.

Hmm. Well, just saying. Seems I've chosen ... wisely.

a fine day to start painting.

Yes, a fine day indeed.

It was supposed to be mostly cloudy today but I will take a little sun. Maybe seventy out or so. Perfection. And so time to grab a roller and get to work (wearing what used to be my favourite pair of jeans that are now probably too tore up to even really wear outside but oh well) -

Today was not going to be exciting. Still prepping but at least using a roller and a paintbrush instead of a carbide scraper and orbital sander. Still I missed some spots I discovered as I put on the primer so I kept the sander handy and a brush and rag to clear off the dust -

After going all around doing all the ground level stuff it was time to pull out the extension ladder and get to priming the trim along the roofline. Good times. I will miss climbing up an extension ladder.

And it seems that it's next to impossible to find a contraption that holds a roller pan horizontally level so I dug into my climbing bin and pulled out a nylon runner that I used to loop through a pail hangar and tied to the tray. Wallah - roller tray holder twenty feet off the ground. I must say climbing stuff has come in handy with this ladder business.

After wrapping up with that it was time to have some lunch. And I'm just going to throw in here that by chance I found the perfect bread for grilled cheese sandwiches the other week at Fred Meyer. As in I have been on a quest to find this mystical white bread for at least ten years and I took a chance on a loaf and kazam! Perfect grilled cheese -

This is quite important (and the moral is sometimes take a chance on something).

So anyways back to work the rest of the afternoon and into the evening until I ran out of primer and had to make a mad dash to McLendons before they closed and the light died (it starts getting dark around 8 now and is more or less totally dark by 8:30 which is completely crazy).

Got back, took this photo then finished priming the south side of the house (thankfully the longest side and in the worst shape by far cos I was starting to feel the burn after nine hours of priming).

A long day but lots more progress ...

I am now on my couch listening to Lisa Gerrard on repeat psyched about getting up early tomorrow for another incredibly long day. But (and this is key) it will involve actual color.

Oh, and a little side project I had going today as well -

Testing spray painting a gutter. It looks like, well, a brand new white gutter (yes, this was one of the brown gutters I tore off my house). But I'll let it dry a full 24 hours before taking a hose to it and trying to scratch it to see how tough the applied primer and one topcoat are. I had a dude out this morning and the quote for 150' of gutters was about $650. My estimate for buying all new gutters and replacing them myself was somewhere around $450 so his estimate wasn't terrible. But if painting works that of course will be the cheapest route by far but will involve a bit of work that I will have to tackle pretty quick cos I'll, well, need gutters.

----

And a little post script ... after giving into the night and lack of light and finishing everything up for the day I headed out quick to Fred Meyer. Was standing in the checkout line and this girl who was probably Julian's age came up behind me with her dad and put the little divider thing on the belt behind my stuff and then set this little stuffed horse she was apparently buying on and then another divider behind it. When she finished with that she folded her hands and set them next to the belt all proper like. It was about the cutest thing I have seen in a long time and quite made my day. Kids are awesome.