firsthouse

Hi, It's me, the nervous Garfield builder again. As I posted in my reply, under the siding warping topic, thank you all so much for giving me strength to go on. As one of you suggested, I was considerably upset, and luckily by myself, so no one heard the things I said when I saw my siding warping before my very eyes. But now, after getting through that bad experience, I have a couple of new questions. I bought 5000 shingles to do the roof, and all of them are THIN little pieces of cedar. Do they need to be sealed as well? And if so, how do I keep 5000, little, tiny, postage stamped size pieces from curling? But if I don't seal them, will they curl when the glue hits them when I attach them to the roof? And then there is the windows. I bought the set of working windows that exactly fit the Garfield house. Great, I thought, these will be really cool looking. But then I realized that it doesn't look like the plexi-glass stuff can be removed when I am painting them. (And by the way do the windows need sealing too?) How on earth can those tiny little windows be painted without getting paint on the glass, and moreover, how can they be painted without paint sealing up the grooves where the windows slide up and down. I have done this on full size windows - getting paint on glass, and messing up the grooves, I mean - so I know how hard it is to do a good job even when everything is normal sized. Is there any tricks to doing these things - I hope, I hope?

Hi All You Nice People that answered me so quickly, You have pulled me back from the brink. Now that I know I have not just destroyed $60 worth of siding, I am building up my courage to go back out there and paint the sealer on the rest of the pieces of siding. Knowing that glue and weight seems to solve most ills gives me a lot more confidence. One of you asked which house I am building. It's the Garfield. Nothing like starting with the biggest, and to my first-timers eyes, the most compicated. I really wish I had started smaller now, but in for a penny, in for a pound, and after investing my children's inheritence in building supplies, etc. I can't back out now -- Can I?

Hi, Everywhere I read, it said I should prime everything before I do anything. I read in several places that a mixture of 1/5 shellac and 4/5 denatured alcohol works well. I spent a small fortune on siding, the sheets not the individual strips. So, I sealed them today. To my horror, after I had done 15 sheets, I saw they were warping - bowing with the sides of the long way turning up into a long, shallow, 'U' shape. What did I do wrong? What do I do now? Should I have sealed them at all? Did I use the wrong stuff? Right now, they are resting under weights and I am hoping they will flatten. Is this a step that various online help sites assumed I would have the brains to do without being told? I hope someone out there can help me. I am feeling stupid and discouraged. Thank you.