Are Shingles Really Easier Than Painting?

and other vital questions & observations

You've already seen this picture, but I'll just leave it here as a reference. Sometimes it's easier to see progress when there's side by side pictures and not having to remember what it used to look like.

Another reference picture, just so it will seem that progress has happened while the webpage hasn't been updated.

This is one of the reasons why we're fixing the little house. It will have an excellent ocean view when it's all done. There's two trees which will be removed, they're not any particular sorts of trees, just two of them in the way of the ocean view. I've got a nice Samoan Gardenia and a low chill peach tree for putting in when we get around to some landscaping, but they will be on the side of the house and not in the middle of the view.

Are shingles really easier than painting? We're still not sure!

Putting three tab asphalt shingles on the side of the house does cover up a lot of various issues. There's all sorts of changes in the siding, damage to the siding and other irregularities which would require a lot of remedial work if we were going to paint it instead of using the shingles. However, getting the shingles on there is a bit more work than I expected.

Not so much the actual doing of it, just the slowness of it all. Before the first layer, there's a starter strip. Then the first layer. Then the next layer has to have a bit taken off one end to offset it from the first layer. Wouldn't want the spaces between the tabs to line up, after all. Plus measure between the layers and mark the walls to keep the layers straight. It's not precisely hard work, but it's work to get it precise.

This is Hawaii, the plumbing never freezes around here. Old style 'single wall' houses and this is one of those, are made of vertical tonge and groove boards to make the walls. One layer of 1" thick boards fitted together with tongue & grooves, that's the walls. No 2" x 4"s or 2" x 6"s or anything new fangled like that, just a 1" thick wall. The horizontal white stripes are the 'belly bands'. They aren't a decorative trim, they're to keep the T & G boards from separating. They do make for a nice accent, though.

The kitchen window is now fully functional. It's a double hung sash weight type window, this house has three windows of that type. There's four jalousy windows, although all of those are pretty small. There's also three big wood framed sliding glass windows. It's kinda nice that the mullions of the windows line up with the bellybands. Well, of the big slider windows, anyway, the kitchen window missed the 'line the mullions up' memo.

There's a lot less prep time involved when using the shingles, but installing them takes several days per side, so I'm not sure if we're saving time or not. Shingles are more expensive than paint, but once done, it shouild stay done for quite some time.

This is today's picture. The shingles are pretty much done up the side of the front door. There's still upper shingles to install across the front porch. Some above the front door as well as under the big window on the left side of the picture.

Just getting the bulk of the shingles nailed on goes pretty quickly, but there's a lot of little nooks and crannies which need special siding and that takes awhile to measure, cut and install each one.

As the shingles are getting installed, we keep finding issues that have to be dealt with before the shingles can go on. The front corner was leveled a bit before shingles were installed. There's going to be some extensive repairs to the next side before we can add shingles, but that project won't be for a couple days yet.

Cotton seems to go in seasons. It's late summer and the cotton seems to be in the garden again. These are the original four Bleak Hall Sea Island white cotton plants that were planted over four years ago. They've not gotten any taller than five feet and not really gotten any fuller than 'straggly', but they are still making cotton bolls. I've planted some of the seeds at the little rental house. When they sprout, I'm going to try pinching off the tips for the first year to see if they can be encouraged to become bushy instead of so scraggly. If they had more branches, maybe they'd make more cotton?

When the cotton is just pulled from the bolls and the seeds haven't been removed yet, the shine is more visible. The cotton has a staple length of several inches so it's almost more like spinning angora than like spinning cotton. Not that I've had much time lately to spin any sort of fiber.

I'd been calling her Lily in hopes of a doe, but unfortunately the baby bun didn't take the hint and it's a buck. Ratz!

After a day's work putting shingles on the little house or other repair work, the bunnies get a late dinner so this is a late night baby bunny and mum snack time.

We already have a six month old white buck who's got great wool and conformation, so this little guy is going to go live with Josh's bunnies up in Volcano. He doesn't have a white buck, so he won't be moving very far away, but won't be staying here, either. He is terribly cute, tho!