I passed the pre-siding inspection on Friday.
Then Kai came out on Sat to help with the last step before putting on the siding. I had been struggling with how best to attach the siding to the building. Libby and Larry put 1/2 inch strips of cedar on top of the particle board then nailed the siding to that, giving them a full inch of wood to hold the siding. I had originally planned to nail horizontal 2x4s between the studs, but that was when I was still using the chainsaw for everything and didn't have the nail gun. In other words, it was way, way too time consuming. I only put a few boards up before I abandoned the project, putting the decision off until later. As with many of these decisions, I put it off until I had to deal with it, which is now. I decided not to go with the extra 1/2 of material, primarily because it would have made installing the windows a bit more challenging. The siding is already 1 inch thick. Putting an extra 1/2 doesn't sound like much, but since I was installing replacement windows (without window sills or framing), it would have been challenging to make it look ok, and especially challenging for me since I was making it up as I went along with the windows.
After scratching that idea off the list, I tried to convince myself that I could just nail the siding into the particle board, maybe bending each nail down to prevent the siding from pulling away from the building. My gut knew that was a dumb idea, but I wanted it to work.
Finally, I went back to plan #1. With Kai helping (along with a nail gun, generator, and chopsaw), we got it done in a few hours. Thanks, little brother!
Jack came out to visit, too.
