Borat (***½)

Posted on November 4th, 2006 in Movie Reviews by EngineerBoy

Holy sacred cow, what a hilarious movie! I’ve never seen Da Ali G Show nor the character of Borat created by Sacha Baron Cohen (other than in all the ads for this film). We went to go see it tonight based on the universally positive reviews, coupled with the hilarity of the clips in the ads and talk shows, and the film definitely lived up to, and even exceeded, our expectations. To put it into context, we walked out of this movie and I immediately got on the phone with my friend Bruce to tell him to go see this film. I can’t remember the last time I did that, if ever, and Bruce is my movie-watching-hermano to whom I would NOT make such a recommendation lightly.

Borat (the film) is smartly dumb and dumbly smart, whereas Borat (the character) is a Frankenstein’s monster amalgamation of Christianity, Islam, Judaism (…NOT!), Eurasian, nomad, disco dancer, sex machine, journalist, pilgrim, and tabula rasa. The parts don’t fit together well, but through the sheer force of his laserlike dumbness, Borat manages to orchestrate his many facets into a compellingly hilarious and sympathetic whole.

I’m struggling in this review not to give away plot points and gags, as they should be experienced without preamble, but suffice it to say that I don’t believe there is a single major taboo that is not broken, nor a single demographic group that is not mocked in this film. And mocked effectively. Borat holds a mirror up to “America”, to our faults and to our greatness, and the dissection is as painful to watch as it is revelatory and uproarious. The theater literally screamed with laughter during the vast majority of the film, and there were times when I had to simply look away as my sensibilities couldn’t take any more, and I’m a pretty jaded, worldly, not-easily-offended movie-goer.

Almost lost in the film is the absolutely pitch-perfect portrayal of Borat by Cohen. Cohen reaches Spinal Tap levels of believability, where you easily forget that what you are seeing is a double fake-out…a mock documentary about a completely fictional character. When Borat and his producer scream heated gibberish at each other, I don’t know what they are saying, but I’m sure it has nothing to do with what’s being portrayed by the English subtitles, and it’s probably some amalgamation of nonsense and Hebrew (Cohen is Jewish), but it sure *sounds* like what I, as an ignorant American, would expect a Kazakstani to sound like.

Just to be clear about this review and film, I’m not the arrested-adolescent type who laughs at crude jokes simply because I find them funny. Borat is the offensive joke as an art form and as social commentary. If you go see this film, and you should, be prepared to be horrified and disgusted and to laugh yourself to tears and to walk out wiping your eyes and having conversations about human nature, bigotry, international relations, and poop.

Must Be Heaven restaurant – excellent food!

Posted on September 5th, 2006 in Brenham,Restaurant Reviews by EngineerBoy

We recently moved to Brenham from big, old Houston, and quickly found this place. We’ve gone there for lunch several times in the week or so that we’ve been here, and have found it to always be fresh, friendly, and delicious. One time the line was a bit long for us, but we were time-constrained or we would have stayed and eaten in spite of the wait.

So far I’ve focused on the french dip, and boy do they make it right. Freshly toasted/grilled bread, juicy, tender roast beef, delicious melted cheese…yum! One minor complaint is that they serve only chips, not fries, but that’s just quibbling. We’ve also had pies, soups, salads, and other assorted menu items, and all have been just great. Plus it has a charming ambiance and just a great all-around karma.

We actually hesitated to go there, thinking it might be a tourist-trap type restaurant feeding of the Blue Bell Creamery Tour crowd, but they aren’t. Well, they might certainly be servicing that crowd, but they’re not doing it with sub-standard, over-priced goods – they’re doing it with fresh, delicious, reasonably priced, wonderful offerings. We only wish they were open more often, because we’d go all the time!

Beerfest (***)

Posted on September 4th, 2006 in Movie Reviews by EngineerBoy

We’re in the process of buying a new house, selling our existing one, and moving. Combine this with our always-hectic work schedules and we’ve been up to our eyeballs in things to do for quite a while. We decided to take a respite from the storm and stopped off at the Alamo Drafthouse at West Oaks Mall to see Beerfest. For those who don’t know the Alamo Drafthouse, it’s a theater where they serve you food and drinks, including alcohol, at your seat before and during the film. A couple of cold beers and a Broken Lizard laugh-fest were just what we needed in the middle of our busy weekend.

