So I came home the other day, and when I walked over to the house I looked at it and went "Oh my God." Rocky, my painter-jack-of-most-trades had, at my basic instruction, ripped off all of the plastic and window trim to EVERY window. Granted I just ordered my windows yesterday and the lead time is about four weeks, it had to be done. Suddenly though I was distraught with the feelings of overwhelming vulnerability. The house is now swiss cheese. I am vulnerable to the wind, the rain, the weather in general, riff raff and thieves.
I don't leave much of anything in the place, with the exception of some building materials. But the feeling is powerful in a way I wasn't used to. Hopefully we'll be able to seal it back up with plastic soon enough to avoid problems. At the same time, Rocky has been scraping the exterior of the house, which is simply going to be repaired and re-painted. The old paint is coming off great, and it looks nice so far. I'm very glad someone convinced me to keep the siding and repair it. I'm almost wishing that would've happened with the windows, but I can't go back now.
There are definitely areas that need a little help, especially the roof line where water drains:
I'm going to take the entire back wall of siding off, since I have to re-frame both doors and back windows. Also, we need to get the meter bases on the wall back here next week, and I want to make sure that the electricians have the space they need. The windows on the back were pocket style windows that actually operated by lowering into the wall below. It's pretty fun to check out the interior wall framing of these old techniques.
