Board-and-Batten

I decided I wanted to utilize the "board-and-batten" style of siding for this phase of the project. Boards are nailed vertically, with gaps between them (for expansion/contraction throughout the year). Battens (which are essentially just boards of a much lesser width, 3 inches in this case) are then nailed on top of these to cover the gaps.

I like the look of this siding style. And supposedly it will allow the wood to last much longer than it would in a horizontal orientation, because the rain will be hitting it and running down it parallel to the grain, not perpendicular to it.

I love the look of the rough-sawn pine lumber. Trees have been logged, shipped to the sawmill, cut into boards, and then sold to us. The lumber at Home Depot has gone through all of the same initial steps, but then post-sawmill the lumber is dried in kilns, and then planed down to a very standard size and smooth finish, and then shipped to a store to be sold. That is a lot of processing that we are avoiding! Our wood looks nicer because it has a wider range of color, and grain patterns, and no ugly stamps.

So far we have just gotten the boards nailed up. We want to let them fully dry out on the wall, and then stain them. After staining the boards, we will nail up the battens.

I wired the addition earlier this week. You can see the blue boxes and yellow wires poking through the framing members.