From Tree to Siding

By all rights, this is Papaw's story to post, but since he has abandoned his blog, I will have to tell you how he is making siding for this house.

You may wonder why put siding on a house that is temporary? Good question, and one I've asked as we put in a permanent foundation, a new roof and a very large deck. The reason is that this house is temporary, to Tim and I. In fact, we just rent it from Papaw and Mamaw. The house itself will be staying for other family members that may need it, or for use as a guest house if no one currently needs it to live in.

We joke that Papaw is making this double wide so nice, we may never leave. He is quick to respond that he will have to raise the rent to get us out of here. Tim and I believe that Papaw and Mamaw will probably end up here, while Eric stays in the house they live in now. They say that is not the plan. I guess only time will tell.

At the top of one of the hills is a place we call the clearing. At the clearing you will see a pile of logs. These are all logs that were dead, or were cleared for the power lines and mobile home sites. Late last fall, Papaw purchased a saw mill. Not a cheap endeavor, but he reasoned that by the time we build the houses, the outbuildings, and other things like, rabbit hutches, it will pay for itself.

Last weekend he had it up and running to cut boards to side this house with. Tim posted a video of it, if you would like to see it in action. Papaw is siding the house with oak in a rustic barn like style. It looks very nice. He has the back side of the house more than half done. With the new roof line and the new siding, this house will not look like a trailer at all, from the outside.

That is Papaw's story of taking the trees from our property and turning them into siding for our house. I'm sure he is saying that he doesn't have time to post about it, because he is too busy doing it!