Build Days Through 26: Fascia, Utility Box, and Mini-Projects

It's been a while since the last update, though progress has slowed so there hasn't been much to show. This is due to a confluence of factors: first, that the roof we ordered has been delayed again and again. Originally, it was slated to arrive in a week, but now it looks like it might arrive in six (so, by the middle of October). Second, we're deliberately slowing down to try and save up some more money...we've spent about $20,000 and really only paid for a bit over half of that (the rest is on a promotional 0% APR card, but credit cards are a different story). And last, much of what we have been doing lately are small tasks that are important, but don't look all that interesting in pictures (such as "we fixed this one nail over here which missed the stud" or "we vacuumed the house and organized our tools and materials").

We did finally pick up the exterior siding: 1250 linear feet of "novelty lap" eastern pine. It will take approximately forever, but we intend to stain all six sides of every piece before attaching, then then put a second coat on the exposed side once up.

Starting the blue fascia boards.

Whenever I paint, people feel the impulse to remind me that I should be painting the target object, not myself. This day was no different...

...but I did get the boards blue while I was at it.

We also started the long process of staining the siding "redwood" color.

Even with a couple paving stones stacked up, climbing up into the house was not terribly easy, so we picked up some short pre-cut stringers and added some scrap.

And viola, temporary steps.

This also took far longer that I would have liked, but we did finally get all the battens fastened to the roof.

We cut the Gutex to the 5/12 pitch on the peak side before lifting it up in place, but the eave side we left overhanging by more than was needed, so we had to trim it. As that meant cutting through more than 6" of depth, the only tool we could think to use was the saws-all. That made for a bit of a wavy cut, but it was good enough for our purposes.

Starting to attach the fascia boards.

South wall fascia complete, moving on to the other sides.

As another side project while waiting on the roof to arrive, we started building the "utility box", which will be storage space for our solar system's batteries, and as much else as we can fit.

After two layers of 3/4" OSB for a floor (we wanted some extra strength since I expect those batteries to come in north of 700 pounds), we built a tiny version of the house frame, with the same 5/12 pitch.

Here's the box as seen from the South, to give some scale. It's not that big, but the extra space will be welcome.