Moving On to the Eastside

With the hurricane looming, I've decided to leave well enough alone and move to the other side of the house. I still need to finish painting some of clapboards on the west side of the dormer, but we're talking 30 minutes of work, tops, and the boards are primed. The important part, sealing the side of the house from water, is finished, so I can in good conscience start on the other side. Plus, the work can be finished with just our extension ladder, so I don't need to borrow one from KJ.

With that in mind, I moved the ladders to the east side of the dormer and was ready to start ripping out clapboards to get that flashing underneath, but then decided that rather than get too involved, to break things down in anticipation of the storm. Kind of a bummer, because I was feeling inspired, and now it's going to take some doing to get back on track. Momentum is a funny thing in that way. I think if I'm more careful this time around, I won't have to do as much siding replacement and painting.

I also ran into a complication with the ladders. We have a 28ft extension ladder that goes up about 1/3 of the way, which falls way too short, so I use another ladder that hooks to the roof. The difficulty of this is that I have to borrow someone's ladder. On the east side, there is a vent pipe sticking out, so I can't hook the ladder to the roof. I thought about getting the pipe through the steps of the ladder, but that would be a chore. So I came up with an alternative plan, which was met with much skepticism by the likes of JM and CF. I was going to build an extension with 2X4s and rest it on top of the extension ladder. I figure 8 ft. would be plenty, and then I wouldn't need to hook the ladder over the top.

JM thought I was flirting with disaster, but in the end, I came up with a solution to my solution - I will tie a rope to the top of the wooden extension, and then secure that to a tree or window on the other side of the house. That way, the extension won't slide down the face, taking me with it. I think it will work. For good measure, I could always secure a harness, as well, and might do that, though it's a pain hooking up every time. Better safe than sorry, right?

Just a final note, I think the long term plan for the dormer will involve replacing many of the clapboards and possibly installing a piece of trim, but it's water tight for now.

This should be interesting. Until then, thanks for reading.