Beerfest isn’t quite up the standard set by Super Troopers, but it’s still funny as hell, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The story is about two brothers who help their grandmother run a restaurant in the US. Their grandmother (Cloris Leachman) is a German immigrant, and the boys are of stout, beer-drinking German stock. The boys are charged with taking their dearly departed grandfather’s ashes back to Germany to be laid to rest in the traditional place, which turns out to be a super-secret beer-Oympics called BeerFest, which takes place in Munich during Oktoberfest but is attended only by the kegnoscenti.

The boys end up being humiliated by their German kin, and vow to return the following year to exact their revenge. They use the year to assemble and train a team of great beer drinkers, made up of the usual Broken Lizard crew.

As you may imagine, R-rated hilarity ensues. There are a lot of laugh-out-loud moments, and just enough plot to keep things interesting. There’s nothing too deep here, but the whole purpose of this film is to make you laugh and keep you engeged for 90 minutes, and it does that very well. We really liked Super Troopers and The Dukes of Hazzard, and haven’t yet seen Club Dread but plan to very soon, if for no other reason than completism (all are part of the Lizard ouvre).

So, BeerFest is good fun, Broken Lizard continues to get more interesting, and we can’t wait to see what they do next. I’m not sure if the hint about their next movie that appears at the end of BeerFest is on the up-and-up, but if it is it looks to pretty damn funny as well.

"sthnbsb"

Posted on August 8th, 2006 in Engineerboy,Mynagirl by The Donkeys

An involuntary gavotte gave you the willies?

–Engineerboy, after he asked me if I “gavotted” today when I commented that I wore an apricot scarf, and then I had an unrelated “body shiver” because I was cold

Giant ropey strands of chocolate vomit

–Mynagirl, describing what expected would end up on the bed after our dogs ate cocoa and then the vet had us give them peroxide to make them throw up.

Hey, when two guys are standing next to each other with matching white rags in their butt pockets, I tend to notice, generally.

–Engineerboy, commenting in chat that he had indeed seen the two workers seemingly taking a coffe break on the roof of the Masonic temple next door.

Hey, if you put pajamas on him, I’ve seen him twice today.

–Engineerboy, after we saw our third weirdo walking around on the sidewalks of Houston (the first two were wearing loungewear).

The Descent (***)

Posted on August 6th, 2006 in Movie Reviews by EngineerBoy

So we went to see The Descent on Friday, after much hemming and hawing on what to see. Also on our radar were Miami Vice, Clerks II, and Talledega Night. We decided on The Descent, and the most convenient showtime was the 7pm at the Cinemark Tinseltown on 290. Note that we almost walked out of the theater, not due to the quality of the film but because since we were last at this particular theater it has decayed into a smelly, frayed, unpleasant venue, and we won’t be returning.

The film, however, was scary, tense, and very good. There’s nothing really deep here, although there are some serious plot developments unrelated to the overarching storyline. The gist of the story is that five women go a-spelunking and discover two things: a) catfighting is always popular with the multiplex masses and b) it sucks to be trapped in an uncharted cave system with beings who:

  • Appear to be an evolutionary offshoot of humans.
  • Hunt by sonar, like a bat.
  • Are blind, supposedly due to evolving in caves, but they also hunt on the surface, so WTF?
  • Can dodge swung pickaxes, even though they are blind.
  • Can’t sense heat, as they can walk within six inches of a human body (or flaming torch) and not sense it.
  • Have no sense of smell or touch, as they can stand on top of a human body, and not feel or smell that it’s not the rock floor of a cave (I guess these women all have 0% body fat and don’t use any personal care products?).
  • The survival skills of mutant cave humans are no match for an angry Asian woman, who kicks their ass in a fair fight, presumably using the innate fighting ability that Hollywood imbues into all Asian characters.

But idiotic plot holes don’t matter in a film like this. Please understand that in spite of the above list, this film is actually more intelligent than most Hollywood films I’ve seen in the last few years, which is sad. However, this film isn’t about logical integrity, it’s about claustrophobia, paranoia, compound fractures, puncture wounds, eye-gouging, rock-climbing, chimney-falling, and mutant-fighting.

