08/24/2026
Cedar shakes, a labor of love.
This time last year, the asbestos siding was removed from the building to unveil the original cedar shakes. I was holding my breath, hoping they’d be in good shape, and they were! But the shakes were missing on three aides of the main level, removed years ago and replaced with big panels of T1-11. Those panels remained for the past year as we completed the exterior facelift, the last pieces that had modified the original storefront at some point in the 1960s. We knew at some that we’d need to replace that area with shakes to match the rest of the house.
Back in January, my husband, Eric, noticed a house with stained shakes being dismantled and contacted the owner, Matt Totaro. He kindly allowed my husband and boys to remove the shakes in decent shape once Second Chance took what they could use. After three cold Saturdays in January (the coldest in recent years, I’m sure you remember!), we had a stockpile in the Staub basement. It felt good to save the old-growth shakes and reuse them.
Our family started covering the areas needing shakes over the past month and a half. This past weekend, we ran out of the reclaimed ones and had to buy new. We have only a small area to go!
Why do all of this labor, you might ask? I’ll explain in the next post!
(I’m finally coming up for air as we’re in the final week of summer camp, the classes are on break and the renovation nears completion. So stay tuned for more renovation stories soon!)
