After several trips up where all we did was prep siding that wasn't yet on the house, we finally have visible progress. Since last time, there were two days of just painting and one where we did a bit of nice work but didn't have the camera (it looks more impressive now that the whole side is done anyway). The black flies are gone, but the deer flies are out with a vengeance. Last thursday was a quasis-solo trip with just Number Two Son, memorable only for the number of times he whacked me in the head. He claimed to be killing deer flies, and after finding a dozen gushed in my hair I guess he was telling the truth.
Saturday morning as V2 and I pulled up the driveway and turned off the car, a cloud of hundreds of them swarmed up and landed everywhere on the vehicle. We sat in the car with windows closed for ten minutes, hoping they would decide there was nothing edible nearby and fly off. Finally, we made a dash into the basement, where we covered ourselves in bug spray and got to work. Surprisingly, the bugs didn't bother us until the last twenty minutes or so before we left at suppertime. In between, I managed to coat myself with sawdust, dirt, paint, and stain in addition to the bug spray, but I think the end result was worth it:
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| We still need to add the window trim, but you can get the idea from the door. |
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| A head-on shot so the scaffolding isn't in the way as much. |
OK, it's the back of the house, but it's finally starting to look like a camp rather than a construction project. And thanks to Number Two Son's help staining all the siding, next time we should be able to set up scaffolding in the front, and finally take care of the missing few feet at the east end, and start on the front.
Just for contrast, click here to see where we were one year ago:
we-have-footings