This film was originally released in the UK in 2005, and I’ve heard that version had a different ending. I’m there will inevitably be a DVD with all the alternate endings, and I’ll probably get it just to see the director’s original ending, which one presumes is different from the ending required by Hollywood before distributing it to the US masses. That last part is conjecture on my part, but please, you know it’s right, don’t you?

Intact, however, is the excellent mood and feeling of tension the film creates. I’ve always known that I would never be a caver, but this film cemented that decision. There are many shots of tight squeezes and near-falls, sheer face climbs and dangling traverses, all of which look and feel completely real, as if they are taking place in a dank, dark cave system. The stuntwork and special effects are completely seamless, and there aren’t any forehead-slapping obvious moments of special-effects-trickery, continuity-lapses, or physics-defying-tricks. The film is not about supernatural events, and keeps things fairly realistic, once you suspend your disbelief enough to accept the basic storyline.

So overall this was a good, tense, scary film, and was worth seeing. I will reiterate that the Tinseltown theater on 290 is now basically a cesspool and we will not be returning to that venue unless there is a dramatic facelift or change in ownership or something.

Garden Sculpture: My Mom is Amazing

Posted on July 3rd, 2006 in Mynagirl by mynagirl

I just have to say, I’m constantly amazed by anyone with artistic vision and a drive to create. The person that amazes me most often in this capacity is my mother — she is a non-stop creative force with endless energy and strength.

In her life, my mom has created wood carvings, jewelry, stained glass, etched glass, oil paintings, watercolor paintings, custom tiled bathrooms, tile and glass mosaics, furniture out of copper pipe, and custom wall collages. Not to mention children’s books. Oh, and she runs a Bed & Breakfast in the Texas Hill Country that’s filled with her signature custom touches, so she’s learned to be a master chef lately as well. Her latest artistic obsession is concrete — specifically, architectural concrete. For the gorgeously flowering and beautifully decorated entry way to her B&B, she decided to create a couch. Out of concrete. With a magnolia blossom made of glass.

The creation is as you see below — bolstering and all accomplished with concrete and glass accents, complete with a larger glass mosaic on the back of the couch.

Concrete Couch

Couch front

Back of Concrete Couch

Couch back

I’ve been watching the progress via emailed pictures and I did see it once in person when it was nearly complete. It’s unbelievably perfect nestled in with the garden entry way leading up to the B&B. When you hear “concrete couch” you don’t think of this gorgeous and inviting sculpture. It’s really unbelievable.

Since there’s always a possibility that Mom might want to make another creation on commission, here’s her contact information:

Sherry Gansle

Canyon Lake, Texas

210 316 6203

Iron Mountain Lodge and Marina – DeGray Lake, Arkansas

Posted on July 2nd, 2006 in Commentary by EngineerBoy

Iron Mountain Resort and Marina
134 Iron Mountain Marina Drive
Arkadelphia, Arkansas 71923

For reservations call:
(870) 246-4310 in state
(800) 243-3396 out of state
http://www.iron-mountain.com/

This is the second summer that we’ve vacationed at the Iron Mountain Resort on DeGray Lake just west of Arkadelphia, Arkansas. We discovered Iron Mountain last summer, when we had originally scheduled a vacation in Gulf Shores, Alabama, but Hurrican Dennis caused us to change our plans at the very last minute. We were driving from Houston to Indianapolis so needed something that was roughly on the way, and we knew we wanted to swim and spend time in the sun, so figured that a lake would work. Plus, other than the Gulf Coast (threatened Dennis) there isn’t really any other options for swimming between Houston and Indianapolis other than inland lakes/rivers.

So we furiously researched lakes located in the states between TX and IN, and we started with the overly optimistic goal of finding one in which we could snorkel. Searching for snorkeling in Arkansas is what lead us to DeGray Lake, based on an article about some club that snorkeled there to observe wildlife. Note: although we found DeGray Lake by searching on snorkeling, we found that it was too opaque and weedy to be any fun snorkel-wise, so we do not recommend it as a snorkeling destination, but we loved it anyway!

Once we started focusing on DeGray Lake we then started looking for accomodations. The only place with any availability was Iron Mountain, so although I’d love to say that our careful research discovered this gem, it was simply fate playing a hand.

