Decloaking the cottage, and more pergola pics

Dear friends,

We are, as they say, gluttons for punishment.  No sooner did Mr. Husband finish the pergola project I talked about here, than he continued the work we started a few months ago ripping the 1950s aluminum siding off the house.

What can I say?  We don't like to be bored!  I will admit, I'm usually the instigator of these crazy projects.  I'll get all tanked up on caffeine, go outside, find my gloves and start yanking on stuff.  By the time I'm too tired to continue, Husband has decided it was his idea in the first place.  I'm evil that way.

I promised to add more pics of the pergola, and here they are.  These are of the underside, showing how the fan is mounted, and the cloud painting I did on the lattice.  Alas, it needed to be darker to show up in such a sunny area, but I'm tired of messin' with it, ya know?  I cannot tell you how much nicer it is sitting out there, under the trees, with that fan going.  It also helps keep the skeeters away, too.

Underside of pergola with outdoor ceiling fan and lattice covering

Another view

And just to show how really crazy we are---here are photos from the progress Mr. Husband has made on tearing the siding off the house.  Surprisingly enough, the antique pine underneath is in really good shape.  It will take a boatload of caulking, scanding, scraping, etc. and THEN repainting.  But before then, every little scrap of the house has to be uncovered.

I do have a method to my madness.  I wanted to paint the house, and painted aluminum siding soon starts looking very bad, especially in our hot climate.  (I keep thinking about the traveling aluminum siding peddlar, "You'll NEVER have to paint again!")

So, here we are.

 The first bit of excitement was seeing that there used to be an interesting trim piece over the window.  Apparently it had been removed back when they put the awnings over the windows.  I'd LOVE to replace it, but we've already discovered how wonderful those awnings are at keeping out the heat and the sun, and how much the inside of the house heats up without them.  Maybe I'll come up with some alternate plan.  We already have storm windows on the inside, since we still have the original windows. That helps with air infiltration, but does nothing to block the brutal sun.

 The second bit of excitement was the discovery that the eaves were made up of the original pine beadboard, from the 1930s.  I LOVE me some beadboard.  I have to tell ya, we really have that shabby chic thang goin' here!  I suggested to Husband that we just put some poly over it, to let the naturalized weathering show through.  Did he love that idea?  No.

Third bit of excitement (can ya tell I don't get out much?), was uncovering the scallopey doo-dads around the back porch.  If I have my say (and sometimes I do), those are staying.

The wooden corbels are in good shape, so far. In this photo, you can really tell the difference at how it looks.  On the left side  are the eaves and corbel encased in the metal, on the right, they've been uncovered.  In this photo, almost all of the gable end has  been uncovered.

I'll add more photos as we continue this project, which might take QUITE some time to finish.

Luckily, Mr. Husband and I have nothing better to do.  LOL!!!!

Happy trails!

bobbi c.