CH: Day 23
Today.
I am not sure about this.
It will be years before I build the porch roof. And I think this temporary solution will look…odd. I can see people driving by, slowing down, and thinking: why did he put on that terrible siding?
I will likely be one of those people.
Tomorrow is a Red Letter day. After getting the 30-day Violation Notice I told the city I would return in a month so we could review the work completed. I made it clear that there was no way I could complete all the work. I mean, 30 days for all this? And, 30 days with zero advance notice?
Tomorrow is that day.
Rather than slap on cheap white paint I decided to paint most of the first floor to match the Cross House. I might change my mind after tomorrow. I might be given no choice!
The north wall. I can slap on white paint pretty quickly, and satisfy the Notice. I prefer to do no slapping, and paint everything right, and in the Cross House colors. This would mean removing the metal covering the window trim (oh, the horror), restoring the trim and adding back its lost extension bits, and painting the sashes black. The latter would be a quick fix as properly restoring all the sashes will take months. I would also like to put back the lost water-table trim. I might have enough stored away.
Ditto for the west wall. Slappy? Or Ross Happy? Tomorrow will decide.
During the review I will also ask permission to do the following: move the entry door to the NW corner, and reinstall the large window where the door was. This will add several weeks to the deadline. But it will allow the work to be done right, and done once. If the city says no, I will leave things As Is and, after the Notice work is complete, tear apart what I just did to move the door and large window.
Doing this now will free up some valuable long lengths of siding, under the former location of the small window.
I am 50/50 on how things unfold tomorrow. I prefer doing everything right. But this will likely mean I will be outside during the hot summer, and much of this in full sun. My old body though prefers that I move inside the Carriage House and enjoy an air-conditioned summer. And the sooner the interior is done the sooner I can earn some income.
In short, however tomorrow goes I will be fine with it.
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Good luck tomorrow Ross!
Please send good thoughts out for me for tomorrow as I’m having a right total hip replacement surgery.
Take care Ross!
I’ll be thinking about you! Good luck, and I hope you heal quickly and are back on your feet soon.
Oh, Sandra. A very BIG hug to you. I have numerous friends who have had this procedure and all report…after a few weeks of pain and discomfort…the same thing: I FEEL DECADES YOUNGER!
Wishing you 2003!
Well once you paint the siding it won’t be that noticeable. Hey you filled and painted trim on the Cross House knowing you would have to redo it at a later date. Do whatever will satisfy the violation and change whatever afterwards the way you want it to look. You don’t need any fines at this point. Best of luck going forward.
Can you get away with just primer or even tinted primer? That would look like paint but you wouldn’t be painting twice. In fact, I wouldn’t even sand or put on anything else. Just slap some paint on it, even the Tyvek over the windows, as from a distance it isn’t going to show. Use the one wall you completed as an example of what you’ll do with the extension they’ll so kindly grant you for your good faith effort. Just be generous with your request. However long you think it will take, double it, then add another two months. They couldn’t possibly expect you to do it all in 30 days. Not even if you had unlimited money, resources and labor.
I don’t think those make-do wide boards will look that bad with paint and black lines. Or even no lines at all. It’s just a temporary fix.
Are the steps and deck in front of the current door in good enough shape to be reused relocated to the side? If so, that would be a fast solution to the deck. A lot easier to install that door when you have a deck to stand on.
City bureaucrats are the same everywhere. The 30 days always starts the day they print the letter, not mail it or you receive it, so you really don’t have 30 days. You have 15-25 days. And it’s always the hottest month of the year.
Sending you a good luck hug!
And another good luck hug. There’s no such thing as too much good luck.