Completely Sidetracked

I got out early to beat the heat. The task was to finish priming the new facia boards and to sand and prime the house where I'd removed the entry lattice / tunnel. Settle in for a long one folks, because when I came to a fork in the road, I did not stay on the direct path.

Initially, I made good time on the facia boards using a 4" roller, planning to fall back and cut in the edges with a brush after I got the affected front of the house sanded and primed. It was just a small strip that needed painting, only 2 to 4 inches wide, but...The lattice wall had attached to the house front atop a big slab of a sill under the front window. This sill /slab / trim could use a good sanding. Just a bit off task, maybe, but it would only take a few minutes.

To say there was a bit of dried-up, caulk would be an understatement. I started removing clumps of it with a chisel and a utility knife. I think half the wall was constructed from caulk. I now recognize I had really started veering off track at this point.

It was particularly lovely to discover there were three chunks of wood, apparently glued in with caulk, to fill the voids where the sill (bottom) didn't reach the jamb (side). The sill wood was split and rotted. Maybe some more appropriate filler was needed. Still just a little sidetracked.

The trim slab wasn't even against the house. I gave it a test wiggle. Uh ohhh.

Ohhhh,...it's coming right the heck off. Mayday! Mayday! The original plan is in a nose dive!

Some interesting archaeological revelations (while I'm completely ignoring today's plan):

This big piece of wood was held on with nails from inside the house, through the exterior T-111 siding material, I guess before drywall went in. Most the nails were very loose. I'm no expert, but this seems stupid.
Apparently the house was originally a light, 1979 aqua blue.
The house must have been vacant for a significant time in its history. That weedy looking stuff is some sort of grass that must have grown up, behind the trim piece. It appeared to have grown completely behind and around it and stuck out the top. There were traces of the weed sticking through the massive caulk plug under the window. It had been cut flush with the bottom and with the face of the window trim.
The original front faucet was roughed in where this trim piece went. I found a hole that I could stick my finger through and feel the plumbing, with couplings and elbows leading to the current location.
Some late 70's carpenter had scrawled "3 x 10" here in pencil. The board was 10 feet long, 10" high, and a full 3" thick. Not something you could probably find at your local home center these days.

I know should have been working on the facia, but... I loaded the random orbital random orbit sander with some toothy 60 grit and started sanding. I clipped most of the nails with my lineman pliers and pushed them back in the wall. A few were clipped through the edge of a stud and were at odd angles. I didn't' want to pound them back into the house and cause mystery damage inside the wall, so I broke out the Dremel, loaded a cut-off wheel, and let some sparks fly.

We decided to replace the big slab sill with a 2x10. A quick trip to Home Depot was in order. Gracie accompanied me on my quick trip,... on the first Saturday of the month,... to Home Depot. Are you aware of what happens at Home Depot on the first Saturday of the Month, in the lumber section?

Pandemonium. Pint-sized side-tracking on a colossal scale. That's what. No way I could keep my little girl away from this:

Building a lawn mower pencil holder

Finally, back to the fort, I engaged the big ol' clamp in spreading mode to use it as a jack. This is getting pretty interesting. Wasn't there something else I should be doing?

Forgoing the whole "cram scraps in the hole and caulk it in" approach, I wanted to cut the board to fit. I used a rafter square to transfer the end location of the cut. The critical step here was to utilize a neon pink pencil. Otherwise, obviously, the whole project would have failed. Take it from me, all serious craftsman have a neon pink pencil readily at hand.

A quick scribing of the measurement with a compass by setting it to the gap on the side and transferring it to the mid section.

Then I ripped the length of the mid section with a cordless circular saw and cut the ends with a reciprocating saw. Paintbrush? What paintbrush? DEWALT power tools will always win that battle.

It took a little adjustment with the planer to fit snug. I jacked it up, and shot it in place with the framing nailer, into the studs. I created some vertical trim boards to replace the missing ones below the sill out of recycled pallet wood I had stored in the garage.

At this point, I really committed to my sidetracked approach. I heroically continued to not sand and prime as planned. The heat had worn me down enough. I cleaned up, went inside, and planned my next step. By "planned", I mean I ate a slice of cold pizza and fell asleep on the couch.

Now cooled down, I returned to the battle to meet the morning's first objectives,... in the afternoon. Darn that evil, side-tracking front window project. Only pride kept me out there in the blast furnace of the peak heat of a Phoenix afternoon at the record heat of 111 degrees. I'm so glad I waited.