Finish line in sight

Now that the electrical is all up, trim is up and painted, it's really starting to feel like the finish line is in sight. Now it's down to a small punch list of stuff left to do.

Looking good already

Ready for lights

We actually bought a professional grade paint sprayer for this. It's standalone (no air compressor needed), has a feeder that sits in the bucket of paint, and a long hose with a sprayer on the end. I had to move the unit around some to get all three sides of the porch, but I got the bright white paint on everything that will be facing the outside when it's all done. And I know once I get the beadboard and trim on the ceiling we'll need it again, and there are interior projects to paint.....

But having all of the paint done on the outside means I can start hanging cedar. And having the electrical done means I can start hanging beadboard on the ceiling.

First row of cedar

almost made it across

Adding some extra courses

First pieces of beadboard are up

Hanging cedar shake shingles can get weird quick, man. Starting with a 1x4 piece of trim gives me a straight level line. Then the first course gets doubled, so you want to start with the pieces that really look like shit since everything is going to get covered up. Sometimes you might even want to put 3 layers on the bottom row, but I put two up this time. Every course above the first course sits at a 5 1/2" offset from the level line. Don't let any of the seams line up, so every seam between the boards on the inside bottom course gets covered up by the outer bottom course. Some of the outer bottom boards came down below the level line to create some visual interest. Then I started to measure out the lines for upper courses and get some of those boards up. I used a pencil and level to draw on the lines, then fit the bottom of the boards to the line. Be sure none of the edges of the boards line up - any water that gets between the boards needs to fall through to another board (not another seam).

Also you can see I got the first few pieces of beadboard put up. I started with a full sheet of plywood, then a half sheet. Then I went ahead and custom cut a piece to fit between that edge and the chimney. I actually wanted to start running that plywood from the other side, but a bird built a dang nest in the other corner of the beam! There were eggs in there when we checked, so now I have to wait until the dang eggs have hatched and the little birds leave the nest before I finish putting in my ceiling.

Oh well, seems like there is always cedar. And gutters, still have gutters left to go.