Cockroach’s Cousins, Part 4

With the south and east sides of our daughter’s living room dealt with it was time to move over to the north wall on the opposite side of the house.  I left the old cedar shingle panels underneath the front porch “as is” because even though they were 35 years old like the rest they were protected and still fine even though they had the many years of oxidizing on them.

The main issues for the north wall were that, unlike the south wall of the living room, the north wall was concrete block over which were vertical firring strips for nailing the old cedar panels (yes, we bought a pink concrete block house back in 1984).  This is an important point as I now needed horizontal firring for the new individual shingles.

Plus, the window closest to the front of the house was a goner and needed replacing en toto.  Once again sticker shock struck, as the window that was somewhere in the $200 neighborhood 35 years ago had definitely gone upscale in the years since.

Also, this is the wall that has lots of spatial disruptions including the phone service, the electrical service, the heating fuel tank, and all the plumbing and electrical for two mini-split HVAC units.   Due to these issues and the general reduced accessibility the pace of work slo-o-o-owed… dow-w-w-w-n-n-n… a… lo-o-o-ot…

Nevertheless, even though the weather is turning colder unless it is literally raining on me I am happy to keep the project moving forward.  Even when it is raining there is work I can do inside.

With the new window installed the work proceeded.  An added benefit was that this new work allows me to enclose all the plumbing for the mini-splits.  Much more betterer.

I am pleased with the results, but displeased at the slow pace of the work.