My Big Fat Renovation

[67ChevyRedneck]

I haven't put color up since like February?? So damn it, I wanted to see some color, so I did the accent roof thingy. That was a crap load of cutting because every piece was so complex I just cut them large and kept trimming them smaller.

I left the top piece on because the soffit is nailed over it and I'm not ready to deal with that huge mess yet.

As a side note, the color looks the closest in these pics to as it does in person, especially pic #2.

[67ChevyRedneck]

And that's where I ran out of day. If I can get one more solid rain free weekend I can have the rest of the old stuff stripped and actually start adding some more color!

[Palf70Step]

I am tired just from watching your posts!

Nice work Jesse

[67ChevyRedneck]

Still rolling along. The absolute worst area for loose sheeting was the area above the garage. It's like they didn't even try at all.

I tried to get a pic that showed how stupid steep the garage roof is. I can't believe the group that roofed it didn't even use roof jacks.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Also tried a few things I saw in some online videos.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I can admit my mistakes. I knew this wouldn't go well. I put the tin on when it was 25-30* and had a bad feeling this would happen. It all bowed up. I'm going to have to redo the garage. I did the one piece next to the garage last week when it was 85* and it looks pretty good still.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I couldn't let that huge 2x4 stick out, so I went back and trimmed it down.

You can see how wide it was. I ended up going back and redoing the shingles as well.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Front is almost done. I can't finish the last row until I rip off all the old soffit stuff. That's probably a few weeks off.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I got pretty far on the "big side." The fireplace tripped me up. Lot of work to get everything done around it. I hope to finish this up next weekend.

[Palf70Step]

Good worke Jesse

[67ChevyRedneck]

Thanks Bill!

I'm feeling it today!

My dream would be to have it finished on Sunday, May 27th and sit my ass on the deck all day Memorial day, but probably not...

Now that daylight is until +/-8:30 I've started working on it after work a couple hours each night too, so maybe...

I also took stock of what I have... it looks like I'm going to be 3-4 lengths of j-channel short and siding will be close. I'll know better when I have the remainder of the big side up. I'd rather spend a little more and have as many full length pieces vs a bunch of cut offs to finish it.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Actually starting to see the end!

[67ChevyRedneck]

My pics of this weekend are on my PC at home, I'll toss those up later, but the area above the garage is almost done now and the back of the house is stripped and wrapped.

The weather held out for the most part this weekend. It was supposed to rain all weekend, but the real washout didn't happen until around 5 last night. Calling for a lot of rain this holiday weekend though.

My goal is to have 99% of the siding done this weekend and a good head start on the eaves.

[72 tigger]

Looks great- has to be a good feeling!

[67ChevyRedneck]

My wife is so happy. Her biggest hangup on the house when we bought it was the color, which I was fine with, but not a big fan of either.

Really love the new color.

This is the hardest push I've ever done to get the house done. It's been almost 2 months straight of 45-50 hours at work and 25-30+ on the house every week.

My poor C10 is so neglected. In the past couple months the A/C has quit (after 12 years of problem free service), my 12 year old radiator is leaking at the tank seam, and yesterday my temp gauge quit working, it gets up to like 120* and stops

[67ChevyRedneck]

Progress from this weekend. I was able to get the corner covered up right before it started raining buckets.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Today has been a complete washout here, BUT it was supposed to rain most of Fri-Sun, and for the most part the weather held out for me.

I got the back side of the house wrapped up!

[67ChevyRedneck]

As I mentioned earlier, I installed my tin when it was like 35* out and that didn't work well with the SC heat, so it all bubbled up on me. The stuff I used on the overhang didn't match anyway, so off it came. Also, the soffit material I got from Lowes was really flimsy and didn't match what I was using on the rest of the house. The new stuff is a lot thicker and looks a lot better.

Also happy to report zero water issues with the new roof (last pic)!

[67ChevyRedneck]

This was as far as I got. Going around the mini roof took a long time. The roof sticks out too far to use the bucket truck for the bottom 2-3 rows, so I did it all off a ladder, which was really slow going, then all the angled cuts and going around the roof and windows just takes time. I got to a point I can finally really "move", but the rain had other plans for today...

[67ChevyRedneck]

SIDETRACKED AGAIN!

How does this keep happening?

So sidetrack #1 was the Hot Rod Power Tour. Car was ready this time, right? Nope. I just had to fix the brake squeal which turned into a $500 brake job. This was the weekend before... I figured out the original Kelsey Hayes calipers were full of gunk and rust and were hanging up. NPD sells an incredible set of new repros, but they're like $130 each. New rotors and EBC pads and I could roll again. The alternator failed on tour, which was an adventure in itself, but the 65 had cold air, never overheated, not even after sitting in traffic for an hour+ in 90*+, and averaged +/-19mpg over the entire trip (lots of stop and go and sitting in traffic.) That was a fun long haul!

The power tour took up two weekends. I then only had 9 working days between, then it was time for our big out West trip.

Sidetrack #2. We flew into Phoenix, spent two days in the grand canyon (A-FREAKIN-MAZIN!) then over to the Hoover Dam with a run up/down the strip in Vegas, then spent the rest of the day in the red rocks park. Then that night we drove down to Huntington Beach for 4th of July week in So Cal. It was 10 days packed with awesome. Our rental for the first few days was a Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk (very fitting) and a Mustang drop top for So Cal. I tried for a Camaro, but they were out. I had to get rid of the Jeep ASAP because you get charged extra every day for using a different drop off point (and it was at the daily rate which is more $$). The Jeep was a little over $300 for 3 days, but then the Mustang was only +/-425 for an entire week.

Sidetrack #3. Before I left, I was in negotiations to pick up another toy. When we got back, I went to get it

[67ChevyRedneck]

This is what i drug home. A 1968 Pontiac Firebird with a 250 OHC six with a 3 speed ON THE COLUMN (in a firebird, what?) Ridiculously rust free, 100% OEM panels. It's had one REALLY REALLY REALLY crappy repaint in 1994. The original owner sold it in 94, it was repainted, then put in a storage container for 23 years. Then that guy sold it, and I bought it from the guy that bought it. I have a lot of the original documents and build sheet. Sucks it's an I-6, but that's pretty much the only reason I could afford it. Runs like ass. I hope I can get it running and driveable fairly cheap so I can enjoy it for a while. It will need a full rebuild.

[67ChevyRedneck]

This is where I got last weekend, siding like 98% done.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Almost forgot, this little booger cost me a weekend too. She's only had 3 legs since she was about 1, she's 13 now. She slipped on the wood floor and splayed out. She has a lot of arthritis in her hip/lower back and she somehow cracked the arthritis. Very painful for her. This is her feeling better, but jealously watching Jena take Oreo for the walk she wants to go on. I should add my wife's a veterinarian, so she's well taken care of.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Started to tear off the old soffit (which was nailed overtop of the siding) to get the final project going.

I found that both of my bathroom fan vent hoses were just draped over into the eave. That might explain why the bathroom is like 40* in the winter. I installed these really trick soffit vents that have a gravity operated flapper on them.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Got the back mostly finished and started on the front.

This was dodging rain for two days