Normandy Park Restoration

Discovered something I'm not good at, building cinder block walls.  I got the job done, but it's not pretty.  Here is the hole I had to fill:  And here is what it looks like filled.  Code allowed me to do this with treated wood, but I wanted the job done right. I need to put a "skim" coat on it so that it blends with the cast concrete.  If I can do a decent job of that the irregularities of the cinder block should be covered.

Almost done.  My math was off by about 3" on the top, so I'll need one more plank across the top, cut down.  Then some trim around the windows.  Also, I can't put the one last lower plank in until I fill the old window hold with cinder blocks.  But the look is almost complete. Compared to what it used to look like (this is just about the same angle). I also plan to pull up the bushes in front and replace them with more Japanese Blood Grass like the two I've planted near the entry door.

Got the glass installed.  Here is a night time shot that shows the exterior lighting with the clerestory windows. Should be able to finish the siding tomorrow, then I'll get a good daytime picture.

It's easy for me to forget what the house looked like and how far it's come.  Here is a shot of the house from when I bought it.  This is pretty much from the same angle as the siding picture below.  Nice improvement. And here is what it looks like now.

2nd round of siding installed. ....and after the 3rd round Hopefully I'll be able to finish it with one more round of work.  The angle of this shot starts to give you a feel for the overall look of the place.

Man, this stuff takes a loooong time to stain, but the results look very nice.  Here I've started the first round of siding. I will probably do this over the coming 2 weeks, staining some on one night, and installing is 1-2 days later.  It seems to take about 24 hours for the stain to fully dry.  Looks great though. Here is a better shot where I've stacked a few of the excess pieces on top so you can see more of what the wood will look like.

Takes a long time to stain the siding properly.  I build a rack for it that has a bunch of niles driven into 2x4's so that I can stain both sides at the same time with only the nail heads touching the backside of the beams. It's going to take a while to get all of this stained correctly.  Don't think I'll be able to finish the wall this weekend.