Home Improvements

[MSWOODcraft]

The siding and window guys are here today, ripping out the old windows, prepping for the install of new ones and prepping my old house sheathing in anticipation of new vinyl siding come next week.

Ya know... I'm so used to being the one and only laborer around here that it's very strange to watch somebody else work on my house.

And that's NOT a complaint!    I could get used to this.   Construction elves aren't cheap, but it's easier to write the check than it is to swing the demolition hammer!

**note to self:  this may be the first sign that you're getting old!!**

[Jim Frye]

We did the same thing two years ago.  New Pella windows and new vinyl siding and trim.  I wanted to do the windows myself, but the CFO nixed that due to my safety (dropping window while on a ladder).  The window guys were here for one day and did 13 windows.  They tore out the old wood windows to the rough opening and installed the new ones.  Five guys set up shop in my garage and went at it.  They arrived at 8:15 and were gone by 5:30 after a round of brews in the basement.  Practically no dust or dirt left behind.  It was really expensive, but after watching the team leader install the bay window and have to rebuild part of one wall to hold it, I don't rue having it done one minute.

The siding job was also left to the pros.  I was working then and it would have taken me the rest of the summer and fall to get the house done.  The two guys who did the work were real craftsmen and the job was flawless.  Again, much more expensive, but well worth it.  

Those two projects went so well, I let the pros do the roof too!

[MSWOODcraft]

I'm in pretty much the same boat.   Five of the windows required ladder/scaffolding work, as well as multiple hands.   That wasn't in the cards.

[Fred Hargis]

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MSWOODcraft wrote:

**note to self:  this may be the first sign that you're getting old!!**

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I can tell you from personal experince that is an absolute truth!

[Kevin McC1]

As I mature (classy way of admitting getting to be an old coot) I find my self hiring out the more labor involved projects around here.  An example of when we had the perimiter drains put in a couple of weeks ago.  Jack hammer out the trench, haul it out in 5 gallon buckes, UP THE STAIRS, and then bring the pea gravel back down the stairs.  Hand mix the cement to fill in over the pea gravel and drain tiles. 

What I found most odd, was the sound of all that, and I'm NOT in the middle of all that noise.  I can better understand my wife's patience with all we have done around here thru the years, when I'm the one doing it. 

Like you I didn't even flich at signing that check!

Now it's time for me to get off this chair talking about all this stuff and put in another 30' of studs, insulation and finished wall today. 

Kevin

[MSWOODcraft]

Three guys showed up today to begin the siding process.    They're putting down 1/2" foil-faced ridgid foam over my T111 sheathing, and then are putting up some fairly traditional batten board-looking vinyl over that.    Facias and soffits are to be clad in metal and what they've done of that (the 14" cantelever of the second floor over the basement level) is incredibly clean.  It looks GOOD.      These guys are going reasonably quick, but not too fast, if you know what I mean.  And in it all, I'm very much liking what I'm seeing.

And while all that was going on on the house, I was thirty feet away, in the detached garage, working on a wood project.  I was taking roughsawn and waney kilned lumber flitches, sliced from two different trees, and started harvesting rough pieces for a clock project I'm working on.  And I smiled when I realized that it's not ME up that ladder scaffolding.

It was.... just DECADENT.... to be working on what I wanted to be working on, while simultaneously hearing the industrious sounds of other guys as they were working on what I needed, but which I didn't have to do myself.

Yeah, it'll hurt to write that check.  But sometimes calling in the pro's is actually the right maneuver.   In my case, I think that it was.   

No ladders... check.    No need to beg/borrow/promise other guys favors in order to get a second set of hands.... check.   No working in 41°, windy and slighly wet weather.... check.   BUT, working in the newly insulated shop, taking roughsawn lumber and seeing some AMAZING(!!) tiger figure come from the boards?  That's a big check mark there, too!   (PIP's to come later)

I'm suspecting that getting older also means working smart instead of hard!  

[jandsjacobson99]

I thought at 32 I'd be getting older; I must still be young.

[MSWOODcraft]

I was still young when I was 32, too.    "Old' started hitting me around 42.

[Larry.Jenkins]

I just love it when the young bucks around your ages think they are getting old. 

Age is truly an attitude.  I am 78 and still think I can do anything I want.  I  do a lot of research, reading, design work and woodworking.  These activities keep your mind sharp.

But I do admit, I "farm out" a lot of the heavier things I used to do, mainly for the same reasons Matt eluded to.

Always think positively and teach well.

Larry

[monfre]

At time I wish I had farmed out my siding job and porch I did last summer, it took me nearly 2 summers to finish the job but ya know it's kinda of nice when I have all my neighbors that walk by and compliment me on the job well done !!! I will admitted just turning 45, with a bulging disk, ruptured disk in my lower back I will not be doing that type of work again all by myself ever again. I find myself one of those guys that when someone comes to work on my house I am right there checking there workmanship even though I know there's many trades men out there that can do just as good of a job as I can do but now a days good workmanship is hard to come by these days. 

Hey matt, make sure they tape all the seams on that foam sheathing to seal up all the air leaks, and caulk around the exterior of all the windows. Are they also putting on Tyvek house wrap at all ? If not I would consider you have them also put that on over the foam bd insulation, it's makes a huge difference, I put both the 1/2" foam and Tyvek house wrap around the whole house, taped all the seam on both the foam and Tyvek and caulked along the top at the soffit, around the windows, and along the rskirt bd and I can not hear the wind at all when it's blowing 30-40 MPH thought it doesn't hekp with the kids and their Boom box speakers blasting form their trunk, LOL !!!!

Your going to find the money will be well spent when you see your utility bills in the coming months and depending on the total cost of the job you'll have a pay back of maybe 5 or 6 years, you should also be able to claim $1,500 from the Stimulus Tax credit so that should help with the ROI. Now you need to start saving for the next big JOB your likely going to farm out.... Back to the wood shed huh ???