My Big Fat Renovation

[67ChevyRedneck]

Well, this pissed me off. Apparently I got a half and half mix of siding with a light colored backing and a dark colored backing. The light color is how I remember all of my house siding. I must have gotten half of a new run (its been a few years since the house was done now), all of the box part numbers were the same. Somehow, I got lucky and all of the upper stuff I did had the light backing and the lower rows of the long side were all lighter.

I figured out something was wrong when I did the two rows above the window. I cracked into a new box and I had one dark piece above a window and another a couple over. I was like wtf is going on here??? It was barely noticeable, but something was clearly wrong. So I took those rows off and made sure each even row came from the same box.

I didn't realize it until this afternoon when I was picking up the pieces I threw off in anger and was marking them to not use. Then I went and checked all my boxes and I have about half and half.

The good news: when used in the same row, you can't tell if you have a darker row above or below a lighter row, again, I only noticed this looking down the line of my siding in a shaded light.

The bad: This just sucks. Now I have to pay attention to what pieces I put up. Again, You can't tell as long as the rows are even, but if you overlap a dark and a light something looks clearly wrong.

I don't normally bring stuff back, but this is something I would... if it hadn't been almost 2 years since I bought it

[67ChevyRedneck]

The good... after redoing a few rows in anger ( ) and weeks of only doing a few rows at a time because I've been working weekends (actually in the office now and plan on all day tomorrow ) one side is done.

[67ChevyRedneck]

The best part... when looking over from the deck, the garage looks done-ish

Next up, I really need to get the stupid stair case built. I've been putting it off on purpose... not going to be fun.

[mongocanfly]

Wow..that does suck...one of the reasons I dont care for vynil..my buddy had some mower damage on his house...he wanted it replaced...they couldnt find anything that would match..they finally took a piece of his siding and did a special match run for him..sucky part was there was a minimum and he had to buy 10 boxes...
Hope Jess-jr and mom are doing well...

[Ol Blue K20]

Yep, that sucks..I hate when they change a product with no way to tell a difference until it's too late.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Yes, it sucks, but at least it's a manageable fix. I'll see if I can separate it out and use one color for the other long side and the other for the front/back, or whatever. Again, the difference is really subtle, and I only noticed it looking down the side in shade, so it's super close, but the darker backing makes the overall piece just a touch darker than the lighter backing.

We've been pretty lucky here, my house had old, brittle siding on it and with the 4 hail storms we've been hit with since 2009, one lasting for almost an hour with quarter size hail in 2016, only one piece ever had a crack in it. You want to talk about a feeling of defeat... I watched my C10 and 1 year old silverado get hammered for that hour. The C10 came out fine, with only my trim getting destroyed. Big blue ended up getting $4500 in PDR. State Farm wanted to replace panels and cut the roof off... no... I "know a guy."

This new stuff is above builder grade. It's "softer" and supposed to be more hail resistant. They actually made stuff a little thicker, but the siding guy recommended I not use it as it seemed to crack easier in this area from hail.

I have 300 SF I saved from the house (bought an extra box on purpose plus what was left over) and I plan on having at least one extra box for the garage. As long as you replace an entire row, the color blends in better. Now 15+ years from now.... eh... it's probably going to be faded anyway.

I'm just happy to finally have "something" done.

[67ChevyRedneck]

We're all doing great. He's sleeping a lot more at night and getting into a schedule.

I'm working too many damn hours... I crossed over into the big 40 a week or two ago, I'm already more irritable

I'm off from Dec 23- Jan 04 (one reason why we're so busy, for some reason you say you're closed for a week and clients panic like you're closed for a month). I'm supposed to be putting a new level floor in our laundry room we can get a new washer/dryer and lay down a grippier tile floor and get rid of galloping girdy. Anyway, I hope to take him on his first hot rod ride soon.

We just did our first family photo shoot.

[72 tigger]

Great family pics!!

[Palf70Step]

Nice pics Jesse!

