How about an owl! Ace Hardware in Denver has an owl advertised right now that you can get online too. See below. IÂve seen these before, buy never an animated one like this is. At my last houseÂa rentalÂI had something pecking somewhere "on top" too for a while. It lasted for several weeks. I later had downy woodpeckers build a nest in my dying cottonwood, and sometimes wondered if it had been them, but I think the woodpeckers pretty much stuck to the trees, so IÂd say a flicker is a pretty good guess for the noisy guest. And the noise was always early in the morning tooÂjust like you. Back in the early 70's in an apartment I had the same thing happen, but that time they were just outside and above my bedroom window under the roof overhang, so every morning, as soon as they came, I pounded on the window a few times to scare them away, and after a week or so, they gave up. The did come back the next spring and I had to repeat the whole thing. ItÂs AMAZING how much noise they can make! Back in the 80's, at my house in Parker, the house was absolutely mobbed by pidginsÂdozens and dozens and dozens of themÂthe roof and everything else was covered with poop, so I found this inflatable snakeÂlike BIGÂand put it up there, and it actually workedÂfor a while. The Colorado sun fairly quickly did a number on the plastic, though, and it deflated, and apparently it wasnÂt scary anymore because it quit working. I think an owl would work better than a scarecrow type thing. Good luck, Skybird Here is a link that might be useful: Owl!

We used hardieplank on our residing a couple years ago (after a big stucco disaster). We bought the preprimed and had it painted afterwards with Sherwin Williams Duration - our painter said it was the best and would hold up the longest. It's been 2 years since the paint job and except for a few spider eggs and dirt spots, it looks like it went on yesterday. (Our wood soffits, otoh, which were also painted 2 years ago, are already peeling in spots). We used a rainscreen behind ours (a version of homeslicker from Benjamin Obdyke) but that was more because our walls were wet starting out and not because the hardie requires it. I do expect that it will help the longevity of the paint job though. We used Azek for the trim, again because we didn't want to deal with painting wood every couple years. The Azek, too, looks like it was just painted yesterday. One thing you do want to make sure (that I didn't see mentioned yet) is that Hardie specifies in the install instructions that all cut ends be primed before installing. My contractors just kept can of primer by the saw and would slap some primer on whenever they made a cut. It helps keep the ends sealed. I will say that there are a few spots where they must have forgotten to do this or just put a really thin coat on, because if I look at it in a certain light at a certain angle, I can see that the end 2" or so of the board looks a bit puffy compared to the rest of the board. But you really really have to be looking for this - no one else has ever noticed (course we're talking about 2 spots over a 3000 sq ft house - only someone totally obsessed and would see that, LOL!). Then again, we started our install in November, finished in February, and couldn't paint it til the weather broke in June. Hardie specifies that the preprimed should be painted within 6 months of install, and we went longer than that in some parts of the house. So could be partly our fault too. At any rate, it doesn't appear to be affecting the integrity of the board and now that it's painted, the "puffy" area isn't getting bigger or disintegrating, so it's not a big deal in my book. We've been really happy with the hardieplank - we like the look and we love the ease of maintenance. There's lots of pictures of the hardie-in-progress at the stucco disaster link above if you care to check them out. Good luck!

"Why would a contractor choose T1-11 siding over cedar siding?" Because your contractor can make a bigger profit by substituting budget materials. A high quality alternative if real cedar is too expensive is to go with James Hardie HardiePlank Siding. It's a fiber cement product that is nearly indestructible and is fireproof. I have it on my house, and it's great. They have a variety of styles, ranging from plain sheets to siding in a cedar-look pattern. You can get it primed or painted. Here is what their "Cedarmill" lap siding looks like: Just make sure the contractor has experience with this material; it's not brain surgery, but some knowledge is required to do it right, particularly because it is a very hard material to cut, and you need to know how to properly nail it.

My nasty problems with the red breasted woodpeckers will soon be over ! I just ordered two of the solar powered gadgets ( https://dbzon.com/products/woodpecker-outdoor-ultrasonic-repeller?variant=12194661662822&currency=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gclid=Cj0KCQjwoaz3BRDnARIsAF1RfLfWOzoWBqDelJtSQgxW0kTAbWmuAKq0bHLrY9QUlK3ddT-MR0qeZDUaAr6OEALw_wcB ) S/B here in 5, 6 days, - will let y'all know if they work or not. Keeping my fingers crossed.