rainscreen

I decided that we would go with a rainscreen siding design for the bottom half of the house. The top half of the siding is metal from Metal Roof Specialties in Tacoma Washington. (You can see it in the pictures in previous posts. The roof is also metal.) I'm not a huge fan of climbing ladders, or home maintenance so the metal was the way to go. Just about everything above about 10-12' high on the house will never need paint, or any work at all now that its installed. It was a little more expensive, but worth every penny.
All of the rest of the house is a rainscreen. Google it if you are thinking of trying it yourself. Its basically a method of attaching the siding so that there is an air gap behind the siding project, allowing any moisture that gets in there to dry out easier and keep your house from rotting.
Here's how I did it:
The house is wrapped in a material called Vaproshield. Its available on the web at vaproshield.com. The stuff is more expensive than tyvek, but its like wrapping your house in Gore-Tex. Waterproof and breathable. Its great stuff, and easy to use. I put down two layers because I have an open joint system, which I'll describe next.
On top of the vaproshield, I used cedar battens to set the siding off from the house about .75". The cedar fencing that I used wasn't all exactly the same thickness, so I used a planer and planed it all to the same thickness so my siding wouldn't be wavy looking.
Then, I've attached Hardi Cement board siding like tiles, 3'x4', with a .25" gap between each panel. Its all pre-painted (front and back) and pre-drilled and attached with stainless steel screws. The screws are every 15" so its down nice and tight. (Some of the house is actually Brazilian Redwood instead of the Hardi. Same idea though.)
I guess it works great. We had some of the biggest storms in years this past winter and with the vaproshield alone, the house stayed perfectly dry, so the siding over that can only help.
If you think I'm crazy, do a little searching on the web and read up on it yourself. Its the way to go. The canadians are doing it all over the place and here in Seattle, I think its a requirement for all condos. I'll post some pictures after the weekend.
-kk

Faucet Depot

Faucets and plumbing fixtures can be a real expense. Especially if you want something a little different than what you can buy at the Home Depot. (Not to knock the Depot. I'm just sayin'.) So when it comes time to buy your faucets, sinks, toilets, etc... Faucet Depot dot com is they way to go. (Link to the side of the page.)
They have about everything, and their staff is able to help out as far as ideas, possibilities, etc... And, on top of that, if you email Nicole (nicole@faucetdepot.com) and tell her you got her info from this website, she can hook you up with a price better than you will see on the website. I saved a ton!
And no, I wasn't paid to say this. She did an awesome job of working with me, and I ended up buying almost all of the plumbing fixtures for the entire house. (Of course, now they all have to sit in storage until we're ready to use them....)
Anyway, I cant say enough good things about Faucet Depot and Nicole.
-kk