[mongocanfly]

Great pics..!!!

[67ChevyRedneck]

Yea, my facespace blew up last night. Everyone loves babies apparently.

I got a good look at the siding in the sun this morning before heading back in to work... it looks really awesome. I hope to finish pressure washing it and get the shutters up next weekend... then.... stairs. Yes, the stairs. Maybe. No, definitely the stairs.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Whew, 4 months? Someone's been slacking (or broke?)

I promised the wife if we ever had a kid, I would look into getting our upstairs A/C replaced - the two warmest rooms in the house have always been my computer room and the spare bedroom. I LOVE our downstairs unit, pretty sure I could make an ice rink down there if I wanted to.

The upstairs system has always sucked. Poor air flow, running ALL DAY LONG in summer.

I had the guy that's serviced my systems a few times and been doing all of my friends rentals for 10+ years replace it. Really knows his stuff and fair pricing. The first thing he said was my plenum was built completely wrong (and used squishy pipe instead of hard.) So we replaced the outside unit and attic blower with a 2.5 ton system (was 2.0 before) with a slightly higher fan speed.

With the better fan speed and better plenum (he said with the layout we had, he could only make it better, not totally "fix it")... and wow... it hasn't been super warm yet, but the air comes out of the vents at least 3X better than before. It was pretty warm yesterday and it didn't seem to need to run much at all. June/july will be the real test and we still have the option of increasing the fan speed one more notch if necessary.

He also HIGHLY recommended an attic fan. It was +/-70* the day we installed it and my attic was probably already 90*. I will be adding one before it gets stupid hot. I want to see what this thing is really capable of.

So there went a big chunk of money, just under 6K. He did check Godzilla (our downstairs unit I love) and he's still operating in the near perfect zone.

He also agreed a mini-split would work best for my shop. Rough estimate of 5K for the whole thing. I will likely pull the trigger this fall/winter on that....

[67ChevyRedneck]

I did work on the shop!!!

Again, before it gets stupid hot, I got my "new" flooring down. Good Lord am I glad I bought this crap last year when it was $17/sheet.

I had exactly enough, literally, I had 3 cuts that removed like 10/11 inches.

It's still technically the wrong material to use for flooring, but when you add it to the 19/32 sheeting I already put down... the floor feels pretty damn sturdy now. I don't feel like I'm going to crack through anymore. It's roofing rated 19/32 plywood... which is currently FORTY EIGHT DOLLARS A SHEET.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I also completely redid our laundry room. New, releveled floor and tile, redid the trim, repainted it, added base cabinets and a top, repainted all the trim... its like 98% done, I'll post a few pics of that soon.

Washer and dryers have gotten stooooopid. Aside from having to wait 2 months for them, they were $2K with the bases (highly recommended with front load, you don't have to bend over anywhere near as far compared to being mounted on the floor).

I also redid our guest bath. New tile, new pooper, repainted all the trim. Came out nice.

And of course, trying to spend as much time as possible with this handsome little guy.

My wife can't stand listening to him cry, so I've been trying to sleep train him in his crib in his room... not going well... he loves his mama.

We've still been doing our almost weekly mustang rides, he seems to enjoy them.

Work has also been HORRIBLE. I've pulled all nighters trying to complete projects on time. We FINALLY hired a new guy for my group and I've finally kicked a few difficult projects out the door to construction that have been dragging on in permitting forever, so I'm hoping work improves back to normal hours soon. I guess my work is being recognized, I got a rather large raise last week, so that was nice.

I hope to dive back into the C10 in the next couple of months and figure out wtf is wrong with my brakes. My right rear doesn't act like it does anything, even though everything appears correct and not leaking and the front just randomly chatters/sticks. I'm suspecting my distribution block is failing or plugged full of goo.

[mongocanfly]

great update Jesse...you hit it about right by getting yours built before the crazy...
Jr sure is growing..!!!

