- Let's talk about Country Living
Jon.. Oh man you are singing my song. I gutted a back porch stoop a few years back. The stoop was to become the custom tiled shower. I framed it and put up 3/4" OSB sheathing and then wrapped it with housewrap. My house although built in 1922 was aluminum sided somewhere in the 1970's. It is a Double Lap Smooth 3 and 3/4" siding made by Alsco. I hunted for it.. even put ads on CL pleading with siding contractors that if they stripped a house with this siding I'd pay for it.. no luck. I ran into a guy that has been siding houses in this town for 27 years, at the time, and asked him. He said "Well in 27 years.. I bet I've stripped that siding twice in my career.. good luck to you"
I called the manufacturer.. I was able to speak with a woman who HAD to have worked there for the last 40 years.. she said "I'm sorry sir.. that siding was discontinued in 1984 and all stock was recalled and destroyed" I was nearly crushed. In the mean-time I had changed insurance companies because when we first bought the house.. they didn't have home owners insurance. I jumped in with them because they now offered it and I always loved their car insurance (Progressive) So I'm still trying to source this siding and after about 3 months of being a client I opened the mailbox to find a Pink envelope. I said "Hmm I cannot imagine this is a good thing!" I open it up and without warning.. they told me that my policy would be cancelled as of such and such a date for lack of siding on the back portion of the home. I was not given a timeframe to be able to remedy it or anything- just- BOOM.. no insurance.
I too called a local guy I had met at a local fundraising event that my wife and I attend yearly and he wrote my insurance. I was able to talk to him personally, tell him that I'm trying to source the siding and what hurdles I have had thus far. He wrote the policy for me and I was given 6 months. I ended up having to steal the siding off the garage to do the house.. and then ended up literally buying time. House was now sound.. and he didn't see the garage. About a year later I had a "random audit" and they nailed me on the garage- I had 3 months to remedy that- and this was in December. I thought "How in the heck am I going to get siding up between now and March?" Luckily for me I had found a contractor that had done a hail damage claim- bought a square off of him.. with a crisp $100 bill and stood out there in the snow and sided the garage in January one day.
The joys of homeownership right?
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