It apparently takes many years to forget what a right proper pain it is to wood shake an entire house.
It’s a lovely finish though, and very forgiving especially on an old mill. Instead of dark cedar, this time I will be using light wood shakes that I can stain to look weathered. These are from the defunct and partial Tudor Queen Anne kit. No sense in buying supplies when I have some languishing in storage. They are thin and rather uniform, which makes life easier.
First was determining the size of the individual shingles. True to scale shingles looked out of place for Baxter Pointe Villa, so I hand cut the 1,700 shingles by length and width to work best for proportion. Considering the mill structure is even smaller, I figured I would have to do the same. The 1/2″ by 3/4″ measurements used for Baxter Pointe Villa seemed like they would work for the mill as well.
I did a rough calculation and will need approximately 1,635 shakes. Not that far off from the amount needed for Baxter Pointe Villa, but there are fewer windows and no chimney for Watson Mill. After counting the bag, I discovered I have only 1,617 shakes. :O No margin for error. But, if need be, I will use other shakes for the small back wall. Houseworks makes nice light wood shakes that will work well enough to finish out the set. I will start here, though.
Cut, cut, cut. Once this bear of a task is done, I’ll stain the shingles before application. I’ll also have to finish the windows and door so I can get those installed prior to shingling.
