Rounding the Corner on Beadboard Work

It was a big week in Chicago this week. The Cubs won the World Series, deyed the river blue, and had a big parade. I work on Michigan so it made for a fun work day. 

I also felt that it was a good week for work on the house. The weather was great, I got the garage cleaned up and it can now be used for parking cars instead of staining wood, and I did a lot of work on the beadboard. 

I was able to finish all but two small sections of beadboard this week. It looks great and will be nice to finally get to the scraping and painting. I don't hold out a ton of hope that I will get much done before it is too cold but I am crossing my fingers.  

The trim for where the beadboard meets the friexeboard also arrived this week. I started priming that and will paint it this week so it can go up soon as well.

Work on the lower beadboard

The better part of this past weekend was spent working on the beadboard. I started the lower level and tackled detailing the corners, mimicking the way that it was originally detailed. The beadboard was set in an alternating offset pattern where each beadboard end was notched to tie into the perpendicular run of board. 

This was a little painstaking and somewhat beyond what I might typically take on. Once I got the hang of it though, things moved along pretty quickly. Unfortunately I don't have scaffolding so there were many trips up and down the ladder that slowed things down. 

It eventually took shape and I finished one corner and have another one well on the way. Once the corners are done, it should get much easier as all of the runs are straight after that.

Here is a detail of the finished corner. The offset detail looks very nice and the beadboard looks fantastic. Still crossing my fingers that the weather cooperates into November!

Beadboard Finishing and Installation

After what seemed like a lifetime of staining and varnishing, we finished prepping the beadboard for the eaves and soffit. I was able to figure out a way to make the job go quickly but it wasn't long before the project took up every space we had: the basement, the back yard, the garage. It was a bit overwhelming and I think we will be cleaning up from this for weeks.  

In addition to the beadboard, the demolition process found that much of the original crown molding was beyond repair as well. Edges were worn, sections were rotted, and the previous roofer had nailed the roofing substrate through it, damaging it to the point where it could not be salvaged. This was depressing. I had hoped to be able to save this component so that it was original. Instead, I had to buy new. I was able to find a molding that perfectly matched it in every way except the thickness. The older crown was much heftier than what is available today.
   

Beadboard installation on the upper gables was done by carpenters. They scaffolded the house in order to do this work. It was best to go this way. My carpentry skills are good enough for such a job but it probably would have taken me a month or more to figure it out. They were done in less than a week!

I am really happy with how the new beadboard and crown molding look. It is exactly what I envisioned and it will look even better when it is painted. There is a final piece of molding missing. It is for the corner formed by the freizeboard and the beadboard. It is being made by the millworker right now and should be here next week. I hope I don't have too much trouble installing it.

The eave return detail is a little awkward and not exactly how it should be. I am debating whether or not I should re-do these areas. That's what I get for leaving the job without providing a drawing of what I wanted. I will probably tackle this when I get to the back of the house.

Soffit and Fascia Demolition and Reconstruction

A view of the exposed soffit, after demolition.

The next phase of the project is well under way. Over the past couple weeks, demolition was completed on the soffit. When we took down the old beadboard, we found significant rot on the beadboard as well as the fascia and soffit supports. The soffit was also previously supported by 1x4 material and was sagging. The house looked a bit like Droopy.

We always wanted the soffit to be varnished beadboard so that the wood character was visible but if the soffit wood were in good condition, we were willing to save it and paint it. Unfortunately, there just wasn't enough to save to make it worth it so we are sticking with the plan of replacing the soffit board with new that matches the old exactly.

Rotted beadboard, ready for the dump.

Rotting soffit with squirrel nest above.

One "discovery" during demolition of the soffit was that the eaves had been filled, by squirrels, with a mixture of insulation and mulch to create huge squirrel nests. The mess and smell were nauseating. I am glad that the squirrels never made it into my attic and I am glad that we removed this problem from the house.  

Reconstructing the eaves.

A detailed view of the front gable and eaves during construction of the new supports and fascia.. 

The soffits were reinforced with new 2x4s and were leveled as much as possible. The fascia boards were also rotted so those needed to be replaced on most of the house as well. These too were replaced with boards that matched the size of the existing ones.  

The straightened out eaves on the front of the home.

The Droopy look is now gone and it makes a huge difference to the appearance of the house. I am happy with the work so far but can't help but still have that anxious feeling about the project. The weekend weather does not look like it is going to cooperate so I am not sure how much we will accomplish this weekend.   

Meanwhile, my basement and garage have become a staining and finishing area for the new beadboard. We are using a light "cedar" color for the stain and I am using the same brand of stain and varnish that I used on the interior of the home. I have about 2/3 of this work done now but am not sure when we will put it up.