Parts of our shiplap had been shipwrecked (I think I’m clever) due to having gutters that didn’t fit our home properly allowing water to overshoot them and splash up but we replaced all of our gutters earlier this year and thought before winter hit we really should repair any severely water damaged siding, or as our type is sometimes referred to, German Lap Siding.
I was pretty nervous about it…our home is 125 years old and the idea of removing anything from it gives me major heartburn. I pictured this being the last straw and it starting to crumble the moment that piece of siding is removed and us having to scramble to replace all the siding before winter. Luckily, that didn’t happen. I still needed to get myself pumped to do it though and watched an This Old House clip on YouTube about replacing siding that gave me courage (sorry I can’t find the clip now??) and also a Boston accent in which I called Andrew “Tommy” with all day. Andrew and I both grew up watching This Old House so he’s use to me thinking I’m Kevin or sometimes Steve (we miss you Steve Thomas).
Truthfully though I didn’t get to help much, I’m 25 weeks pregnant and the sun has been giving me pregnancy sun rashes so while I started helping outside Andrew gently put his hand on my shoulder and said “you’re covered in a rash…you should go inside.” I gave one last “Tommy” and sadly went back inside like the Quasimodo I’ve become.
We were lucky in that there were only two pieces that were really damaged enough to need to be replaced urgently…the rest especially the section we were working in needs to go but will survive another winter until we have more time and money to replace them entirely.
Andrew did a superb job and it really was a cool experience, getting to actually replace the wood of your home makes you feel that much more closer to it and gives you an even better understanding of the care and thinking that went into building it.
Doing this also helped us figure out what color of white we’d be going with to repaint our entire exterior which badly needs to be done. We’ve been planning to repaint the exterior for awhile now and are going to take it in sections as trying to finish it all in one year would probably lead to Andrew divorcing all of us and finally setting out on that sunset drive to a place that sells a lot of cheese and the wives only want brand new homes.
Nothing makes your home look worse than only a small portion of it getting a new coat of paint. Blergh. We still need to do a second coat too but happy to have this finished…until spring that is.