I knew today was going to be a good day. I got an Early start and did some prep work before my Dad showed up to give me a hand. It only took a few boards before I could see how much I was going to like it. Putting up the siding was straight forward and the only minor challenges were doing the angles on the gable ends and the dormers where the windows were involved.
The Cedar was OK to work with. We decided to go with Cedar because it gave us the cabin look that we wanted as well as it was much light than Hardy Board. I did find that I will have to go back and put in some smaller siding nails (size 6 galvanized) near the bottom corners. There were a few reasons for this. First, the cedar tends to curve up after I installed it. I am not sure if it was caused by the combination of the sun while we stained it or because once it was nailed in place, the is a natural tendency to curve. The other reason is that this unit is made to have travel potential. I will have to drive it 90 mile to put in its place and I don't want to take a chance on anything working itself loose or worse, ripping off while driving.
I do know that without the extra help from my Dad that I would not have made nearly as much progress.
He is coming back tomorrow to help finish the other two sides. We did the two side we considered to be more work first, so day two on the siding should go much better. Once again, I am so pleased with the fact that we stained the cedar before we installed it. There will be some touch up of course, especially where the siding meets the corner trim. I will do that after I nail up all four corners with the extra nails that I already mentioned.
It is looking like a cabin now, even though the other two sides are not yet done. I will be building a 5' wide porch roof to go over the door that I will install once the cabin is in place. I will be made so that it can be removed easily if necessary to travel. I will add just a little more dimension to the side.
With my Dads help, we worked a total of 11 hours. I had a family obligation or we would have worked more. I am sure that is exactly how my Dad wanted to spend his 63rd birthday. Thanks again Dad!!!
(148 man hours worked to date)
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