Spending gobs of money (pics)

[karen J]

Our 36 year old house is getting a much needed facelift- new siding, gutters, downspouts, soffits, fascia. We are thinking about "Hardie Board" instead of vinyl to replace the original cedar. The "destruction" started yesterday.  What a mess!



We're discovering all kinds of things! There was one area that had no sheathing at all underneath the weathered cedar siding... holes... rot... $$$$$... .

We had some bees living in the wall of my daughter's bathroom a couple of years ago. This is what we discovered about those bees-









All in all, it was an 8' x 4" "cubby" that the bees had occupied completely.
Once they get around to the front of the house, I'm sure there will be plenty more suprises.

[Esther]

Oh my word. It's a good thing the bees didn't find access to your house.

What fun and what a mess to remodel. When it is done you will be so happy with the fresh new look. We have lived here 36 years and there is almost always something being started, worked on or being changed. It is a real pain while it is in process but you can look forward to the completed project. I'll have to take a picture of my mess and post it.

[tranquility]

Oh my....I remember tearing out half of the kitchen for repairs...the things you find  ....good luck with your redo  
Lawanna

[LilithFair]

WOW I am glad thay never got into the house!
We have a cedar sided house, and when we had it painted this spring,  it was an interesting experience. All they found was wood rot and some old ST termite damage (nothing active thanks!) but they just tore off mainly some boards around the bottom near the ground. Now I'm scared!

[barb]

Wow, good thing those bees didn't make it inside!!

Home repair is no fun.  My husband does it for a living, so our house is always last on his list.  And it takes him months if not years to complete a job at home!  Next on the list is one of our bathrooms.  Good luck with your remodeling, I hope it goes quickly and smoothly. 

[karen J]

LilithFair, Don't be scared. They've gotten most of the cedar off the front and found no more surprises.  I even climbed out some windows and checked it myself. I was so sure that there would be lots of rot- but none! That 36 year-old cedar is warped, cracked, checked, split, and some was even peeling away. So I gotta say that it protected the house wonderfully.

Esther, please do post some pictures!

Now I'm excited. Without the rot that I was expecting, maybe we can get a new front door! 

[Ky Kim]

Been there, done that.  New vinyl siding, gutters, roof and windows at the same time.  It was a big old mess, but well worth it.

Kim

[Esther]

I posted a new thread here on the chat side with my messy house pictures. I think it was titled, "Just to show you"

[jclements]

Karen, that bee's nest gives me the creeps!!! Hardiboard is pretty much exclusively used down here, I don't see much vinyl siding at all. What kind of door are you considering? Any thoughts on the color scheme? That beautiful pergola must be on the right side of the back yard.

[karen J]

Esther, thanks for posting your pics. 

Jessica, yes you are right. I'll take a pic from "way back" tomorrow. The wierd thing about the color scheme is that we have awful-colored brick in front, and a fairly new roof- so the colors are very limited. Neither my hubby nor myself were ever particularly good at picking out colors, so that is definitely the worst part.
Don't know about the door yet. I want to replace the solid wood door with a door that allows light in. It's on the North side and very dark.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. 

[Viv]

I don't think I ever saw a multi story bee hive before!

[jclements]

Karen, I know it may seem insane, but you could paint the brick the same color as the siding. There are some very tastefully painted brick and partial brick homes in my neighborhood. I thought it was the oddest thing when we moved here, but really like it now. Definitely show us some pics of the front and we can give some suggestions!

[GAJen]

Those hives are wild Karen, I've never seen anything like that.

[Esther]

We were going to sand blast the brick on half of the front of our house at one time. It was orange and I hated it. But eventually we tore it all off and had the rockwork done all the way up. The north end of our house was all that awful brick and they applied strips of wood to the brick and then applied siding to it so covered the horrid stuff.

[CliffandJoann]

It will look wonderful when done Karen. Good luck with the entire job.
Joann