Sarah...maybe this applies somewhat to you, but I found this on John Leeke's website, which I am studying to memory in gearing up to do my window restoration. It's about vinyl. John Leeke's Historic HomeWorks(tm) Vinyl Siding Q: "I purchased an 1840's house in northwestern N.J. in 1991 which has been a great deal of fun to restore. However, I have been ignoring its largest problem: the house is covered in a disgusting, light-green vinyl siding. There was evidence of termites in the basement when I bought the house. I exterminated the termites and have seen no evidence of them since '91. Should I consider painting the vinyl siding? What is the advisability of ripping vinyl siding off, considering I don't know what's underneath. Is there any way to tell whether or not the clapboard underneath is damaged, or is continuing to be damaged." A: You face the two common problems with vinyl siding: it is not "maintenance free" and it hides conditions beneath. I am now seeing many vinyl siding projects that have 12 to 18 year's age on them being painted due to poor appearance. To improve deteriorating appearance vinyl siding is sometimes washed with high pressure water. This must be done carefully with a downward blast to prevent loading the wall with moisture through the ventilation slots. When cleaning does not help the vinyl siding contractors' response to deteriorating appearance is to replace the siding. So the time proven actual maintenance method for vinyl is little or no maintenance until it fails and then the very high maintenance treatment of replacement. If you have a term of interest in the building that is less than the life of the vinyl product, this approach may make economic sense to you. Even if you plan to sell before the vinyl needs to be replaced vinyl's short-term economic advantage may be limited. Vinyl siding is now becoming recognized as a liability by some astute real estate buyers, because its long-term life is not as cost effective some other siding materials and because it can hide serious problems. Vinyl siding hides changing conditions of the wood and paint underneath. You need to investigate conditions underneath the vinyl siding. Begin by looking at the exterior surfaces of the siding for visible signs of buckling, trails of light tan insect wood dust sifting out of the vent slots of the siding, etc.. Suspect underlying damage in the walls at inside corners where two roofs drain into one location, and north and east walls in particular which are susceptible to moisture decay problems. Look for major cracks in the foundation which might have telegraphed up the walls underneath the siding. As an historic building investigator, I use moisture meters to sense high moisture content in the wood underneath the vinyl. This is quickly done and does not damage the vinyl. You can also spot moisture problems by looking for black streaks of dirt left by water from cornice leaks at the top of the wall. Locations of high moisture usually indicate trouble spots. Selectively remove sections of siding where you find these signs of trouble and where you saw the termites. There are special tools for removing vinyl siding so you might want to hire a vinyl siding contractor. It can usually be done carefully enough to put the vinyl siding back up without damage. Look for dampness, peeling paint and decayed wood. Paint peeling to bare wood indicates there has been high moisture, which could also have lead to decay. Look for dampness that indicates the moisture problem is current and not historic. You might need to remove the old siding in areas of concern. This should be done by a finish carpenter or cabinetmaker. Again, it can sometimes be done carefully enough to reapply it without much damage. Look for deep decay in sheathing boards and the structural members beneath such as sills, studs and plates. Here is a link that might be useful: Historic Homeworks

Here is our overhang support. The granite guys used a router to make a slot in the tops of the cabinets for them to sit down flush. The overhang is 14". You don't see these supports unless you crawl under like I did to take a picture. As far as the cost of the electrical, we had 7 recessed lights put in, 2 pendants added over the peninsula, rewired for the fan over the dining table so both the light and the fan worked separately from a wall switch, vacated a couple of outlets, put in another couple in better places, put GFCI switches in the kitchen and added a switch by the garage door so we could see when we came in after dark. He also ran a wire for the undercab lighting behind the sink wall so the entire run works off of one switch. We did all the wall board repair and clean up. The labor on that was around $450, but it was the lights that were expensive at around $2300. It was the recessed lights and the undercabs that ran the price up, not the pendants or fan. We would have run a wire under the floor (we have a subfloor, not a slab or basement) for an outlet at the far end of the peninsula, but we could never figure out how to make a space inside the cabs for the electric box.

Sally. It would help if you would post a few photos.

Take the 29K metal building and throw away: The vertical posts that will be superseded, the windows and doors that won’t meet code, the insulation that will not meet code, the hardware that will not meet code, roof trusses that will not meet code. ADD. Seismic, high wind, or snow load engineering and hardware. Including reengineering the roof truss system. Residential foundation. Slab pour. Full exterior and interior framing for a complete home. Roof trusses that meet residential codes. Full 200 amp residential electrical rough in. Full residential plumbing rough in. Full insulation in walls and ceilings to meet residential code. Full HVAC. Full drywall over the framing, wiring, and insulation. All finish electrical. All finish plumbing. Finish flooring. Finish millwork and moldings. All finish cabinetry. Countertops. Appliances. All paint and wall coverings including acrylic panels for the baths. All the labor for all of the above. The only useful thing that you are purchasing from the metal building kit is the metal. And it will not contain the nice trim pieces to finish it off appropriately and attractively. Those are extra. Vinyl siding and asphalt roofing would be cheaper than the metal. In the end, the kit gets in the way of creating a house. You are conventionally framing the whole house inside the metal shell anyway. If you want to purchase metal siding and roofing for a conventionally framed building because of the look, then do that. It will cost more than other options, but at least you are not throwing away so much of the kit. We built our shop to residential standards, because any other way of building made no sense. We did not want an uncomfortable and poorly built barn.