It's been a bit since my last update.  This is mostly due to the fact that all the work lately has been boring stuff that you would not be able to see even if it were photographed. For instance, I ran new romex wire through the walls in the bathroom and attic storage space. I installed new outlet receptacles,  caulked around the windows, re-glazed some glass panes, and mowed the lawn three times!(rainy August made grass grow like crazy).

Anyway, this past weekend something worthy of a story took place.  A fifty foot tall maple tree which was leaning toward the house was removed. I hired this really cool guy named Mike to cut it down. Mike is an old school guy who has been cutting down trees since 1977. He climbs the trees with spikes on his feet and a leather belt around the trunk and cuts the trunk in ten foot sections while perched below the cut.

I took some photos and a video, so I'm going to share,
The tree:

This is Mike preparing to climb:

  About half way up:

At the crotch of the tree, with all the lower limbs cut off.

All limbs down. Now the trunk is next:

Here is a video of a section of trunk coming down. (its better if you wear 3-D glasses)

While scraping the south side of the house for primer/paint. I noticed some of the cedar siding was split & cracked, so Rob and I stripped it down to the studs.

That's when we discovered there was no insulation. $200 dollars and four itchy arms later, we had stuffed R-13 all the way down the hollows of the wall.

We then added some plywood, housewrap, and new siding to the wall.

I forgot to mention that I also built "birdboxes" this past weekend.

They just neatly tie in the horizontal soffit and fascia boards on the rear upper roof to the existing 1875  ornamental eaves on the house.

Primer got applied in the dining room this past Sunday, but it was still wet and the sun shining in the window made for a terrible glare that ruined every photo. I didn't have much better luck in the hallway, but here are two pictures of the completed & painted hall.  One with and one without the flash:

Neither photo does it justice, but the frosted mulberry paint matches the wallpaper on the two other walls very closely!

I'm hoping to get paint in the dining room and some trim moulding around the doorways next week.

Well, I thought we only needed one more sanding session.  Two weekends of sanding later and we have primer in the hallway, and are ready for primer in the dining room & paint in the hall.

Also the new jambs are done in the hall and the Dutch door is re-hung and functional once again.

Next week should be paint and trim mouldings.

Rob built door jambs and hung the dining room doors and the utility closet door this past Sunday.

One more sanding session and we will be ready for primer & paint in the dining room.

I got the lower rear wall of the house painted, it was too hot to walk on the new asphalt shingles and do the upper rear wall. I also started the south facing side.

I tore though all 5 gallons of paint in three days, so I'll have to drop another $125 on another pail of paint.  I'm also thinking about renting a platform lift or a telescopic bucket type lift to get to the higher areas on the sides.  Its approx. thirty feet to the gables of the 3rd floor and my extension ladder just ain't cutting it!