Eves

The eves are all painted!  We washed everything down with TSP yesterday and started masking it all this morning.  It was a little windy, so it was probably rather entertaining to watch us work with the plastic as it was blowing around but we managed to git all in place.  This means we now have all the painting done short of the green on the siding once it is hung.

Gable Peaks

We finally got the gable peak above the girls bedroom caulked and painted.  This side of the cabin gets almost no weather so the boards and battens were in good shape.  We also installed a second gable fan behind the upper vent and hooked both fans up to a switch in the utility room.  That seems to help keep things much cooler.  We have barely used the A/C so far this year.

Shed Doors and Windows

This has been a long time coming, but we finally have doors and windows on the shed.  They are made of solid cedar 1x6 boards painted on all 6 sides to help protect them from the weather.  Kelly painted these boards 6 weeks ago and we've been tripping over them ever since.  They spent some time in the girls room, the living room and the shed.  It's nice to finally have them built and hung!

Board and Batten

It took until dark last night, but the battens on the west wall are installed and ready for their final coat of paint.  All that is left now before siding is the battens on the lake wall, the 1x6 on the east wall and the paint under the eves all the way around.  We have decided to paint the eves in the off white trim color but flat rather than semi-gloss.

Exterior Trim

We have put in some very long days and most of what we have worked on does not show up in pictures very well, but here goes...  We have the blocks around the lights built, painted and installed, same for the ones around the outlets.  All the trim that has been installed has at least 2 coats of paint and the gable peaks are nearly done.  Won't be long before the siding starts going up.

Exterior Trim

Today was a VERY long day, but we are down to only a few pieces of trim left to hang.  We have the 1x6 that separates the beveled siding from the board and batten on the east wall and the 1x4s that go under the the roof line on the west wall.  All corners, drip edges, doors, windows and top rails are done.  The final step before siding will be to make blocks to surround the lights and outlets.

Exterior Paint

After being in Raleigh for a week, we finally got to work on the cabin again today.  It took a while to get packed and up to the lake, so today was really only a 1/2 day of work.  But in that time we got the gables and skirts painted.  We need to put a second coat on the top, but the skirt has 2 coats already.

Board and Batten

At this point the boards are up and the battens are primed an ready to be hung.  You can see the belly band with the Z flash and the skirting below that.  Kelly has done the final coat of paint on the trim around nearly all the windows and both doors as well.  I cleaned up the septic system wiring and I even painted the gas line where it enters the house.  It was pretty rusty.

Board and Batten

We had to replace the board and batten on 2 of the 3 gable peaks.  We started by removing the old rotten material on both peaks.  While I had it off the one over our bedroom, I took the chance to fix the gable fan.  The temperature switch does not work so it is now hard wired to a switch in the utility room.  We're going to add another fan over the bathroom as well.

Flashing the Deck

We found that the flashing on the deck had failed and water was leaking into our bedroom.  So we had to remove all the boards from the deck and re-flash it to the house.  We have a self adhesive asphalt tape, a metal flashing over that, the Tyvek over that and taped to it, a belly band with Z flash and the Tyvek taped to that.  It better not leak now!

Exterior Trim

While I was working on the skirting, Kelly was priming and painting some of the trim work for outside corners, the top board and the belly band.  We are coating all 6 sides of each board with paint or primer to help seal the boards and make the paint last longer.  We really don't want to do this again.

Skirting

Rather than siding all the way to the foundation, we decided to put a fiber cement skirt around the rim joist with a belly band above that.  Then we will start the siding at the bottom of the door.  Today I got the skirting done around the whole cabin.  We'll eventually paint this blue to match the gable peaks.

Exterior Trim

During the last couple days we've gotten the trim around the windows as well as the boards around the electrical panels hung and calked.  Because the electrical panels were bolted to the wall and can't easily be removed, we had to cut the old siding out around them leaving the bits that are behind the panels.  Running some cedar around like this will be the cleanest way to finish off the siding.