Slow Progress

I haven't hit my stride on this project yet. You have to start removing rotted wood to see how far you have to go before you can build new stuff.

I worked on this hole. I planned to cut out a rectangle around it, cut a new board to fit the hole, then use wood filler to seal it up. Then I noticed that it's at the same height as the low fascia. Now the plan is to continue the fascia onto the breezeway wall and die into the trim at the sliding glass door. Easy peasey.

I turned my attention to the corner at the dryer vent. I cut the soffit back to the closest supports and exposed rotten 2x framing at the valley. I used the shop vac on the eave space, then used the reciprocating saw to clean up the end of one rotted 2x4. The bottom of the valley rafter is rotted, but maybe I can leave it and support the fascia and soffit with sister 2x4s on either side.

The fresh cut in the center of the photo is the 2x4 that I plan to sister up against. Then a 2x4 sub-fascia parallel to the sliding doors, then sky hooks on the BR2 wall.

By the way, in that last photo, I don't know why the rockwool insulation slopped over into the eave in just that one rafter bay.

Finally, I discovered that, unlike the vertical v-groove shiplap siding that is 1x, the soffit is actually a 7/16" v-groove product that I don't think they make anymore. I'm tempted to use 7/16" plywood and scribe v-grooves into it.

Full Size, except gable elevation (1/2" = 1' 0")

All About Eaves

 I bought some expensive lumber for the new fascia: Dunn Lumber calls it "RealTrim" Spruce 1x6 $2.13/LF. (Online it's $2.18) There is 257' of fascia ($560), but I only need to replace the damaged parts. 

At Lowes, I bought some shiplap siding. (Everyone wants to sell nickel-space, interior grade shiplap, but I need v-groove.) This will work for soffit repairs as well as wall repairs. Lowes calls it "White Wood" 1-8-8 and it's $2.13/LF, just like the 1x6 trim. Problem is that the current shiplap has a 9" exposure and this is more like 7".

I also picked up 10' of galvanized Z-bar flashing (.76/LF) at Lowes.

I think I'll need new nails, in order to avoid rust marks. Looks like hot-dipped galvanized is still a thing. 8d should do--2-1/2", 1-3/4" into the rafter tails. Screws would be better/easier. I wonder what roofers are doing these days?

What color should I paint the house?

I am so freaking tired of this discussion. Light colors, not dark. Because of the trees and the north facing orientation. One color, not a horizontal divide--or maybe two colors. Paint the brick. Or not.

• 15 Jun 2022 Back to Exterior Colors - "Closing in on this..." - includes SW palettes
• 10 Apr 2020 Grays
• 8 Apr 2020 Gutters and Paint
• 20 Mar 2020 Proceeding Incrementally
• 8 Apr 2019 Choosing Exterior Colors
• 6 Apr 2019 Paint Samples
• 30 Mar 2019 Exterior Color Board
• 22 Mar 2019 Exterior Colors - Examples - includes 12036 9th Ave color & Peggy's from Sierra Madre
• 22 Mar 2019 Beach Colors

Gray with a tinge of green, white trim, yellow details

Inspiration photo. Subtle yellow, except maybe on the front door.

Can't decide about painting the bricks. It seems clean and fresh, but it also seems like a cover-up. 

The inspiration photo has trim at the windows, which are thick. My windows are thin metal with an integral frame. There's no trim at the house corners. There's the chair rail. Would I paint this entire window white, like the soffit, then use yellow on the chair rail? Or, do I want to get really fussy and paint the window white and yellow? Got it! Paint the window black to go with the white exterior.

March 2020 photo. What part gets yellow? Where is the white trim?

Hurry! Remove the Gutters

Getting two bids for gutters put me in limited panic mode--they were ready to install fascia and gutters on my say-so, but I had to prep the roof edge to be ready for them to do the work. I decided to start on the backside of the breezeway.

First thing I noticed was that the guy from Polar Bear was wrong--nobody would notice seams in the fascia. It was totally practical to remove the rot and keep the fascia that was still in good shape. That's what one YouTube video after another shows. If I never noticed the brown paint behind the gutters, a seam is no problem. In fact, there are already seams, as you can see in this photo.

As I continued, I got better at removing gutters. First, you can pry out the hanger nails--they have a twist to keep them in, but there is just one every 2'. Second, my tin snips can cut through a piece of gutter--not easily, but it helps because the gutter corners tend to hold a piece in place even after the nails are out.

The other thing I learned is that the clogged gutters that no longer slope to drain are essentially a means for holding rainwater up against the eaves. It rained for two days after I did this and I worried that water would get into the eaves. Nope. It rolled off the roof and fell to the ground. If the gutters were on, it would have perpetuated the rot.

The eaves all around are just a little triangle--any water intake at the fascia would likely not affect the integrity of the wall and certainly not the attic. (By the way, the overhang is more like 26", not 30".)

But then there's the two weird cases where the breezeway connects to the garage.

There is a lot of rot here--blue edge is a 1x casing molding that isn't available, and you can see the rot where the high gutter used to terminate against the casing. Where the low gutter hit the wall on the right, it punched a rotten hole in the wall. I'll have to patch the siding there. Oh, and they don't make v-groove shiplap siding that wide. It's about 9" and all I could find is 6". The only good news is that the matching little half-gable on the north side is in better condition.