[67ChevyRedneck]

Man, no kidding. There was 18 sheets there. At the $17 I bought it for it was $306 dollars, at $48 it would cost me $864 now!

I'm afraid to call my door guy back. My door install was already going to be nuts at $7500 (quote was from like fall 2019), that did include replacing our 16' attached garage door with all new hardware and motor.

I also still have to do full insulation, sheetrock, etc... I don't think that stuff has gone up too much, but I do still need to build the full enclosed staircase... it's going to be $ now.

SO HAPPY I started this project in 2019. If I started it any later than I did... I either would have had zero time, or it would have cost double what I've already spent.

I feel sorry for anyone trying to build a house right now.

[nsb29]

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

Man, no kidding. There was 18 sheets there. At the $17 I bought it for it was $306 dollars, at $48 it would cost me $864 now!

I'm afraid to call my door guy back. My door install was already going to be nuts at $7500 (quote was from like fall 2019), that did include replacing our 16' attached garage door with all new hardware and motor.

I also still have to do full insulation, sheetrock, etc... I don't think that stuff has gone up too much, but I do still need to build the full enclosed staircase... it's going to be $ now.

SO HAPPY I started this project in 2019. If I started it any later than I did... I either would have had zero time, or it would have cost double what I've already spent.

I feel sorry for anyone trying to build a house right now.

I used to be in the overhead door Business I don’t think they’ve jumped up in price like lumber has what kind of a door are you installing at that price just curious

[67ChevyRedneck]

1 - 8x16

3 - 10x10

All new tracks. All new motors.

Aluminum with "solid core". I think that's the heavy backing that's molded to the door?

Not terrible considering it's 4 doors (3 of them "oversize"), but I thought it was kinda high. I had a couple more places I was going to call, this place was highly recommended and should at least give me a base price to compare to.

[mongocanfly]

That's probably not bad for 4 doors...my 2 12ftrs wide,10ft tall, insulated with motors cost around 3gs 20yrs ago..
They're close to needing replaced now but I been holding off...I want them redone to follow the pitch of my shop roof which is open ceiling...now when they raise they are horizontal..and the one at my 2 post lift will hit my truck if it's on the lift..but they'll need direct drive motors on them, which ain't cheap..

[67ChevyRedneck]

I did something!

I got tired of the front looking like poo so I finished fully framing the door jams. This was a lot more $$$ than I thought it would be. Between the treated 2x6, the 1/4" trim, and pvc brick moulding, it was about $275/door.

I haven't painted the "side" trim yet, I still have holes to fill, I painted the brick moulding. I bought the custom metal caps online.

The backside of the doors are now ready to have the door tracts installed... maybe next year

[67ChevyRedneck]

This really pissed me off... again... I now found I have THREE different shades of green. As I mentioned before, if they're "stacked" you can't tell, but if it's pieces that overlap.... I can see it. I thought I was using all the stuff in the middle, I didn't know I had an even darker version...

I believe I have enough in stacks and in new boxes to do the back wall in the lighter version. Siding is fairly cheap so I think I'll just buy 3 new boxes for the last long side. I was planning on siding my 10'x20' shed because I don't want to paint it anymore... I should have plenty to finish that too.

[67ChevyRedneck]

And the Ta Da!

I went all out and even installed the lights.

[67ChevyRedneck]

That's probably it for a while. My parents are coming down for the week of labor day. My dad is brining is mahindra backhoe. The plan is to dig the retaining wall straight down and get the stone base installed. I'll also have him dig the trench for my trench drain and a bunch of other stuff around the yard. I have a lot of things to get cleaned up before they get here.

[mongocanfly]

Looks great Jesse..!!...but dang all those different shades...
I saw the pic you posted of the little guy in the cowboy hat the other day..!...cool pic for sure...
looks like hes growing like weed...
before long, he'll be out there in the garage losing your tools for ya..

[Scott2]

That looks great and is really coming along! Bummer about the siding colors.