A Small Change to the Exterior of the Capers

After a long weekend in the Scotia with Chris's family for Thanksgiving (pictures to come), Chris and I arrived home to this sight. That's right, snow!

 

First snow of the winter!

But the dusting of snow wasn't the only exciting thing that greeted us at our house. If you look very closely in this picture compared to older pictures of our house, you might see a change. Not sure? Let me give you a hint. This was a picture I took a week ago:

Can you see what changed? It's our soffits! Check out the before and after picture below and I think it will be more obvious:

BEFORE

 

AFTER

What a difference, right? We actually had Peterson Construction come in and do the work. Gary was such a good contractor and we are so pleased with the results. If you're in the Syracuse, NY region, we definitely recommend him. In fact, we're thinking about having him reside the house in the next year or so. Super exciting! Love the idea of not having "freckles" on our siding anymore. haha

But I don't think Gary has a very hard time getting work. In fact, while he was up on the ladder working on our soffits, our neighbor came over and asked him for an estimate on a section of roof and siding on his own house that had a leak. haha I guess Gary is giving our neighborhood a little makeover.

Anyway, let's continue with the glorious before and after pictures:

BEFORE

AFTER

In the picture below, you can really see how he cleaned up a lot of the weird angles by boxing them out. It looks a lot cleaner and newer, not to mention hassle-free. No more scraping and painting the eaves. Woo hoo!

The area above the front door was particularly bad. Much of the eaves were covered with plywood, but the section above the door was open because the screen door might have swung right into the soffit if it was any lower. So Gary and his coworker came up with a creative work around.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Here you can see the unpainted, untreated boards that were in the eaves before. Maybe they had something to do with the wires coming into the house? Whatever their purpose, they were ugly and prone to rot since the wood was exposed to the elements.

BEFORE

And now, voila! No more ugly wood. Just clean, simple, white soffits.

AFTER

You'll also notice the little white vents on the front of the house now. While I wouldn't call this an aesthetic improvement, the vents are supposed to improve the airflow through the unfinished attic spaces inside the house. There were already vents on the back of the house, so now the air can flow straight through and escape. Hopefully this will cut down on the amount of icicles we get on the room, since warm air won't be trapped inside the attic just under the roof.

Our original plan was to cut into the wood just under the roof, so it would be covered by the vented soffits. Air would still be able to get inside, but the openings wouldn't be visible. The problem was in the construction of the house (most new houses already have the proper venting). But our 1930's Cape Cod had several thick pieces of wood right where we needed vents, so that ruled them out. But the new vents on the front should hopefully do the same thing, so I'll keep you posted.

AFTER

The picture below is one of my favorite views. Such a big improvement. The contractor even wrapped the corner pieces and the section behind the spotlight with metal, so that won't need painting anymore either.

AFTER

AFTER

So there you have it. New soffits on the Capers. It's really one of the first improvements we've made to the exterior of the house, and I'm loving it. It's a small thing, but it needed to be done (no more exposed wood with the potential to rot), and it looks great. And it's got me thinking about how much new siding will improve the look of the house. But for now, I'm happy to have new soffits checked off the list!