This Is The Song That Never Ends

  Ed is still shingling. Have I mentioned the shingles? They go on and on. Ed finished the west side of the house, which is the weather side. It was also the highest, scariest side to work on.
   Now that it's autumn, and the leaves are coming off the trees, you can see the house from the road. As you come up the valley, this is the first glimpse of the house. Those beautiful cedar shingles, placed one by one, are a striking sight.

 But....second verse, same as the first. Ed and Rick moved over to the other side of the house and began again. At least by this time, Ed has stopped worrying about the weather. He's confident he can get the shingles on before the heavy rains start. We're also finally getting that beautiful fall weather.  It's cold in the morning, and clear and 65* during the day, perfect working weather.

Ed put up the corbels (lookouts..I'm never sure what to call them..) and kept moving up.

  Ed and Rick have put up about 50 boxes of shingles. Each box covers 50 square feet. Ed figures he'll use about  six more boxes. Two staples per shingle, sometimes three for the big ones. Every piece that angles against the roof or window trim has to be cut to fit. That's a lot of custom fitting. It's a lot of cardboard boxes to the recycle bin. The best byproduct is the trim of the shingles. It makes great kindling for the fireplace!

It just goes on and on. I would be overwhelmed by the size of the project, but Ed says to just take it in small daily steps.









 "Slow and steady wins the race", he reminds me.
And, of course, he's right. He's finishing up the sides of the dormer today, and will finish the front this week.

   In the meantime, the correct front door was delivered, and I got right to work. The door is douglas fir, so I used a pre-stain treatment on the wood before I stained it. I used the same stain on the front door as I used on the Codel fiberglass french doors, Minwax gel stain, Aged Oak. It comes out a little darker on the fir than the fiberglass, which is fine.
As soon as it warms up a little bit this morning, I'll put on the first coat of sealer.


   The bane of my existence has become the Codel fiberglass french doors. Had I known then what I know now, I would not have bought Codel doors. My first inkling was when I tried to call their customer service line after mis-applying the gel stain. That was not a happy or productive experience, but I thought "Hey, every company has an employee that doesn't know which end is up."

   We bought six sets of in-swing french doors. As I began to stain one set, I noticed the embossed grain on the one door was completely different than the other five sets.  Most of them are embossed to look like an actual wood door. I mean, that's the point isn't it?

   The one set has the grain all going the same direction, vertically. It looks like somebody took a big piece of plywood, cut a hole in the middle for the glass, and called it a door. It's awful! I called the window and door company we bought them through, who agreed it didn't sound normal and said they would have the Codel representative call us.
   Kal, the Codel representative called us the next morning. After some back and forth calling, Kal advised us that the french doors are made in three widths. The wide and narrow width doors are made as a normal door is made, as our five other sets are made. The middle size, is manufactured differently. Neither the distributor in Longview, nor Kal, the Codel representative had even been aware of this, which apparently is why we hadn't been advised when we bought the doors. Codel would be willing to replace this door with a smaller or larger door, but they wouldn't cover the new framing. Just to be clear, framing includes the exterior custom door trim, the shingles that surround the trim, and the transom window over the door, all of which are already in place. All of those would have to be torn out and  replaced out of our pocket. And Ed would have to suspend shingling the rest of the south side of the house until the new door and new transom window were manufactured and  installed. Did I mention we have only two weeks of decent weather before winter is here? Other than that Codel had no solution for us, nor were they particularly concerned.
   Words fail me. The door looks horrible, and it would cost over $1000.00 to rework the door opening. If I win the lottery, the first thing going to the dump are these Codel doors.

  In spite of this aggravation, life is good. Every day that the work gets done without anyone falling or getting injured is a good day. We have food on the table, love in our hearts, and hope for the next day. Bright blessings surround us.