Week 10: Exciting Siding

Hi Friend,

We're wrapping things up here with the guys. Tomorrow, two of them will go to the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island, which has been on the schedule since the beginning, so there are just a few more work hours left till they're done.

Dolan and Isaac work on the east wall

The house already needs a bath!

Judah works his way across the front

Despite several rainstorms that have blown through, they've gotten the boards painted and are almost done installing them. Wow, what a difference siding makes! The busyness of the insulation and strapping and wiring are now covered with a calming deep green. As with the interior exposed structure, they hammered every nail into every board of siding by hand so that there'd be no visible holes (unlike with a nail gun). They also had to be careful that all the penetrations are plugged and that none of the electrical wires are pierced.

Almost done with siding! Just a few more boards

East and south wall done (except trim, doors, and lights)

East and north sides

We just got the delivery of the extra roofing and all the doors, just in the nick of time. My hope is that this summer building project is wrapped up with a sealed exterior - roof, siding, windows, exterior doors all installed and finished. We're almost there!

Exterior and interior doors delivered

I hope you don't mind, but I totally changed the kitchen layout. The old one just wasn't working for me. As I was taping the location of cabinets, island, and dining table in the space, I saw that everything was off-center and just felt off. It didn't have the strong symmetry that I like so much. So, here's the new plan. What do you think?

New kitchen layout. What to do about corner cabinets??

Girls play in the new kitchen (water is from Judah's rain-soaked bag)

This house kit comes with everything except foundation, plumbing, electrical, plumbing fixtures, and kitchen countertops. So the kitchen cabinets are included, and I've been needing to get my order to David Howard (FirstDay Cottage). Thankfully, our local lumber yard has samples of the cabinets, so I could see and touch them in person. I'm so glad I stopped in, because I realized that their stained cabinets feel much better than the painted ones, which I thought felt like plastic. In general, I like painted cabinets better, but what's more important to me is that they feel like wood. So I'll paint them myself if I don't like the look of the stained ones.

My cabinet options

I also bid on (and won!) some marble countertops that need to be dismantled from a house a couple of hours from here, so Mickey and I will load those up this weekend. This new kitchen design will make some things more expensive - like needing way more countertop material - so I'll save a few bucks wherever I can.

Speaking of cost, a friend who's on our town's Affordable Housing Trust stopped by to see the house. I'll share our budget and final numbers in another post, but I shared with her that the cost of the subcontractors has been significantly higher than we'd hoped. And the cost of the kit was over 50% higher than it was 4 years ago due to the increased cost of almost every material: lumber, nails, screws, windows, doors, roofing. Higher interest rates don't help, either. But even so, I think the cost per square foot of this house - including labor - will be much lower (and better built, methinks :) than many houses being built these days. I'm excited about that.

The chickens' view of the housebuilding project

You know what else is exciting? Having a dentist appointment while your toddler sits unattended next to you. I thought Jordan and I had appointments back-to-back yesterday so that one of us could watch Anna. But they called us at the same time. The poor hygienist was cleaning my teeth as fast as she could, and still, the baby managed to squirt her applesauce packet all over the side chair, scribble on the floor with my mascara wand, and then poop in her diaper, which made the whole room reek. As if sitting in the dental chair isn't nerve-wracking enough. You'd think I'd know better with 6 kids and all! Next time, I'll reschedule.

Until next time,

xo

P.S. Do you have a good solution for corner cabinets? I've avoided awkward doors / drawers by having shelves and no doors. But maybe you have a better idea?

P.P.S. We didn't get any good footage of the siding install, but here's a time lapse video that Judah took:

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