The weekend project has been selected - garage siding!

We moved in here last June. When we bought the place, the detached two car garage had a tree growing through the back wall of the garage, leaving a shark bite in the wall and roof. We knew this when we purchased.

Our first order of business for this project was to find a tree service to remove the tree. I called about 5 tree services, and one showed up. He grimaced when he saw the tight quarters, and told me he needed to come back with a colleague to estimate. It would take a crane to take the tree down. I never saw him again, I hope he wasn't abducted by aliens after he left.

I then called my next list of tree services, and ended up with several $2,500 estimates. I finally called one last service, and he quoted $1,000. I asked for a certificate of insurance, and as soon as I had it, we hired him. His crew climbed the tree, and roped the pieces down, leaving me wood for the anticipated fireplace (it's in now, more on that another time). Based on how much most tree services charge, and how few actually came out to offer an estimate, I would think that starting a tree service would be a great opportunity for someone not afraid of heights - which counts me out.

With the tree down, I was able to start on the garage repair. At this point we had a roofing company lined up, so I was under the gun to finish it. Before I could start the wall replacement, I had to replace the joists that hold the walls together, and the roof up. A previous owner had installed electric garage door openers, and the installer notched the joists, weakening them severely. So I called one of my brothers, and he educated me on rafter ties and collar ties, and we decided I needed rafter ties. While I installing the rafter ties and pulling out the damaged rafters, I modified the construction so our sea kayaks could be hoisted above the garage doors. I'll put some pics up eventually to show that.

So I took a few days off work, and started on the repairs. I built a wall inside the garage, and with sledge hammer in hand, I started hitting the wall. The walls are stucco, which is concrete on iron mesh which is nailed to planking. It isn't easy to take down. As I took the wall out, I disturbed carpenter ants, spiders, and termites. the three foot section of wall I planned on replacing, became a whole 20 foot wall, from the ground to the roof ridge. It took a couple of days to complete. With the wall complete, and the roof installed, my priorities moved on to other areas of the house.

Before I started swinging the big hammer. See the shark bite up top.

A bit more than I expected, and the insect damage continues

I eventually made it all the way to the right, I did sections at a time to maintain the load of the roof

So last weekend I blocked time out to do the siding. I headed to Lowes in Paterson, NJ, and after spending way too long discussing the fine art of vinyl siding installation, I finally had a cart full of what I needed. I headed to the customer service desk to pay, and to rent a truck. Sounded easy to me, but woe was me. The name on my insurance card has my wife's name, and - you guessed it, my license is in my name. Same address almost same last name, but the policy of Lowes very strict customer service department was that the names must match. I tried to make my case with the manager, but realized I would have more luck convincing an inflatable Santa that reindeer can fly, than I would have in winning my case. I left the store. I generally try to avoid big box stores, but they have cheap vinyl, and give me a 10% military discount.

Last night I returned with my honey to Lowes, we purchased the stuff, and I drove the loaded truck home and back empty. The outcome didn't change, I still drove the danged truck.

The deal I have with my honey is that I have rationalization money I can spend to compensate myself for being our contractor. So I purchased a new log maul and a hatchet. My last log maul broke when I tried to split a log, and it was closer than I thought it was. The hatchet was for making kindling, because right before I broke the maul, I caught two fingers between the sharp side of the maul and the wood. I luckily was able to check my one-handed swing, and ended up with a bruise, and a small indented cut on two fingers. There's no cure for stupid, but stupid sometimes gets lucky.

So Saturday you will be treated to the story of the siding. From start to finish. For now, I need to get back to projects. I just painted the laundry room, and am finishing the spackle in our storage closet.