MORE SHOP SIDING

Well, I TOLE you I'd get back to this thing as time allowed. Well, time has paid me my allowance. The big Yale Window Job (restoring over four hundred wood sashes at the oldest building at the Yale campus, the 1754 Connecticut Hall) has been successfully completed, taking many months and a ton of overtime. I worked many Saturdays and The Standish Farm cooked in the midsummer heat, which is a lousy time to work outside anyway.

Window restoration shop glazing area

So now I've been set down, hopefully for only a short period before the next job comes into the shop, and I'm taking advantage of the cooler weather. It's only 85 today! But it has tempered a bit, and the every-third-day rain has slackened to every fifth day, which is as it should be.

Time to get back to work.

Ah, but where to start?

Where I left off, of course. Try to finish the siding on the shop.

If you need to refresh your memory of just what this entails, how long ago I planned for it, and my luck in scarfing a ton of wood from my employer, just go back to the March 24th post from this year, and you'll wish you hadn't. It's very extensive.

I'll wait.

Dum de dum de dum….

Oh, right. All three readers are lazy, I'll give a quick synopsis.

Back in 2014 thru 2016, I ran the Woodmizer at the DCAM shop (Deschenes and Cooper Architectural Millwork), where I milled antique longleaf pine timbers into slabs for use in several huge restoration projects. This left a lot of unusable wood, as the timbers had nail holes and pitch pockets and splits. We only used the best, and I was told to toss the rest. I begged to take it home, and since this saved Brian Cooper (Hey Brian!) from paying me to cut it up and put it into the dumpster or kindling bin, I was given these leftovers. Management at the shop thought I was crazy, taking this rough, stained pine home.

For years they've been in several piles around the Farm, stickered to keep them from rotting. Some did anyway. I always planned to use them for re-siding my outbuildings, and the Shop, being the newest and ugliest, became my first project.

Besides, I was getting tired of looking at these piles.

Pile reduced for the west side of the shop, re-sided this spring

 Wood from the "woods" pile after pressure washing. Unlike the west side wood, this ws set in the woods, where it got wet leaves and constant moisture despite the stickers that kept the boards apart. I had plywood on top of it for a good deal of the time, but I still lost 15%. The rest had dark spots and streaks, which show in the finished product.

THIS is why I needed to add more rustic siding. Tongue-in-groove siding on the left (south) side and T-111 sheet siding over the T&G on the right (east). And a lovely salmon pinkish orange paint that has long since faded.

The louvers keep out the rain in the summer as well as the light year-round. I have lights, and the glare of bright outdoor light is detrimental to seeing properly in the shop.

 Not all the wood I took home was so gnarly. This wainscot was made of pine too thin for use in DCAM projects. It was kept under cover, as opposed to the siding wood.

 Bathroom wainscot pre-milled into beadboard, not enough for a project at work but fit like a glove in my bathroom.

Kitchen wainscot being varnished.

 This was actually the best of the stickered wood, it went on the west side. It looks bad because it's just been lightly pressure washed and was drying.

I had to raid this "woods" pile for the east side.

The stuff on the left was rejected. Then I went through it and used some anyway.

The west side has the best wood.

 In late spring, I put felt over the original siding on the north side, thinking I'd side it next. WRONG! I worked on the yard next, and when I had time to do this siding job, the high summer sun had taken a nearly above-my-head ecliptic, and what was easy shade in the spring was now swelteringly hot in July. Me not do sun so good.

A ways back in spring, when the ecliptic was still low.

Deciding to move the operation to the east side, I found that the last half of the day has it in shade.

 It took very little time to put up the siding. This is the fastest part. I  pre-sanded and finished the wood before installation. Saved the shorter pieces for the fan vent louver area. The horseradish should give me some hot roots this November.

Choosing, milling, and finishing the battens takes longer. The bees were bothersome, especially when I removed the newer pine fascia, which they inhabited. I have nothing against carpenter bees, even though they bore holes in the wood, but they freaked me out as I worked on the ladder, so a few had to be whacked. No wasps, hornets or yellowjackets. Thank God for that.

Siding finished, cornice installed, and all battens, drip edge and louvers installed. The electrical line, a small gray wire, will be stapled back and tidied up.

 NOW the building is starting to look like it belongs on an old farm. Or at least like someone that lives here has pride of place.

 I wrangled what to do with the holes. These are from large bolts, electrical lines, and other accoutrement of the woolen mill from which the original 15"x7"x 28' timbers were salvaged.

