I’m excited to finally be getting to the parts where we make the house look good, not just being sure it’s solid.  Here comes the window trim and siding.  We decided to start on the short back wall of the house hoping our technique and showmanship would improve with practice. The octagon window got tackled first, which took some measuring and careful cuts, but was at least small pieces.  We wanted to keep moving on that upper portion of the wall, so after some more research to learn how to install cedar shingles, we were off on getting those put on.  We went with a six-inch rise for each layer of shingles.

After a bit more work on installing the shingles – which is not a rapid process, we wanted to get some trim on a few more of the windows.  The two lower windows on the back wall were up next.  They were close enough together that we ended up trimming them together. Then, we moved to putting trim around the four upper windows on the back long wall.

The flanges on the windows for installation of the windows make putting up the trim around the windows a little harder and more time-consuming than one might initially think.  But, shims and relief cuts on the back of the trim pieces keep the trim flat and tidy.

Trimming upper windows

Trimming continues

More progress on shingles

I had an epiphany as we worked on this that putting on window trim isn’t just for aesthetics and making the installation of the house siding easier and cleaner, but it also means if you ever want to replace your windows, all you have to do is remove the window trim instead of messing up all the siding around the window!  Eureka!  Good call building design creators.

Upper portion completed

Lookin’ good

Progess on trim and shingles!