In August, Phil came out to play with Momzy and me - and to help paint my house. Well, we thought all he would be doing is painting the house. That is until Phil and Ellen started prepping the siding for the paint. Scraping revealed rot in a few boards, so those were removed. Unfortunately, when rotten boards were removed from the gable end of the house it was apparent that the builder had only applied house wrap in the centre of the structure. The material did not extend quite to the height of the soffit nor as low as the top of the foundation. Phil was amazed. As a devote follower of Mike Holmes, he set out to "make it right". Unfortunately for Phil that meant removing all of the siding from the gable end. And, hey, since he was at it, why not remove the dented and torn cheap metal soffit and replace it with some nice wood material? And so it was. Removing the old metal soffit also allowed Phil to improve the air circulation in the attic - the builder had extended the ceiling insulation to the soffit with little or no venting. Where venting did appear, it was little more than a narrow board propped against one of the ceiling joists (you might be able to make out the tiny V-shaped vent next to every other joist in the photo below)! Amazing that mould hasn't completely taken over and that the building has managed to stand for 30+ years.
I wasn't the best helper, but I did what I could to make things easier for Phil. I could only paint the lower parts, nothing above my shoulder, and I couldn't climb a ladder. Even so, it was nice to be able to contribute to the project. Oh yeah, and I made lunch and dinner and provided cold tasty beverages when required.
Two months and some days later, the "painting" job was finally finished. And am I pleased! The house never looked so good. I swear I have the nicest house on the block - inside and out - thanks to Phil's hard work.
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