The Last Nice Day Of the Year

The weather today was bittersweet.  On one hand, it was a balmy 71 degrees and on the other hand, tomorrow's forecast is for a high of 40 degrees and a low of 28 degrees with a chance of snow.  It's the middle of November, so 40 degrees is just about normal.  But 70 degrees was soooo nice, but in the back of your head you know that once the cold weather breaks that threshold of being cold both night and day, you are screwed.  You will not see or feel a warm day again until sometime in the 4th month of the year 2017.

It's depressing having a solid 4 or 5 months of cold weather with nothing but grey skies.  So I made the most of today and at least painted the primed shingles grey.  

Today I painted the primed shingles and also touched up some of the grey paint where I missed a spot here and there.  I had hoped to get at least one coat of white paint on the trim but 4 o'clock rolled around all too soon.  I started picking up tools and paint cans at 4pm and by the time 430pm came, it was twilight. 

I almost forget to tell you about this trim that we added. We  added a piece of cove trim where the shingles meet the deck.  This isn't something that you normally do but we have a problem with leaves getting stuck in the gap between the deck and the house.  The leaves decay and then hold moisture and rot the wood.  We are hoping that this small piece of trim stops that from happening again.  You couldn't even see the trim after I painted it grey.  We will not need this trim piece once we replace the decking and run the deck boards all the way under the shingles.

Rain is in the forecast for tomorrow. We can run wire for the two exterior lights from inside the house. The wire and switch are already in place.  We just need to install 2 junction boxes (one on each side of the patio door) and run wire from one junction box to the other.

When the rain stops we can start hanging more shingles.  We can shingle in the winter if it isn't snowing or below 28 degrees.  Twentyeight degrees is the point where coats and gloves interfere with being able to move and handle tools.

R had a helper yesterday.  Elvis insisted on laying his head on R's leg.  The day before this he wanted to lay on the shingle bundles.  

 Reuse Repurpose Recycle 

More Sun Room Progress

We have now progressed to the point where we are left with the tedious part of the project. All the shingles are installed except for the last two which will be the first thing we do tomorrow.

That leaves the rotted wood area just under the eave. R has removed the 1 X 4 that looked like a chipmunk gnawed through it. We will replace the board because it is missing at least 4 or 5 inches. Once this is done we can reinstall two small trim pieces and we will almost be done.Last on the list is the re installation of the casement windows. But before we do that I must find the hinges that I bought last year. I know I put them somewhere safe so I wouldn't lose them but I forgot where that location is located. Drats!I took care of one of the small details while R was removing the chewed up/rotted board from the fascia. The area right below the sill needed a small piece of trim to cover the nail heads that hold the last row of shingles in place directly under the sill. I knew I wanted something simple and I really did not want to put something like a 1 X 3 board under the sill.

So this morning we made a quick trip to Home Depot and scanned the racks of trim for something appropriate. I was hoping for trim that could be cut on the end without the need of cutting a small return piece to finish it. Nothing struck me as perfect so I went with a small cove type moulding.

I cut each end at a 45 degree angle and then put the saw back to zero degrees and cut off the little point so the trim has what appears to be a nice return. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it looked when it was complete. Installation was fast using the air brad nailer. From first cut to the last nail...total time for installation of trim piece...10 minutes.

The last two photos show what has been done so far and where we will pick up tomorrow. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the 30% chance of rain doesn't materialize.