Robert H. Wood's Page

Thank you Robert! It has been a long road and I am only half way done with the siding. I checked out the Merrill house in Jacksonville, Fl. I can't believe that the house was saved and restored. The final result is breathtaking. I would have passed that one up. I did lots of research and bought lots of old books on victorian house construction prior to choosing the siding style that I selected. I wanted a painted lady, but after buying books with many San Francisco houses in them I decided on pink and white with touches of color. For now the house is mainly covered in primer. I probably have one more week of warm weather before winter heads our way. I got the pink from the "Pink Lady in Eureka, California." I just love that house.

Robert I do everything on the cheap and I do most of the work myself. I was going to strip down my siding to bare wood, but I discovered the entire east side of the house was rotten except the scallop shingles around the third floor. There were no downspouts (apparently for decades) on that side of the house so everything behind the siding in one corner was rotten too. What a job! That is how I ended up with all new belts, tongue & groove wainscotting, lap siding, and fancy cut cedar shingles. I had no idea the lumber jacks were on strike in Canada two years ago when I ripped everything off that side of the house. There was no siding available to purchase. We went through winter 07/08 with only Tyvek house wrap over the sheathing boards on the entire east side of the house. Our house sits just a few blocks from Lake Erie and winters are pretty severe here. So when spring of 08 rolled around I bought every victorian architectual design book I could get my hands on and came up with a design that used very little cedar siding boards. I was a police officer for more than twenty years, so I don't have anything to show for my work either. Just this house. The only windows I have reglazed so far are the small arched ones in the tower. I just finished 2 of them last week and got them back in for my halloween pumpkins. Check out my kitchen photos. Formica countertops and unfinished cabinets. All of it was done on the cheap and I am still not finished with that room. My nice little piece of America is not in the best of neighborhoods and the bad economy has taken its toll here, so I will never re-coup what went into this house. I don't care. This was my lifelong dream and I am living it.

I have followed the same course you did. I have several sets of saw horses sitting in the basement holding lumber (the belt courses) for the exterior of the house. I have discovered a lumber mill that is about an hour away that sells the cedar siding cheaper than the place I was buying it from. Hubby and I will make a trip tomorrow morning. I still need a few boards for each side of the kitchen window. If I find the right siding there, it will complete the entire west side wall before winter arrives. Minus primer and paint of course. I don't think my luck will hold out for more warm weather, but you never know. I was on the front porch roof last December painting. I really do love my old house and if it only matters to me, then that is OK. I never meant to sell it anyway.