So that’s how we found Iron Mountain last year, and we enjoyed it so much we went back this year, too. Both years we stayed in a two-bedroom, two-bath cabin, but calling it a “cabin” isn’t really accurate. One bedroom has a king size bed, the other has two full-size beds. Both bedrooms have private bathrooms/showers, as well as sliding glass doors that open to the back deck. The back deck is private and includes a hot tub and spans the length of the cabin. There’s also an open living room/dining area/full kitchen in the cabin, with pots, pans, dishes, silverware, refrigerator, dishwasher, etc, so you can stock up on food and cook for yourself if you want.

There’s also TVs with satellite channels in the master bedroom and living room, and the living room also has a DVD player and VCR. So all in all, not exactly “roughing it” as you might infer from calling it a “cabin”.

And as nice as the cabin is, our focus is the lake and boat. We rent a 29′, hard-topped pontoon boat when we’re there, which has an amazing amount of room, a stereo, and the hard top roof is load-bearing with a ladder, so you can climb up on it to sun yourself or to jump the 8′ or so down into the lake. That’s basically what we did. All day. Every day. Jump off the roof of the boat into the lake. And, damn, was that fun. The console also has a standard 12v cigarette lighter socket, which allowed us to plug in our radio adapter for our iPod and listen to our own tunes the whole time. Sweeet!

The Jumping Family!

Also, the folks that run the Iron Mountain lodge, and the folks that work there, are just about as nice as you could ask for. They remembered us from last year, and were always pleasant, helpful, friendly, and efficient. So, we love Iron Mountain and DeGray lake, and highly recommend it as a family destination. Many of the cabins are adjoining, with doors that can be opened, so it would be perfect for a family gathering, too, and we’re thinking about trying to arrange one. Also, they have conference facilities for business off-sites, as well. And, the biggest bonus of all, no cell/BlackBerry coverage, and no Internet connectivity, so while we’re there we are *completely* unplugged from work. And that makes for a *perfect* vacation!

The Devil Wears Prada (***)

Posted on July 1st, 2006 in Movie Reviews by EngineerBoy

The Devil Wants Starbucks

So we went to see The Devil Wears Prada and it was really good. Meryl Streep gives yet another amazing performance as the head of the world’s most influential fashion magazine. She plays the character as a cross between Cruella de Ville, Vito Corleone, and Margaret Thatcher. The movie is very biting and very funny. I’m not sure I’m 100% on board with the message, but I’m at least 75% there.

The movie tells the tale of a young, earnest, pretty, smart, normal-sized girl (Size 6, maybe?…normal-sized by Hollywood standards is what I mean). She shows up for an interview for a low-on-the-totem-pole clerical opening at the world’s leading fashion magazine, specifically the assistant to the assistant to the editor in chief. The girl is very well played by Anne Hathaway (who?), and she holds her own on-screen with heavyweights La Streep and Stanley Tucci. Her character knows nothing about the fashion world and is confused by the seriousness and reverence with which the fripperies of style are looked upon by the priestesshood.

Of course, that’s where the movie starts. By the middle she has moved up to be Streep’s characters right hand gal, and becomes a starry-eyed true believer, hypnotized by the power and beauty of being in the upper echelons of the fashion world.

This being Hollywood, of course, she comes to her senses by the end and goes back to her standard-Jetta-commercial-issue boyfriend, leaves the fashion world behind, and seems to content to be an earthbound girlfriend of a wannabe-chef.

The part I’m on board with is leaving the cutthroat world of high fashion behind. But the part I’m not on board with is going right back to her starter-life with her zero boyfriend. It doesn’t help that the film doesn’t really capture any chemistry between the two.

But, this is really Ms. Streep’s film. She doesn’t chew up the scenery, she simply gives it withering looks until it self-destructs in self-defense. Her character is fully realized and completely unredeemable. She sacrifices everything (family, love, happiness) to maintain her iron grip on the helm of the fashion world, and it is her example that first dazzles Hathaway’s character, and then ultimately educates her into the true cost of “success”. That is a point with which I am very much on board – sacrificing everything for professional success is like making sure you have the largest, most impressive bucket of air. It doesn’t matter how big or fancy or jewel-encrusted or rare it is, it’s still just a container filled with nothing.

I’ll take a houseplant in a terra cotta planter, made with happiness and love, any day of the week.

