Outside In

This past weekend we were able to start working on the outside of the house.  The weather has been nice so the plan is to work on replacing some of the wooden siding before we start working on the inside.  We will paint the exterior and replace the windows to close it in before we move to the inside.  Temperatures have been in the 70's & 80's so we are lucky that it hasn't gotten too cold yet.

When you are pulling off old wood you never know what you will find and boy did we find some rotted wood.  It's almost hard to believe the nails were holding anything up because of either termite damage or just plain old rotten wood.  Then other places we found 2x4's that had been used between the bottom of the house and the rock underpinning that we could recycle because it was still in such good shape.

We were able to finish the north side of the house for the most part which is the longest side and the side with the most to replace.  You will notice a section that is open in the picture below.  This is where a bathroom was added on because in the 1920's most houses did not have bathrooms.  When they added on they used a different size of wood so we decided we will take it all off and replace with the matching wood on the rest the house.  We will add some insulation as well before we start putting the wood back up.  I got to thinking ---the bathtub is on the other side of that wall and it must have been a little chilly in the winter taking a bath on the north side of the house with just one layer of sheet rock and one layer of wood between you and the elements!  Of course, people were tougher back then!

Just three more sides to go.......!  More to come.