Faucet? Socket? Soffit?

After the house was de-jungled it was time for construction! I have watched enough home improvement & renovation shows to know that water is the enemy to any house & it was no less forgiving to ours. I have no doubt in my mind that if the manor was wood instead of brick it would have long since been in a landfill somewhere. Thankfully, the only major water damage was to the two addditions that were going to be removed anyway, the terrace above the porch and to the soffits/fascia boards. I am going to admit, I didn't know what a sofft was but I did know that there was a big opening going around the underneath side of where our roof came out around the whole house and that was not good. Jeremy on the other hand knew what we were dealing with & gave me a crash course. And thanks to him & the wonderful interwebs, I'm throwing out terms like fascia, frieze, cornice, soffit, rake, eave & drip edge like a regular little Bob Vila. Bam!

No soffits = no protection to the edge of your rafters, no proper shedding of water & it's a great welcome mat for racoons to get in your attic and camp out for the winter (oh the horrors I've seen in that attic!).

Here's a cameo appearance from my dad, "the foreman". He doesn't like heights so he stays below and likes to make Jeremy nervous about every cut he makes and every nail he hammers. ;) I'm joking...he's actually been a huge help over the past several months. Lesson #3: Accept help when it is offered no matter how proud you are.



We've kind of taken a break this winter but as soon as the weather cooperates we'll get back on those soffits & I'll get back to tackling the attic. *cringe* More to come later....

In the meantime, I've been trying to figure out the significance of the XO pattern that is all over the house...or even finding another house that has this kind of pattern in the brick. Not having much luck though....