Forbes Avenue Northampton Renovation: It's the End of the Outside as We Know It

Ted is grinding to the end of his outdoor labors. All the windows with the exception of the triangles are in. Now, when it rains, the house interior stays dry. The triangles go in next week; they've already put up the scaffolding, so they can trim them out.

This week he began the work of covering the stair tower. The triangles at the base of the tower have been the biggest challenge. Ted had to cut patterns, put them up and adjust them. He then took them down. He will paint them and then put them up next week. Next, up the tower he will go, cutting flat pieces of exterior shield. He will also create my square decorative cut outs. (See post, "Look Ma, No Clapboard") Ted said he would paint the decorative colors also. This will be a big visual change.

The windows on the third floor are now in.

Did I mention that Ted is a literary type guy?

Post Script for those who want to know

My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away

The boys also attacked the front porch (literally). They discovered a bunch of rot along the base which was no big surprise. They also took one look at the footings and we were on the way to new ones. Nathan dug some mighty holes, he shored up the porch so it wouldn't fall down, and then he took a sledge hammer to the metal footings. BANG! Not only did the posts pop off, they broke in half where they had rusted out. I guess this is "just in time" renovation. We would have lost our front porch without this intervention.

Ted will replace the columns as well. The posts are lying in the front yard. Once they are in, we will decide how to cover and decorate them.

Ted tells me that he should be done next week (this is a good thing since Nathan the monster carpenter leaves for his engineering life next Friday). Ted said we will get the rough electrical, plumbing and HVAC inspections completed next week as well.

Next stop, insulation.

P.S. We are having the backyard graded next week. The landscaper will also pull out all the little stumps still remaining along the property line.

After that, in goes the English Lattice fence. I won't close off the side by the driveway yet, since I am not sure how I want that to look. But, we got such a good price on the fencing (because its the end of the season) that I decided to go ahead with the majority of it. We will stain it Dark Essex Green before we install it.

Here are all the colors that we will use on the exterior: