is to finish installing the Hardie Board siding on the Gateway Academy education building.


Gary is always up to a good challenge, and with me as his trusty helper, we got right to work!
First, you have to remove the old siding.

and hammer in any renegade nails, etc. that would get in the way of the new siding.

That went pretty quickly, and by the end of the work day, the first section was ready for its new siding!

Of course, Gary handled all the power tools (I can use a power drill, just not through concrete Hardie board), but I was still pretty useful as an extra pair of hands, tool fetcher, level looker, ladder holder,  and general go-fer girl.


Tuesday went well, and when we woke up Wednesday morning to this view out the front window

we decided to shift our work hours to a little later in the morning. Brrrrrr…. We’re working on the north side if the building so it’s never going to be in full sun, but we thought it would be good to let it warm up a bit. At least our saw horses could (mostly) be in the sun!

It was a beautiful and bright day, and even with the chill in the air we still got a fair bit accomplished.

Since getting the boards up is really a two person job (three person if it’s one of the 12 ft. boards), Gary’s been cutting the pieces to the correct size in the afternoons (when I’m not working), and then when we start in the morning we can get right in to putting up the siding.

Here I am holding up my side of the board (with some extra grimace for the camera!)

And then there’s the great Ladder Straddle that happens sometimes….

By the end of this morning, we had finished up to the doorway, except for the very top row.

After lunch, (so I’ve been told) Gary ripped off the next section of old siding, pre-cut some boards for next week, and even got some of the students here to help him with those long 12 ft. boards on the top row. I’ll verify that tomorrow!

It was a good first week. Oh, it was a little colder than we had expected, but then again, that was frost on the grass, and not snow! We dug out our hats and gloves and dressed in layers. Lots of layers! And we were please to ‘accept our mission’!

Thanks for stopping by!

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