Week 13A: Sample Walls

As part of the construction process we have to provide a sample wall section showing what our siding, roof, etc is all going to look like (and showing the architectural review committee of the property owner's association can make sure we aren't planning on painting our house flamingo pink).


This is a picture of the board on one of the other houses currently under construction so you can see what the finished product looks like.


And here is ours, a work in progress. It's really amazing how heavy a couple pieces of wood can be. Also fiber cement siding, while nice to the earth, and durable, is no fun to cut. Lacking specialized tools you have to use a utility knife to score it and then snap it in half.
We've also had to figure out some adjustments on the sizes of the trim pieces (the gray(for now) pieces you can see above). The actual belly band on the house is 12" wide. But on a 3'x5' model, it would look a bit absurd at that size, so not everything ended up being quite to scale. You'll get another chance to see this once it's done, but the two pieces of siding you can see there are two of the colors we plan on using. Our trim will use the bottom color (Black Fox) and the siding on the main floor will be the upper one (Roycroft Bronze Green). There will also be fiber cement simulated shake-style shingles (say that three times fast) on the upper floor in a color similar to the black fox, but a little lighter looking because of the different texture.
In a few days we should have all the samples we need cut to size, then Melanie will paint it, and by next weekend it should hopefully be done.