Cedar Shake, Fish Scale, Bead Board & German Siding
July 28, 2019
I had always hoped there would be original siding underneath the aluminum siding that was put on the house in the 60's. It wasn't until we started the kitchen renovation that we had our answer of what was underneath the old faded aluminum siding.
When we replaced the kitchen windows (no worries, they weren't original windows) and opened back up the original window space to let more light in, we uncovered original German siding. What shape the siding was underneath was a mystery. It would remain a mystery, as we were in the middle of a huge kitchen renovation last summer and there was no way we were about to pull off all the siding and start another enormous project.
We knew there was original bead board, it is painted a beautiful green and was underneath sheets of plywood. It had been covered up for years. Why I am not sure, but I'm glad it was covered up years ago rather than removed. Our curiosity got the best of us last summer and we pulled down just one sheet of the plywood on the porch ceiling just to see what was underneath.
It wasn't until this summer that we decided to go ahead pull the rest of the plywood off to see if the bead board extended the entire porch ceiling. To our excitement, it was all there! Just a few pieces missing but it looked great!
My husband started peeling back years of cover ups on the front porch.
We removed the aluminum siding on the front porch area to reveal beautiful German siding that is in perfect condition.
We removed all the plywood that covered the porch ceiling....and the light fixture I couldn't wait to get rid of.
Before I continue, I want to share a "BEFORE" to better give an idea of what our house looked like before removing some of the siding. Our house is covered in a mixture of old aluminum siding in desperate need of new paint, vinyl siding and metal soffits. We had already started peeling back the layers of aluminum wraps just before I took these, I knew I wanted a good before picture.
My husband took a peek what was under the vinyl siding on the front face of the porch, looked at me and said, "you are not going to believe what is under here!".
I was beyond excited after removing the aluminum siding to see that the original German siding looked so good.
But taking a peek under that vinyl siding, I couldn't contain my excitement and could not believe that such gorgeous detail had been covered up!
After removing the all the vinyl siding he started removing all the soffits around the porch.
And the gorgeous detail didn't stop with the fish scale siding.
Little by little we started to see a glimpse into the past. A little bit of what our 1921 home originally looked like.....and it was beautiful.
We have our work cut out for us.
There are a few pieces of quarter round missing, lots of paint stripping, priming and painting to do, replacing the porch banisters and railings (not original to the house we discovered) and also some decisions to make on paint color.
But when we are finished, it will be gorgeous!
And the "AFTER".
My husband was taking a much deserved break. We picked an extremely hot Saturday to start this project.
One Year & Twenty One Weeks.
July 24, 2019
One year and twenty one weeks.
That is how long we have been in our old 1921 farmhouse.
We have started many projects, some of them completed, but a lot of them still in progress. I had planned to keep up with this blog when we moved to journal our move and restoration of this 1921 farmhouse. But time has passed quickly and life has been very busy.
Since moving here we have:
Painted the bedrooms upstairs.
Painted the living room, dining room, bathroom and our bedroom.
Completely gutted the kitchen.
Exposed a completely hidden brick chimney in the kitchen.
Started renovation on our kitchen in June 2018 (it's one of those projects still in progress).
Pulled up flooring in the laundry room.
Researched the history of our home and previous owners.
Pulled up trim from the upstairs hall.
Found a signed stair tread from the builder of our house.
Sanded and refinished the original wood floors upstairs.
Completely gutted the upstairs bathroom.
Pulled the plywood ceiling off the front porch only to find original painted bead board.
Began pulling off the aluminum siding to find the original dutch siding.
Pulled off the vinyl siding on the porch face to find beautiful trim, cedar shake and fish scale siding.
Planted eight blueberry bushes.
Put up a wooden picket fence.
Completely renovated the apartment above the garage for a photography studio.
Realized that Jerome's dream of having a garage will only be of use for storage as the entrance is to small for a vehicle to fit through.
Gutted the closet under the stairs, or as the rest of my family calls it....the Harry Potter closet.
Shiplapped the back hall entrance (almost finished).
Linseed oiled the downstairs.
Stripped and refinished the front door (the only completed project I can think of)
Hosted Thanksgiving dinner.
Taken two very much deserved vacations.
And many, many more projects that I know I am missing.
I thought it would be wonderful to put our one year and twenty one weeks here in a short film, enjoy!
So I guess you can say we've kind of been all over the place with projects.
We've started a lot of projects but only completed a few (alright....just one completed).
So tonight we are sitting down, making our list and are going to make ourselves finish the projects one by one.
In the meantime, I will be blogging what we have done so far. I have a lot of pictures and videos to share to catch this blog of mine up to date.
That is how long we have been in our old 1921 farmhouse.
We have started many projects, some of them completed, but a lot of them still in progress. I had planned to keep up with this blog when we moved to journal our move and restoration of this 1921 farmhouse. But time has passed quickly and life has been very busy.
Since moving here we have:
Painted the bedrooms upstairs.
Painted the living room, dining room, bathroom and our bedroom.
Completely gutted the kitchen.
Exposed a completely hidden brick chimney in the kitchen.
Started renovation on our kitchen in June 2018 (it's one of those projects still in progress).
Pulled up flooring in the laundry room.
Researched the history of our home and previous owners.
Pulled up trim from the upstairs hall.
Found a signed stair tread from the builder of our house.
Sanded and refinished the original wood floors upstairs.
Completely gutted the upstairs bathroom.
Pulled the plywood ceiling off the front porch only to find original painted bead board.
Began pulling off the aluminum siding to find the original dutch siding.
Pulled off the vinyl siding on the porch face to find beautiful trim, cedar shake and fish scale siding.
Planted eight blueberry bushes.
Put up a wooden picket fence.
Completely renovated the apartment above the garage for a photography studio.
Realized that Jerome's dream of having a garage will only be of use for storage as the entrance is to small for a vehicle to fit through.
Gutted the closet under the stairs, or as the rest of my family calls it....the Harry Potter closet.
Shiplapped the back hall entrance (almost finished).
Linseed oiled the downstairs.
Stripped and refinished the front door (the only completed project I can think of)
Hosted Thanksgiving dinner.
Taken two very much deserved vacations.
And many, many more projects that I know I am missing.
I thought it would be wonderful to put our one year and twenty one weeks here in a short film, enjoy!
So I guess you can say we've kind of been all over the place with projects.
We've started a lot of projects but only completed a few (alright....just one completed).
So tonight we are sitting down, making our list and are going to make ourselves finish the projects one by one.
In the meantime, I will be blogging what we have done so far. I have a lot of pictures and videos to share to catch this blog of mine up to date.
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