Happy Black Friday!

Well, turns out that I’m one of those people. One of those people who gets up at the crack and rushes to the stores the day after Thanksgiving. Just before six I left the house and drove to Lowe’s. It was busier than expected. I had $600 in store credit from buying appliances and so I bought an air compressor, a couple of trailer jacks, and a bunch of other little stuff.

I returned to the house and then we all went to the park for a walk. Unfortunately the tires on Luke’s stroller were out of air, so he was carried a lot and also did some walking. He didn’t mind though, and picked up lots of sticks along the way.

After the walk my father-in-law and I drove up to the Mountain. We stopped for lunch in Lynchburg, which was disgusting. We saw my parents and sister at the cottage then drove by my house project. We also visited a couple of nearby tiny house developments before going to Lowe’s in Tullahoma to get a couple of headlamps and replacement thermostats for the water heater. We arrived home in time for dinner. Luke was wearing a new outfit that my mother got him.

Very productive last day of the week.

Due to Thanksgiving this was the last work day of the week. I got a little later start than usual due to being lazy and stopping by the lumber yard for some materials. I finished up the stairs and railings and then was starting to pack up when my helpers texted that they were on the way. So I went to the cottage and picked up some siding. We were able to get in a bit of work, going into the darkness. My new lights are very helpful. We put up a bit of siding and caulked a lot. I felt like we made great progress, although to be fair we focused on installing siding on the easiest parts of the house. It will be considerably more difficult when we are working higher up and around windows and doors. After packing up I dropped off tools at the storage unit, spent a few minutes with my family at the cottage, then returned home. The drive was long, but uneventful. Liz and her parents were waiting for me. We chatted a little while then called it a night.

Steps and siding.

This morning I started building the porch steps. It was a fun and challenging project that I got really caught up in. So caught up that I nearly neglected to prepare the siding for when my helper arrived. He came and did a lot of caulking after which we started putting up the siding. It actually went up pretty well and we made good progress. The picture below represents only about an hour’s worth of work. After it started getting dark and Kent left, I pulled out the floodlights and continued work on the stairs.