I spent some time cutting plugs with my plug cutting bits on my drill press, but there are many sizes, and each would have to be tapered, then glued up, then sanded, then finished.

But I am an artist, and rather complicated one at that. So I will do a number of things to hide the holes, including installing a few extra battens to cover those in line, applying stars and moons (and clovers! Always after me lucky charms...) that I'm cutting from scrap heart pine, and inserting a few rubber snakes and other critterage. Hey, it's a garden on this side.

 These would be covered with corner boards to be installed later. Most would, anyway.

 The last of the heart pine, ready for the north side. The ecliptic is now lower in the south sky, so I can work in shade. Tomorrow is supposed to be in the low seventies with low humidity, so I'm going to start this then. It's harder to cut on this side, as each piece has to be custom cut to match the angle at the top and they shorten from east to west.

 More of the last longleaf.

 The last of the longleaf siding, finished and ready for cutting.

 Amazing what one can do with a simple portable table saw. The nail gun helps, too.

I know I already posted this pic, but take a look at the swayback roof on the 1830s tractor shed. Not that there was a tractor in there in 1830. I want to illustrate the REAL reason I wanted to side the shop, other than those of aesthetics. After selecting, washing, and drying the pine, I couldn't stack it back in the outdoor piles, so I had it stored in the loft of this barn, and the only way to get the roof straightened is to jack it and pull the rear plate in simultaneously. The wood was simply in the way. And I cant do this in the winter; the bats are sleeping then. In fact, I have to do it quietly in the late afternoon and into the evening when my little batty guys are feasting on mosquitoes.

 Inside the tractor shed, the big wood collection is reduced to a pile of battens. The battens would be more complex on the north side; I had mostly short pieces left, and they would have to fit together. I have a feeling I'll be raiding the reject pile again.

 But this pile is pretty much gone.

 So is this one.

 Only the white pine barnboard remains. It will go up on the south side, which has a door and a window, so it will need shorter pieces. It also gets full sun all day, and the more pitchy and harder longleaf pine will likely seep, sap, crack, and warp in the heat. Antique eastern white pine in my last pile is a mix of barnboard, flooring, and sheathing from Colonial-era and slightly later buildings. Again, a donation from Brian Cooper and Early New England Restorations/DCAM. I couldn't be doing all this without him and the ability to reuse that which we would have cast off from our other reuse/remilling of the timbers. Thanks, Brian.

I really do like the way this turned out. All the passing cars slow to see it.

 It isn't all skittles and cream, though. This cheap but effective roof patch was necessary on the bedroom addition, as it went from a tiny leak to a monster waterfall. The roof of the original structure was beautifully reroofed last November (Hey Ozzie!), but it got too cold, then too hot to reroof the two additions. The south addition roof doen't leak, and I needed to buy time until I get the money for new decking. I have the roofing left over from the main house.

Nor it it peaches and beer, neether. The Monster Briar, which gives my bedroom window both shade and singing birds in the morning, must be kept at bay from the roof a few times a year. I use shotguns and flamethrowers in high summer, but this late, loppers and hedge trimmers do the job. Along with rhinoceros-hide gauntlets and a long steel rake.

 Late summer. Hot. Speckle stays on the cool wood floor, head propped up, as usual. Marley is in her hole under the Dog Deck, sleeping in the cool dirt.

 A lousy year for basil. This is my second planting; the first wasn't much better, and it flowered within two weeks of planting in May.

 The dogwood I planted last year is taking off, as did all trees this year. A whole lotta rain. The bulkhead doors are also scarfed from a section of garage door replaced at DCAM four years ago. Hey Brian! Thanks for your contribution! ALL your contributions! Standish Farm owes a lot to your offerings.

 Little dogwood, also on the south side, will offer much-needed shade in a few years.

 Grass under the variegated maple took nicely; this had been bare since I moved here.

 I don't know what this weed is, but it envelops my firepit's wood piles nicely at this time of year, and the bungle bees love the little orange flowers. I look after my bees.

 The grass at the old greenhouse took well. I have to mow it to keep the undergrowth from re-establishing.

 The apple seems happy with its new support, which has held up through a number of 50 MPH storms. Still no apples, but after another big trimming next spring, I'm going to spray it and see if it produces.

 The grass planted back at the old animal pens is a harder case, without as much light as the other spots. The undergrowth is more tenacious here as well.

I'll keep a-mowing.

Next time: The North Side