SIDING!!

The house is finally starting to look like a house. Fiber Cement Siding is going up really fast. I left on Thursday around lunchtime and they were just starting to put the siding up on the west wall.

This is what I returned to: All of the west wall, most of the front porch, a decent amount of the east wall, and some of the back as well. Its funny how the house has gone from looking like a construction project on the outside, to looking pretty buttoned up and finished on the outside. It really is looking nice.

This is a shot of the west wall windows. Originally I wanted these windows to be twice as wide creating a large break in what is a pretty large wall space. While I did get to break up the space, its doesnt look as large as I wanted. I do really like the uniformity that I am getting from the windows, and the stark contrast between the gray of the siding and black of the windows and trim is really nice as well.

Here is a shot of the back of the house as it is now (they havent worked this week yet). You can see they are putting the hardie wrap up as they go put a second vapor barrier around the house before the siding even goes up. The small squares that are on each side of the sliding door are the places where we will be putting up the exterior lights for the back porch. They create these from the same product as the trim and it helps create a consistent look all around the house.

One final shot of the front and side of the house. You can see the scaffolding still left on the west side of the house from where they were working up high. I really like the smooth, clean look of the hardie board. It has a much smaller profile on the house then the sort of bulky aluminum or vinyl siding that is traditionally used. If you add the "green" value of the product along with the long lasting nature (25+ yr warranty including the paint!) this is one of the best decisions we made and stuck with on the house.

We had to get more siding to finish the house, so they should be back at it again tomorrow or first thing Thursday, and we expect to be done with all of it by Friday. The house should be ready for inspections, finished framing, and insulation by mid-next week!