8/24/25

 We were in Benjamin last weekend helping move more stuff to the new house, but I didn't update the blog. She ended up moving in on 8/11 with the assistance of Becky, Kemp, and Brandon with other small trips throughout that week. We enlisted the help of some high school boys to move the piano and other large items on Saturday morning. Devon, Kamryn, Becky, etc. have helped move and organize. There's still stuff at the old house, but it's getting a lot closer to be organized, unpacked, etc.

Rick arrived this weekend on Friday morning, and I worked 1/2 day and arrived on Friday afternoon. He pressure washed the siding all around the house and the sidewalks. The BBQ place in Dickens was closed, so we had dinner at Ranchland and Mother and I caught part of the Lady Stangs volleyball game in the new gym. 

Saturday morning, we unloaded the siding from the trailer and stacked it in the yard and started painting the eaves and soffits, completing the sunniest and hottest areas first. I assisted and hoed a lot of weeds (they had about 3.5" of rain on 8/13). In the afternoon, we removed the hail damaged siding from the back of the house and applied, and later sealed, a new siding underlayment/vapor barrier. 

On Sunday, we partially trimmed the back door, put on the siding, finished painting the soffit in the front of the house, and marked the sidewalks in the front and back for our 4th concrete guy (we've had multiple failed attempts with a couple of the others) who may stop by to take a look this week--we're not holding our breath!

We actually got a lot more finished than expected this weekend. Next weekend, we'll finish the siding to the north of the door over the cellar area, finish trim around the most recently installed window and the back door, replace the siding around the old bathroom window near the front door, add some trim to the top of the new siding area, paint the siding around the entire house (it'll be a light gray color), and paint the window trim (it'll be white). It's going to look a little rough until we get the old roof removed and the new roof and trim installed. 

Getting the piano moved in last weekend

Rita riding around in the magazine rack at the old house last weekend

Siding and underlayment ready to go

Last look at the north eaves in faded brown

Last look at the east eaves in faded brown

New paint going on ("Dark Storm Cloud")

An old plant stand getting a new coat of paint

Last look at the south eaves in faded brown

Paint going on the south eaves

First coat on the south eaves

North eaves painted

Painted soffit

Soffit painted, hail damaged siding coming off west side of house

Hail damaged siding coming off

Old siding off

New underlayment/vapor barrier going up

Finished for the day on Saturday evening--it was HOT!

Seams sealed on underlayment and first siding going up

Making progress

More progress

Almost done 

Painting soffit in front of house (east side)

Finished with most of back (lacks trim at top and siding on a small area over cellar)

Marking sidewalks for concrete guy