Staining Fascia and More Framing

Well, we finally decided on a stain for the exterior of the barn, and not a day too soon. I need to stain the fascia (I sure use that word a lot) before installing it, because as I've been told by people in the know, never stain/paint just one side of the boards, or else they'll warp. I guess I could treat the would on one side with anything, since nobody will see it anyway, and then treat the face with whatever we want, but that's way too much to think about.

After much discussion, R and I decided on a weathering stain that contains some gray pigment for a weathering effect. The goal is to get a gray tint to go with our charcoal gray roof, whose installation is causing me some degree of grief because I have finish replacing the fascia before they can do it, but what else is new?

Because the weather has been so unpredictable, I had to move indoors into the barn, which is actually nice because I have no worries about rain and can keep working. So my current plan is to stain inside the barn, then replace the fascia as it it's finished. Piece of cake, right?

JH came by last week to install more doors, and wouldn't you know it, but I made the RO too darn small this time around. We're talking millimeters, but enough to force me to re-frame. We tried sanding the RO so the door would fit, and it managed to slide in, but we had to really force it in, giving us no room for shimming. I had to make an executive decision, so we opted to revisit the issue when the holes are enlarged. Bummer.

One thing I've learned is that the stain we're using, Cabot, is different in NH and Vermont. How crazy is that? I bought it at first at LaValley's, and used it up quickly. I bought more at Fogg's in Norwich, and when I got it home, noticed the labels were identical, but the catalog numbers were slightly off. One of 3244, the other was 6244. Of course, in character, I panicked, even though they looked the same.

I frantically called Fogg's, and they told me that NH (LaValley's is in NH) has different VOC laws, so they had to modify the formula. The Vermont version is the original made by the company, but they had to change it for NH laws. Go Vermont. I sensed that I use less of the Vermont version, it's more like true oil stain, but that could be my bias.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.