Words from a previous owner...

Through life circumstance I have the opportunity to periodically be in contact with the previous owner of the house...a mutual friend forwarded the blog link to him and today I received this note from him:

MB writes:

"I think you knew that the first floor wall shingles (cedar) were all new from the 1990's, as are the first few courses of the dormer shingles. Everything existing to be painted was scraped and powerwashed - but I did not try to remove *all* the original paint if it seemed well bonded. You'll be able to tell as you strip. The lap siding is Poplar and as you have observed, is in pretty good condition for its age, but poplar is a very durable material so there you are. You are also going to uncover a blue million nail and staple holes in the siding as you strip, remember the front wall under the porch was perma-stone (i.e., cement) on wire lath and the other sides were aluminum siding over wood battens, between which were stapled-on sheets of yellow fiberglass. Sheesh. Last but not least, the top coats were latex. All the primer was oil-based.

FYI the way I got up to the peaky peak was by using roof jacks. You could look up roof jacks on the internet, they are triangular folded steel contraptions that you nail to the roof (under the tab of the shingles) and they create a ledge for you put boards on.

Another way is a chicken ladder, which is a section of ladder laying flat on the roof and either hooked over the ridge or tied off with a rope up and over the ridge. I tried that once but I liked jacks better because I had a flat shelf to sit on. I think back then I used six jacks so I could make a series of steps to work from."

Here's a photo of the house during the time (1992) MB owned it...need I say more than I'm thankful for the work he put into this house?