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Exterior Remodeling Building a Home

Dormer, siding, and HVAC order + questions

last year

Tldr, if the dormer will be sided first, potentially 2-4 years before we reside the remainder of the house, should I try to match the look of the existing siding?
Back story.
We are getting ready to begin our dormer project. Our original builder we were going to use has proven to not be reliable, so we are going to use another builder who's estimate was more.
The whole scope of the project is the dormer, HVAC unit for upstairs bedrooms(desperately need) and then in this process we have learned that our hardboard siding has some water damage that needs to be dealt with.
The issue is, we cannot afford to do it all at once. Since having to use our backup builder. So I'm trying to figure out the order in which to do things and prioritize.
We could do the dormer, side it alone, then HVAC and in a few years when the dust has settled reside the remainder of the house, which is what we're leaning towards, but then do I try to match the existing siding we have in terms of a beaded light grey? I think we're going to do a vinyl siding, as Hardie board is even more cost prohibitive.
Or is there a different order in which you think to do things? I know it may logically seem as though we should re-side and do the HVAC unit for the existing upstairs, but the whole reason we took out this loan was for the dormer. It would be quite disappointing to not use any of this money on the dormer.

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Comments (8)

millworkman
last year
Do the dormer (with the new siding type) and the upstairs HVAC. Save and then do the siding on the rest of the house. The mismatched siding will give you the impetus to save more and quicker.
res2architect
last year
last modified: last year
I like to use shingle siding for the walls of dormers and weave the corners (no corner boards) as was commonly done in the 19th century and earlier.
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Victoria
Original Author
last year
Res2, do you have a picture for reference? I'm having a hard time finding one.
PRO
PPF.
last year
Res2, do you have a picture for reference? I'm having a hard time finding one.

What do you need a picture of?

@Victoria If you type the @, then start typing the user name, you can pick from a list. This notifies the user that you referred to them, as I've done here to you.
Victoria
Original Author
last year
@ppf.

Thank you for the picture, and the tip. I love the look of cedar shingles, does it typically cast a house into craftsman style? Which I love, but our house is definitely not. And would require quite a bit of work to make craftsman.
Victoria
Original Author
last year
@johmson brother contracting

We already have stairs and two legals bedrooms with a bathroom upstairs. We hired our the design of our dormer to an architect, who drafted our dormer addition. To have two legal bedrooms with a ceiling height of 9 feet.

We are going to HVAC bidded by a few more places, hopefully we can get a bid low enough that we can do it all.

We Are not looking at a HELOC, we took out a fixed rate home equity loan for the project and will use that, if that's not enough, then we will have to take to save
PRO
PPF.
last year
@User

Did you not see the floorplan above. It clearly shows new and existing work. The OP has not shared a rear view of the home, but I imagine the 2 existing bedrooms have windows located there.
Victoria
Original Author
last year
@Johnson Brothers Contracting

As @PPF stated, we have existing legal two bedrooms and 1 bathroom on the back of the house, they were built with the house. We are adding two additional legal bedrooms via a dormer to the front half of the upstairs. Its not a matter of not having the ability to get the the money to do it, I'm aware that we could, its a matter of what is a financially sound decision for our family.

We will be doing the Dormer first, then HVAC, then siding the remainder of the house. Once the dust settles on the first two projects, we will likely have about half of the necessary funds to reside the rest of the house, and will take time to save the remaining half.

Thanks for everyones input.

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