Fussing with the Soffits

The back eaves project is moving slowly. The structure back there is a pretty big mess, but we don't want to do anything too drastic -- this is a part of the house we are planning to literally tear down and rebuild at some point in the not-too-distant future.

Today we started out by reattaching the soffit board. There was plenty of just kind of staring at it and puzzling over how to make it happen at first, and then a few screws in the right places made it all come together. I must say, it is nice working up on the scaffolding as opposed to on a ladder.

You can see here the rotted rafter boards that we've sistered some 2x4's onto. There's a lot of moisture in there and part of this project is to try to arrange things so a little less water leaks in there with every rain.

For example, you can see here (with a BIG RED ARROW to show you where) that there are two layers of siding on the back wall of the house. Water has just been running down in between them, which is why the paint on the back wall is peeling off. We'll seal that up at the top as part of this project.

When we get the back side done, we still have the lower part on the east side of the house to close up, as well. Same basic issues, but only one layer of siding, thank goodness.

While Noel worked on that, I ran some errands, and picked up a couple small groundcover plants for the brick pathway out front. Just more Elfin thyme and a veronica, planted in the triangles of space left by using only whole and half bricks.

I also started decorating for Halloween. I bought a sack of eyeballs at the local seasonal costume store, and made this awesome eyeball wreath (I was thinking of adding some leaves to it to make it a FALL eyeball wreath, what do you think?). They were distressingly completely out of odd limbs, renewing my determination to spend all next summer casting arms and legs from my friends and neighbors for lawn use. I do have a few arms from last year, so we are not utterly bereft of decoration, but I was hoping to step up the arms-coming-from-shrubbery thing this year.

Anyway, we set some boards out to get nice and dry (they got rained on recently) over the next day or so, then I will sand and prime them. They are siding boards, so we can at least bring the siding up to all be the same depth at the back. Some caulking will also be involved. Luckily it is due to be sunny and warm all week, and we both have flexible work schedules.

posted by ayse on 10/23/11