November 12, 2008--Siding in Lousiana

I figured I'd better take the time to blog some more about our vacation before I forget everything that happened. I've been trying to catch up on normal life, and things are just about back to normal, whatever that is.

The first few days of our vacation we worked on the siding job. Erick originally had planned to come down to work on his roof, but they needed a "real" roofing company to do that for insurance purposes. Often when there's a hurricane, there's a lot of shady characters that start "roofing companies" and scam a lot of people, so the insurance companies won't work with just anyone. They had extra insurance money, though, and wanted soffit and siding put up up on part of the house. Most of the house is brick, so it was a fairly little job and we figured we could get in done in a couple of days. Of course, we didn't get started until Tuesday afternoon, since they had to start by going and purchasing the materials and renting a metal brake.

I had told Erick I would help, so we could get done faster. I figured I'd be doing things like fetching tools and holding up things while he nailed them in, like I usually do when I help him. But I guess since I built that dog house by myself, Erick realized I could actually do more useful things than that and put me to work using the power saw. I spent a lot of time measuring and cutting vinyl soffit with a chop saw. I got to really dislike the smell of vinyl sawdust over the next few days. When I had all that cut, he showed me how to hang it.

I also learned to measure, cut and hang J-channel, and I learned how to use the metal brake. I measured long strips of aluminum, put it in the brake, measured, clamped it into place and scored it, and then used the brake to bend it up, pushed it back down, and then bent it up again so it broke along the scored line with a satisfying crunch. It made me feel powerful. Then I bent it according to the measurements he gave me and helped nail it up over the trim.

I helped stand on ladders and hang the siding, too. He even bought me my own tool belt. There was a group of contractors working on a house catycorner to us, and on the third day of working the contractor came over and offered us a job putting up siding on the house he was doing. It was the first time I've ever been offered a job hanging siding. It was kind of funny.

We worked a long day Tuesday, and then worked mornings the rest of the week so we could have time to do sightseeing. I'll blog about that later.