The Dreaded List: Completed Item

Today we finished final painting and sealing on the North East wall, from the ground to the attic gable. It came out quite well. We finished, took down the scaffolding, and then the rain started. On 21 July the scaffolding was up and we were tearing out the old kitchen windows. We took off the vinyl siding and styrofoam insulation, and then tore off the tar paper. Underneath, as we expected, there was some rotten sheathing--below the bathroom and kitchen windows. This is how it looked back in July. One month and one week later we're done. The Maibec siding was fairly easy to work with. We changed out the rather clumsily installed plastic vent hood with a new aluminum model. I used the metal brake to fabricate a fairing for it, so I could seal it in around the clapboard. Because the new attic window was considerably larger, I designed a new external header for it, with the corbels beside instead of above the window. Well there. That's done.

First Fire

 I cleaned the pellet stove and its chimney. Joanne laughed at this at first but when I was done and asked if she'd like a fire, she said "YES!" It has been quite chilly--7C was the overnight low, and the kitchen was at about 12C. Brrr! The irony is that while this is the first fire of the new heating season, the LAST fire was in July! 

Rock

 While digging out the old chunk-of-stone-with-some-concrete footing, I flaked off this piece of slate with a well-shaped hole in it from the jackhammer.

Gable

 This is the first proper window for the attic, in the North East gable. I wanted to keep the external box style of the other windows, but there was very little room to spare, so I put on a beveled top and mounted the corbels on either side of the window instead of above them. I think it works.

Awning Style Windows

 We rebuilt the kitchen wall and fitted awning style windows. I quite like them, though I suspect we were influenced in our choice by the tendency of the old windows to leak in bitter weather. These look more reliable.