I am feeling my years. All 56 of them. I am very young by many standards but my hands feel their age. I am practically snorting Advil. I wake up and think… one more week. Surely I have the energy for one more week. And then I get moving and it's OK – until I stop. I thank the scientists who came up with Advil.

But enough of that – what did we do today? I painted. It went surprisingly fast. The flat Hardie panels are a breeze to paint. I had to slow down on the paneling on the back of the house. The soffits were fast. Honestly, the primer on the siding is similar to the new color so I didn't take a ton of photos. Here's one to show how it's looking:

Steve and Chris spent a lot of the morning getting the ends of the soffits on the door side of this porch just right.

You must pay attention to where the water goes. If you don't, and if you live in Texas, you get a lot of black mold which was all over this area when we started.

The roofers did the flashing in the photo below. Steve and Chris altered the soffit (below) which required chopping off a chunk of the old garage roof that ran below the newer, flatter roof over the side door. (OK – that is a compound sentence that may not make sense. Except that it does if you know what I'm talking about.)

It was slow work and hard work and this area is so much better now!

My guys did the next flashing. It will keep the water from running back under the lower soffit.

This sort of project reminds me that this sort of project is often figured out on the fly by (hopefully) skilled workpersons. Part of my job during this renovation is requesting that some things are done a certain way. I don't have the upper body strength of my son or husband. I don't have all of their experience. But I have very definite opinions. It's not my house but I'm speaking for Lorna's concerns. Steve and Chris are not always thrilled with my questions but they do consider them. 

Steve and Chris then worked on the west side of the garage. Hard work, again. I was impressed at the way they got the pointy front areas covered with siding!

I left after I took this photo. It was 3:30 and HOT. They worked longer and got a bit more done. But don't they look good?!

Actually, they look good considering they've been working in hot weather for 8 hours. In a different context they look a like ne'er do wells. Trust me, I was good match for them. We were all scruffy looking. And I went 3 times to Lowe's today and hoped each time I would not run into someone I knew. (It's possible that I smelled, at least like Deep Woods Off.) Boy, a shower at the end of the day is a gift!