40. Little Buddies

Today is my daughter Alli's birthday.  Guess what she got?  The one with an 'A' is for her, the 'S' is for Steven, the 'M' is for me, and the 'G' is for a guest.   Dave helped me by cutting the keys the other day at Superior - we had some fun figuring out the key machine and the hieroglyphic instructions scrawled on it with a sharpie.

Steven and I arrived today around 10am, and after inspecting what the guys were working on in the back, he suited up for work, which in his case means removing clothing I guess. So ladies, I can safely say my son is hot, without being totally inappropriate. We started by tearing off the trim from the door and window, and then went to town on that siding you see there.  It wasn't bad, once we got the hang of it - we each had a hammer and a pry bar.

In a couple of places I used the reciprocal saw (mmm, power tool) so we wouldn't break the window sill as we pried the wood off.  Steven took all the nails out that were still in the studs, and we cleaned up the almost 100 years worth of funky mystery crumbs that had accumulated in every crack and cranny.  He piled up the used siding by the side of the house, to be used for any patching I might need when I uncover the rest of the siding on the house.  The porch is the only place where the cypress lap siding was painted - the rest of it (covered for  40+ years with asbestos shingles) is stained red!  When the asbestos comes off, I'm hoping to find the cypress well-preserved and ready for it's first coat of primer and paint.  Won't that just be fantastic?

This is the wall all cleaned up, and some of the wiring re-done.  I didn't completely remove the door, so I could shut and lock it.  When I go back with my mystery guest to put up the new siding, I'll remove the door and frame up the opening, then run the necessary wires through that opening, for the exterior porch light, exterior GFI outlet, the ceiling fixture in the foyer/sun room, and the ceiling fans in the living room.

Part of the wiring process for today was to put a pancake box (a flat round junction box) for that foyer light I mentioned.  I found the center point and gave Steven the pry bar to take one piece of the bead board down.  He was thrilled when a "waterfall of bug poop" showered down upon him.  I let him hit the shower and take the rest of the day off after that.  There wasn't much else to do - I ran as many wires as possible so I'd be ready for my next day's work.


I'm so excited about everything we got done - thanks Steven!!

Don's chihuahua "Little Buddy" (which was also my nickname for Steven when he was a lot smaller) spent some time with us inside today.  He immediately started collecting Roscoe's bones from around the house - they played a little "hide the bone" until Little Buddy decided it was time to get on Roscoe's bed and take a break.  Sorry big guy!  They were having a good time, but I eventually had to separate them because Roscoe kept stepping on him by accident - he really jumps around a lot.

This is the house as we drove off... a little naked in the front, but not for long!!