We spent most of the spring working on the exterior of our old home. Built in 1805, the house has seen its fair share of renovations over the years. Surprisingly, however, the siding hasn't been touched in a long time. (While we can't say exactly how long, the siding was secured into the wall with hand forged square nails). Years of sanding off paint had taken its toll, and Jordan estimates that the wood clapboards had been shaved down to less than half of their original depth - making for some pretty cold drafts in the middle of our frigid winters. So we decided to insulate and re-side.
The clapboard siding on half of the house came off quickly and fairly easily. We even discovered that there had once been an addition on the front of the house (you can see where the wall has been patched in to the left of the front door, along with the faint outline of the addition roof).
Removing the cedar shakes on the other half of the house was a much longer and more tedious chore. Along the way we discovered some issues with rotting corner posts, but Jordan had those repaired in no time.
We still have to add some stairs, paint the front door and do some landscaping, but we love the end result.
The house just "pops" now, and we can even enjoy it from across the river.
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