That’s all.

Dragon Bowl Asian Bistro (**½)

Posted on July 1st, 2006 in Houston,Restaurant Reviews by EngineerBoy

Dragon Bowl Asian Bistro

1221 W 11th St

Houston, TX 77008

(713) 426-2750

http://www.dragonbowlbistro.com/

Dragon Bowl Asian Bistro is a new restaurant at the edge of the Heights, at the intersection of N. Shepherd and 11th. We’ve been watching them build out the space for it in the strip center and have been anxiously awaiting the opening of another nearby food choice. It finally opened recently and today we finally made it in to try it out.

All three of us got bowls, and they were pretty good. Mine was shrimp, vermicelli, assorted veggies in a citrus sauce and it was quite tasty. I had steamed dumplings as an appetizer and they were okay. The rest of the group liked their food as well, but there were no raves.

There were two issues that detracted from the dining experience. The first is that we waited over 30 minutes from the time of our order until the food was ready. I can understand that a new kitchen won’t operate at peak efficiency for a while, but that seemed a bit overlong for the simplicity of what we ordered.

The second issue was that the menu had been pared down quite a bit to match what the new kitchen was capable of producing, but even the reduced menu was overstating what they could deliver. I first ordered the tempura shrimp appetizer, and was told they weren’t currently making that. I then ordered the fried dumplings and was told they could do steamed but not fried, which didn’t make any sense to me as the obviously had the dumplings to steam and their open kitchen showed plenty of woks with oil for frying.

There were also a lot of grumbling, unhappy patrons waiting around for their food. The place is pretty small so some of them tried to engage us in the camaraderie of their shared conversation about how slow the place was, but we were giving the kitchen the benefit of the doubt seeing that it was so new, and demurred from joining into the dis-fest.

However, I will say that I agreed with their opinions, even if I felt it impolite to blather them about a small restaurant within earshot of the busy crew working in the open kitchen. Having been peripherally involved in the restaurant business I can say that their kitchen is both overstaffed and overslow, and a single well-trained chef with maybe one assistant could have produced all the food much faster than the 4-5 people they had bouncing around back there like pinballs.

The bottom line was that the food and prices were at just about the right place for us to keep Dragon Bowl on our radar, so we plan to check back after they’ve had time to work out the kinks. But for now we’re not paitent enough to beta-test this new restaurant.

Update 8/22/2006

We went back to DBAB today for lunch, and there was much improved efficiency in the preparation and delivery of the food. The menu is still quite sparse, and while the ingredients are very fresh and plentiful, they still don’t quite have the….pizzaz…to put this place higher up in our rotation. We’re rooting for them, because they’re convenient and use good ingredients, and we’re crossing our fingers that they get it all together and become successful before the money runs out.

HardiPlank Saga in Houston

Posted on July 1st, 2006 in Commentary,Engineerboy,Product Reviews by EngineerBoy

4/6/2006

Today is the first day of our quest to install HardiPlank siding on our house. We aren’t going to actually do the installation, but we will be identifying local contractors, putting out for bid, hiring someone, managing the process, and posting the progress here along the way. Currently I’m looking for recommendations for a local HardiPlank contractor in Houston, so if you’ve had some work done by somebody you’d like to recommend, please drop me a line at [email protected]!

Our current siding is in sad disrepair. There are several rotten places and several places with loose boards, and it just looks crappy in general. We’ve wavered at the cost of HardiPlank, but have determined that it’s a worthwhile investment. We don’t want to simply replace with wood siding, as we’d still have all the potential rot/termite problems of wood, and vinyl is just…well…vinyl. It seems like the high-end vinyl isn’t bad, but it’s still just…vinyl siding.

Today marks the first day of our quest because we have made all the necessary decisions and lined up the means to do so. We have been pondering it for quite some time, but today is the day we really start the process of getting new siding. Keep tuned here for updates!

6/12/2006

We’ve narrowed down the potential contractors and this week they’re coming out to measure and provide estimates. We’re looking at the following potential contractors:

These seem to be the most well-recommended in the Houston area. Several years ago we got a quote from All-Tex but at the time it was cost-prohibitive, we’re hoping for better pricing this time around!