They make flashing for the vertical siding to fascia transition--it runs behind the siding, along the top of the fascia, then on the front of the fascia and into the gutter.

So, now I have a bunch of gutter to remove to save the roof from rotting any more. I'm working my way around the garage because the SW corner is the highest off the ground and I like to do the hard part first. After I do the west side, I'll do the south and the east. Last, I'll remove the gutters across the front of the house.

I began to realize that if I repair the fascia, the soffit, and the wall where necessary... Oh, and the chair rail detail has been hacked up at places. But if I pre-prime, repair, and caulk that whole little triangle of eaves, well then I'll be ready to sand and paint with SW Pure White. That's a big project, but it has definite stages:

• Remove the gutters
• Repair the fascia and other rotten wood
• Prep and Paint the eaves Pure White
• Call in the gutter guys

At that point, I can think about painting the exterior walls as a separate project. Less ladder work--I'll be stopping at the eaves. What color(s)? I can figure that out later. They say paint top down--so, eaves first.

The downspout at the water heater was jammed full of dirty pine needles top to bottom.

Is that bird's nest? Horsehair insulation? Who knows?

Talking to Gutter Folk

My gutters are damaged; they were installed when the roof was sagging less at the corners, and therefore they don't slope to drain as they should. Water leaks have rotted out the fascia at every corner--there are 10 corners and 4 dead ends. Right up front (over the gas meter), the seamless gutter has a dent. There is no starter flashing at the roof which allows overflows to wick into the sheathing, and the old gutter has been painted dark blue.

Around the last week of September, I saw a truck for Brothers Gutters at the 11803 8th Ave house where Luke is remodeling everything. The driver was across the street (11804 8th) talking to Chad. I got his card--Tyler Peterson, owner.

He came back to give me an estimate on 6 October. I told him that I would do the demo and repair the fascia, ready for his gutters, and he gave me a bid of ~$4700 for new seamless gutters with downspouts.

I worried that I would be installing gutters before replacing the roof (and replacing the roof before any additions or reconfiguration), so I asked for a roof appraisal from Polar Bear Exterior Solutions. Project Consultant Tucker White came out at dusk, walked around on the roof and said the roof was good for a few more years. He liked that I was installing new gutters, but he said if it were him, he'd call the gutter guy and get a bid for new 5/4" pre-primed fascia all around. What's he gonna charge, another $5k? It's worth it--you don't want to be patching the fascia only at the rotten bits.

So I called Tyler Peterson and asked for a revised bid. (The full name of the company is The Brothers That Only Do Gutters, by the way.) Got it 3 November. Sure enough, new fascia would be ~$4700.

The RayTec products that Gu-Wi proposed. I think this is better than mesh for my heavy sap/needles

Meanwhile, I asked Gu-Wi Gutters for a bid on the same work. Received 8 November. (Gu-Wi = Gutters and Windows). Their bid was about 20% less. They spec'd a perforated aluminum gutter guard instead of the surgical stainless steel mesh that Brothers spec'd (at twice the price).

So, do I want white gutters or a custom color? Well, that depends on the colors I want for the house and trim and whether I want to paint the fascia the same as the trim. See a different post on house colors.

I'd better get going destroying my perfectly good gutters and pulling off the fascia, right? Read all about it here.

Wind Storm

I'm writing this on 16 November, but I'll back date it. We had high winds 2 November, a branch came down and brought the patio lights with it. I used a lightweight steel cable in a plastic jacket, and the falling branch just stretched the cable until it broke. Every light bulb lit up, even though the strings were on the ground. The east-most string was separate, and it stayed up.

I disconnected power. I had noticed earlier that the bulbs all have a green tinge, due to tree pollen, I think. They are zip-tied to the cable, so I'll have to re-string them or remove the zip ties. (That is, there is a loop of zip tie that has a cable-sized hole at the top that I could presumably just slide onto a new cable. The zip ties were trimmed, so there's almost no hope of removing them without cutting them off.)

Working on the gutter 14 November, I realized that if the gutter fell, it would take the remaining cable with it, so I disconnected that cable at the house.

I have left over stainless steel cable from the deck railings that might work. I think I need about 90'.

My concern is that, because the cable broke, the bulbs made a soft landing and the anchors at the house and the trees were not hurt. Nothing would make the cable railing snap before it ripped the eyebolts out of the tree. On the other hand, maybe that would mean that the lights stayed up despite a falling branch.

Oh, and I think I should do 3 separate runs (I went out to the tree and came back to the house the first time and that's why the branch took down 2 of 3 runs.)

Cruz Landscaping

 (This is another backdated post written 16 November.) With Jon and Peggy visiting the week of 11 September, I hired a gardener to clean up the front yard. They did an amazing job on 2 September, then returned on the 16 and 30 September, 15 October and 4 November. On 4 November, I gave them $600 to tackle the back yard. The family will return 18 November.

Cruz Landscaping (206) 841-1670

Mr. Cruz began shaping the ground cover in subsequent weeks.