Making Progress

It has been a while since we blogged. We got sort of burned out after all of the Alaska blogs, but we're still at Ladd Marsh Wildlife Area in NE Oregon and doing fine.

You might recall from a previous blog that our main task is to get the Volunteer RV site cleaned up and ready for future volunteers. The biggest part of that job was to get the workshop/storage building fixed up. When we arrived the building had holes in the walls, mice inside, and was looking tired.

The first job was basic clean-up. I tackled the outside with a heavy-duty weedeater, while Teri took on the interior with a dust mask and shop-vac. Oh, and plenty of wasp spray!!

Next came replacing the siding on the south side of the building. The weather had taken it's toll and there was no way to salvage this side. So we stripped it off. Notice the holes in the side. Woodpeckers and/or rodents!!

With the old siding stripped off we thought that attaching new siding would be quick and easy. What we hadn't realized was how crooked this building is. Not a square corner or vertical line to be found! Placing the first sheet of siding up revealed that the building was out-of-plumb by about 4" top to bottom. Look at how the edges of the sheet (don't) line up with the corner or the studs. 

With the old horizontal strip siding the alignment hadn't made much difference, but with 4' x 8' sheets you need something vertical to nail to. So we found ourselves adding addition studs to make these new sheets work. Once we got that finished we put on fresh tar paper and started attaching the new siding. 

With the new studs we got the rest of the sheets up and primed in no time. 

The final steps on the outside were to paint and trim. The refuge had a brand-new paint sprayer still in the box that made quick work of the painting. The color? Why Barn Red of course!!

With the terrible tilt on the building trimming the corners to look decent was a challenge. We wanted the trim on the new side to look vertical to match the lines in the siding, but needed it to be flush with the other wall. If you look close you'll see that the trim boards are tapered from bottom to top. Custom trim, by Mark & Teri!!  Once painted it looks pretty good. 

We'll tackle the inside next time.

Mark