...Mollasses in January

Siding is started. It is a little premature as we are still waiting on the roofers to start. It has been two weeks since I was promised they would start right away by the general contractor. Of course wiring is being held up by the lack of roof as well. I could have used this 3-4 day weekend or last week's for Christmas to get most of the wiring done.

The siding design is going to be very nice. It is a 12" board with 3" batten. We are trying to do as few seems as possible by using 16' wood and breaking it up with window and door trim. Some do a "belly band" which is a horizontal piece that wraps the structure. This always looks a little hokey. So we are doing a 45 degree splice with the angle so that water runs away from the building instead of into it.

There is a problem with the material which is mildewing badly since it has been sitting around outside for many months. If it was Cedar, it would have been better. But it is Fir for lower cost. It would have been fine if we could have gotten it up and painted soon. I am not sure what it will take to deal with now. Probably some bleach and some sort of mildew suppressor

The tar paper is being doubled up to improve moisture resistance. Seeing the building in black looks different. This is closer to it's final appearance of barn red with white trim.
We got quite a bit of snow over Christmas. It was the most I have ever seen around here. Old-timers say it has been worse, some time ago. Here is a shot from about the worst of it.