OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

Cleanup is not fun with the sprayer. No, actually it's not horrible, you just need an extra 20-30 minutes to cycle enough water through.
Today was the day i was finally going to get the furnace in. Everything was delivered on Friday. The guys were here, hauling everything up to the shop attic. I wandered away, and I heard, "Oh shit, lookout!"
CRASH!
Yeah, they dropped the furnace. About a 200-pound box. It fell about 10' and got all messed up so there's a new one coming on Monday. Installation is now going to be starting on Tuesday. Ugh...

OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

We've now begun gutting the kitchen. All of the cabinets and countertops are getting removed. That means that I have no idea where anything is. We now have cabinets and everything from them in the new pantry, mudroom and laundry room. Making lunch is a nightmare.
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Time to start the process of blending the existing kitchen with the new addition. Since the foundation morons poured the foundation an inch high, I have to modify the plans. Originally the existing 2x10s were supposed to match up with the new TJIs. But that plan is out the window. Now I'm trying to just make it all work. The 3/4 sheeting on top of the TJIs is very close to the level of the tile in the kitchen. That tile has a lay er of thin set underneath it and then 1/4" Hardi backer board and another layer of thin set. All of that together is pretty close to 3/4". That means that I can remove the tile and backer board and lay 3/4 ply over the top, leaving a surface that's even with the addition.
One issue, the existing kitchen floor is extremely wavy. There's up to a 1/2" variation in that 250 sqft. I bought a new fridge a few months ago and had a hell of a time levelling it out, since it's a french door type. The doors won't line up because the back of the fridge drops so much. Once I rip out the tile, I'll be adding some self levelling concrete underneath the 3/4" ply.
Here's what I'm working with.
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I put that floor in back in 2005. It's in properly, meaning the backer board is held down by screws and thin set and then a layer of thin set under the tile. I've been dreading ripping it up. Damn me for doing things right.
Fortunately the Hardi backer is soft, so it can be removed from the thin set pretty easily with the rotary hammer and a 4" chisel attachment and the screws are left behind.
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All the screws have mortar in them (square drive), but that comes out pretty easily using a paddle bit on each screw head. Then they can be easily unscrewed and then it's just a matter of the mortar.
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I've been using a combination of a trowel and a putty knife to scrape off the remaining thin set. It's working quite well, and I have nothing, but bare plywood left. Ready for the next step.

OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

Still in the not super exciting realm.
We painted.
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I caught this little guy in my shop multiple times. There's a nest right outside the shop and an easy way in.
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I got rid of all the excess fill in the backyard. I was estimating that it would be about 60 yards or so, about 6-7 truckloads. Well, it turns out that once you start moving clay around, it unpacks quite a bit. I was hauling about 1.5 to 1.75 yards of clay per load, and 8 loads per truckload. I was off by about a factor of 3. I filled that truck 17 times. But finally, it was all gone.
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Now, I want to finish using this loader and sell it off. The last main task with it is to grade the yard. I lost about 100 pines back in 2006 due to a freak October storm that dropped 2 feet of insanely heavy snow. It snapped all of the branches off of the trees. It took me about 3 years to fully recover from that. I had to cut down everything remaining in that area, haul it out to the street, pay to have someone remove the stumps then grade the area and finally put in drainage to handle all of the excess water. The thought of doing that again was not something i was looking forward to ever again.
Why am I bringing this up?
These stupid pine trees are weak and they don't do that well, despite being native around here. I still have about 150 more, but there's a group in the back that has begun dying off.
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This was a few years ago and you can see the browning on one side. I figure it's only going to get worse in the next few years.
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I could wait, and repeat my 2006 performance, or preemptively take them out now, while i have the loader. So, the second that the last load of clay was gone, I got out the chainsaw and started taking down trees. 25, to be exact. The smallest was about 6" in diameter and the largest was about 18". This entire weekend was cutting, and hauling everything out to the curb. All while trying to not kill my cherry and apple trees. We had a couple trees fall the wrong way, despite being tied off. There were just too many branches on one side of the tree, in the opposite direction of where we wanted it to fall.
Like this one. Huge notch and crazy rope tension.
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I was prepared for that to go the wrong way, but was hoping that it wouldn't.
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Now it's on to removing the stumps with the loader and grading while the weather is nice. I'm trying to have a yard by our 4th of July party.

OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

Siding...
I got really sick of siding, really quick. It's not hard to do at all. If I were in a 1200 sqft ranch, it would be nothing more than a single weekend job. But i have peaks. 6 peaks that range from 20' to 27' high. From the ladder, you can only reach about 4 feet of the siding in one location. So once the siding is about 8' off the ground, each piece of siding requires moving and climbing a ladder 4 times. One to get one side up, one to get the other side up and in position, nail that side, nail the other side and nail the middle. If there are obstructions in the piece like a vent, window, or light, that more climbing measuring and cutting. There were days where I'd have 15000 steps tracked on my phone and I was never more than 10' from the house.
I'm generally not a fan of being that high up either. I'm not small. So just my weight alone exceeds the rating on most ladders.
The first piece is the hardest. Get that level and then the next 7 feet flies up.
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There were always ladders going every which way. The windows here were always in the way.
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Just one of the absolute pain in the neck spots. A 4 pitch and 6 pitch converging. Lots of room to swing a hammer in there under the 12" overhang too.
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I decided to put an exhaust fan in the shop. It'd be harder to do in the future, so I might as well do it now.
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It blended in rather nicely.
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This wall felt like it never ended.
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Then on to the shake siding. This stuff is pricey. About 3x the cost of regular vinyl. Each panel has a 14" x 50" exposure, or about 5 sqft per piece. You really need to plan the layout or you can scrap a whole piece easily. At $18 per panel, I didn't want to waste anything. Also, once a box of the shake siding was opened, it couldn't be returned. When ordering it, she mentioned that it had a 4 week lead time. So, I should order extra and return the unopened boxes. It would really suck to be short a piece or two. and then have to wait a month for more. Especially with winter incoming.
Here's an example of a bad layout. It looks fine. However, I could have trimmed the pieces that I started with and lost less in the door openings. I lost several half panels at the top of the door openings.
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The absolute worst piece to get in. The joint of the two garage peaks.
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After about 2 months of work, it was done.
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I ended up needing a few pieces of shake siding to finish the main peak over the entry, so I was glad she told me to buy extra. We decided to put the shake around the main door. It added a nice touch. That last row up top is the scraps from the garage door opening. Never throw anything away until you finish.
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Siding started on 8/26. It was finished on Saturday, 11/4. Every single day that it wasn't raining or too windy, I was out there working until it was too dark. Fortunately it has stayed pretty warm. It was getting cooler on Saturday, but it was still nice out. But siding does not cut well when it starts getting cold. It begins to crack. I didn't want to deal with that at all.
65 pounds of 2" roofing nails used.
Total cost of the exterior: $13,000 for the stone, siding, soffits and fascia.
I recently heard a quote for replacing siding on a 1300 square foot house. It was $24k and there was nothing special about it. No stone or shake. I'm guessing I saved at least 50-60k doing this on my own.