The Owner Builder Experience

Exterior

About a year after we had moved into the house, we could finally afford to get the siding installed. By that time I had gone back to work and so we hired out this project. This turned out to be a good decision, as the material we had chosen, James Hardie board, required 2 people to install and a lot of scaffolding. The rental on the scaffolding over the time it would require to do this job evenings and weekends would have cost as much as hiring someone to do it, and as a added bonus I didn't have to install siding 20 feet off the ground.
In order to save money and also to get the colour we wanted, we ordered the boards primed and painted them ourselves before they were installed. As this turned out, we should have waited until they were installed as the paint was discoloured when they got wet while stacked, and the paint sometimes got scratched. It doesn't look too bad, but we will have to repaint sooner than hoped.
The siding is somewhat flexible, but also somewhat fragile, so had to be handled by 2 people, which slowed down the process. The trim was installed first, and followed by the siding, starting from the bottom an going up. It is attached using a pneumatic roofing nailer.
The siding continued to be installed all the way to the peak of the house, an area I was glad not to have to attempt.
After the siding was installed, the overhang over the lower floor windows was installed. This was designed to shade the windows in the summer and let the light in during the winter for passive solar heating.
In the end it looks quite good and functions very well. This is the east side of the house
And this is the south side in full winter sun. Notice the amount of sun hitting the windows