Here is a job that has hung over us for 17 years: the eaves on the NE side of the house. We demolished 16 feet of rotten wall and the eaves went with it. Then we hastily tacked up some vinyl siding . . . and left it. Later we added two windows by the admirable expedient of cutting holes in the vinyl. This is the final reckoning, which will see the construction of new eaves and the replacement of the vinyl with proper clapboard. As I started putting up the third level of scaffolding, I nudged the eaves above the cellar entrance. A large number of curious but not immediately aggressive wasps emerged to size up the situation.
I was holding a scaffolding frame at the time: I dropped it over the side and bailed, escaping without injury. When I returned, I was armed with suitable sprays (visible on the platform in the image to the left). I made the main supports out of simple triangles cut from a 10" plank. The back of the house is post and beam, and the rafters terminate at the top plate, so there is no communication between the eaves and the peak. The project went fairly smoothly once the wasps were out of the way. I wasn't really surprised by their presence--since 2000, when we demolished and rebuilt the NE wall, the top end of the eaves above the cellar entrance have been exposed. Late in the project, I discovered various irregularities in the line of the roof edge had led me astray, but I'm used to that. I don't expect straight lines!
In the end, the open conduit which allowed the wasps to make a home was closed. This was probably a route for the odd squirrel as well as the wasps. Now it's down with the old vinyl and up with new clapboard.
