Exterior Grade Ecstacy

Quite a step forward! Today we sheathed about two thirds of the exterior of my studio. It made such a difference in terms of defining space and making Bob and Joe and myself feel like we're actually getting somewhere with this whole crazy studio thing.
First step is to cover the exterior walls in tar paper. Yes, some people use TyVek and other name brand "house wraps" but let's face it: they are plastic, expensive and tar paper has been in use for years. Additionally, as with many, many other materials, we have loads of it that came with the house. Like rolls and rolls. So it's essentially free. (We haven't had to buy nails, tools, insulation... all kinds of stuff!)
Then we nail on the siding.

I painted with primer as Joe and Bob nailed and measured and leveled. (The black hole is one of my windows. The windows get installed after the sheathing is done.) It was helpful to find out that the grey color our house is painted is essentially a very simple grey to match. We had the primer tinted so that it blends right in with our siding. We will paint the studio with regular house paint later on. Boy, does raw wood soak up the primer! We went through a whole gallon on just this side (and a couple of sheets on the garden side of my studio). Another one of those material underestimations that are hard to avoid! I'm picking up an additional gallon of paint tomorrow after work. Doesn't the paint job look great? Well, I did major in painting at Bennington so I guess my credentials speak for themselves.

Hey! Those ladders are getting themselves in every picture! Two things about this photo: One is how truly great the studio makes the entire house look. It sets up this dramatic and dynamic cascade of angles. I couldn't be happier. Our house looks very modern and geometric. Of course, being artists probably helped; something about raising the roof a few feet made the proportions just right. The other funny thing about this picture is that the perspective from which I took it (and maybe the back end of the truck) skewed the house and makes it all look tiny. I wouldn't have expected that. And it didn't feel tiny when I was painting it.
We were lucky to have exceptionally nice weather, though, warmish and sunny. This time of year could bring anything. Remember snow in October two years ago? Yeesh. Who wants to think of that?!?!!?
On a really nice note, our neighbor Meagan (who helped raise the second and third walls just a week ago) brought Bob and I an apple crisp that she had baked. She said she saw how hard we were working and felt we needed a little treat. We are really fortunate to have such nice neighbors!!