Exterior Siding Demolition is Complete

Demolition of the exterior siding was completed this week. There were a lot of great discoveries and a lot of not so great discoveries. All in all, I think we are in pretty good shape. 

Lets start with the great discoveries. When they removed the siding, they revealed that the gable is clad in shingles. It is a nice contrast from the 3" exposure clapboards that clad the rest of the house. They also seem to be in pretty good shape. 

The demo also revealed that we have corner boards and a frieze board trim around the house. Mose of the clapboards are also in good shape. The finish on them isn't so great but it is far better than what I feared I might find. 

The worst part of the demo reveal is the eaves. All of the beadboard soffits are rotted. If they were in better shape, I might consider keeping them but instead, we have found a beadboard that matches it perfectly and will replace the beadboard with a replica. We will be staining it so it should provide a nice accent around the entire home. 

We've always had a single door to the cubbie hole beneath our front porch. The demo revealed a second door but there are some challenges with how we make this workable. 

Most of the window trim is in good shape. I think that I have three sills I have to replace but that shouldn't be bad at all. All in all, I am happy with the window areas. 

One of the window's trim was cut apart to make the siding work. The small window in the dining room bay will have to get new trim so that is looks "right" again. 

There is a skirt board at the bottom of the bay window that is missing. We will have to reconstruct that. 

There is a molding that used to exist at the edge of the beadboard. It framed the beadboard at the soffits on the eaves and at the gable. Luckily, there are two homes on the street that have the molding intact so I can figure out what it is and replace it to look like it once did. 

The cove molding on the capitals and on the gables is all intact. I may need to replace some of it but that work will be minor. 

Parts of the back of the house are in rough shape. Clearly, this area never saw much attention. I have a few pieces of clapboard to replace and a lot of minor patching to do. 

The eave returns at the back of the house are a complete mess and have to be completely re-framed and trimmed. The birds will not be happy. 

Carpentry work begins on Monday so I have been busy choosing stains and finishes and getting lumber ordered so that they can start work. I am having people that know what they are doing take care of the eaves and I will tackle a lot of the rest. I am glad that the demo is over but probably won't be completely at ease until the eave work is completed. There may be more discoveries come Monday!