Siding and Roofing and Windows, Oh my!

11:50 PM

Just in case you thought I was joking about all the rain we had... Here's exhibit A. That's our "driveway" completely washed out by mud. All this while they're trying to put on the roof and siding. It was a joy. (Not.) Needless to say I'm thankful we made it through this challenge unscathed.

Soooooo- We went with steel roofing and siding. It was a decision that I tossed around a lot just because I was afraid of it just looking like "a barn." Considering the style I was going for was "Modern Farmhouse," I decided the durability, and low maintenance of the metal was the right choice for us. In the end, I'm even happier with the result than I was hoping for.

One of the things we did have to be really particular about was that we actually got WHITE siding. Apparently, the "normal" white steel siding that the majority of people buy is actually a very, very pale gray. I knew I didn't want that. So our crew found a supplier that had a bright white. It was that pure, clean white I was looking for. They had to send back about every type of trim they ordered because the metal supplier couldn't believe we didn't find the standard white to be bright enough to go with the bright white siding. (It definitely wasn't.) So, they had to custom bend our trim in the bright white color. I like to call it #whitesidingprobs. In the end, it all worked out, but it was just an unexpected hurdle having to triple check every piece of trim before it was installed.

Bright white siding- charcoal roof- black framed windows. All the heart eyes.

Jake ran electrical in the soffits for me to prepare for my Christmas decorating obsession. Every house should have Christmas light outlets! It's brilliant I tell ya!

We decided to do a Shou-sugi-ban wood treatment to accent around the garage doors and front door. If you've never seen this process, it's pretty incredible. You literally take a weed burner (or flame-thrower as I like to call it.) burn the crap out of your boards, pour water on them, scrub off all the ash, wash them with water again, and you're left with this perfect dark "stain" effect that is water and bug resistant. We finished it off with a couple coats of penofin oil and voila! I think it turned out beautiful. (Still deciding on what color to paint that beauty of a front door, though!)

Here's our very own rally mantis that was cheering us on in the garage while we worked!

Next up, Jake and his Dad took on the massive task of installing the panoramic door. It was a serious chore. It was stressed repeatedly that the bottom track needed to be perfectly level. Turns out that over a 20 ft. span concrete can vary up to 1/2" in height. Yikes!! Jake found specialty shims online made for just this kind of thing and they worked perfectly to level the track. Then, the side rails and the top portion of the track had to be installed followed by the 6 individual panels.