6/20/2006

Well, we’ve made our choice, and it’s Allied Siding and Windows. The price was very competitive, and we also asked them to quote alternatives of vinyl or wood, both of which were cheaper but not by much. We also asked Allied to provide a quote for replacing all of our existing windows, which are older insulated glass models that have leaked and so have a smokey or mildewy appearance between the sheets of glass, some to the point where you can’t see through them.

The bottom line for the whole project came in within our budget, so we’re having Allied do everything, as follows:

  • Remove and haul away the old siding and trim (which is wood and is basically disintegrating at this point)
  • Replace any bad/rotten studs (their quote includes up to 32 feet of stud replacement)
  • Wrap the house in Tyvek
  • Install Hardiplank siding and trim
  • Replace all the windows with new Simonton Reflections vinyl windows
  • Paint the Hardiplank, trim, existing cedar scallops, and miscellaneous remaining wood with two coats of Sherwin-Williams Superpaint

6/23/2006

We signed the paperwork and put down a deposit. Allied did not specifically require a deposit but we put one down anyway for a variety of reasons, namely that we had it available and also that if a business has some of your money it’s easier to get their attention, if needed. We don’t anticipate any issues but we do want to be in the position of approaching any issues from the standpoint of having paid for some of the work already.

7/2/2006

We haven’t heard from Allied about start dates, but we’re still within the two week start window explained to us, and it’s been a bit rainy lately.

7/4/2006

Today Julio came out to do the final measuring (note that he’s out on the fourth of July). He let us know that Allied was running behind due to the weather but that they’d be starting this week.

7/5/2006

Today the distributor delivered the Hardplank and Harditrim, in the pouring rain. It’s now sitting in our driveway. We’re getting closer!

7/7/2006

Here we go! The crew is here today getting started, and siding is coming down, baby! They’re starting on the south wall (no windows) and after removing the wood siding found there was a layer of sheetrock beneath the siding. Very strange. Studs look good even though the siding was mostly rotten, good news.

7/9/2006

Progress continues, siding is up on the south wall, siding is down on the east wall and Tyvek is up, crew went home mid-day due to torrential rains (also it’s Sunday).

7/11/2006

Crew continues to make good progress, back wall and both side walls planked, from has been stripped and Tyvek’ed. Also time for some pictures:

The Before Picture (house on the right)

7/11/2006 View of Front

7/11/2006 Old Front vs New Side

Note that the front was completely Tyveked before they left for the day, but pulling into the driveway to a bald house front was shocking (and exciting)!

We’re also narrowing down the paint color choices, and right now we’re leaning towards a terra cotta color with white trim and a green door, as shown in this mock-up from the Sherwin-Williams site:

Possible House Colors

We’re not absolutely positive on the colors, but we’re pretty sure that’s the way we’re going to go.

7/15/2006

Well, no crew today. I’m not complaining about them taking the day off, but knowing they wouldn’t be here today would have been convenient as we made plans to stay home to let them in to the house for window replacement. However, they have really been working hard and we have no complaints about the progress or quality of the work. The last of the hardiplank and trim is up, the seams and nails have been caulked, and they finished up last night by power washing the unpainted outside of the house.

Here are some pictures of the current state:

Sided But Not Painted Front and Side

Windows Delivered and Also Unreplaced Window in Front

Now we’re waiting for the window replacement and the painting!

7/16/2006

No crew again today (Sunday). Again, not working Sunday is a-okay with me, but we’d sure appreciate a little proactive communication from the crew about when they’re going to be working, particularly now that we’re approaching the window replacement phase and we’ll need to do a lot of pet management, including our rottie cross that really doesn’t like all this hubbub going on around her domain.

7/17/2006

Contacted Allied today to get an update on when the crews would be back as we were planning an out of town trip. The person at Allied called back and said they’d be out tomorrow, but we asked that they not come back until Thursday, as we were going out of town and need to be here to unlock the gates, corral the dogs, etc. The person at Allied said she’d have the crew chief call me to coordinate. He did not call.

7/18/2006

Well, we didn’t hear back from Allied so went out of town. I hope they didn’t show up and find out they were unable to make progress.

7/19/2006

We returned from out of town last night (a day early) and this morning the crew showed up to paint, even though today is Wednesday and we had requested they not return until Thursday. Again, not a huge deal but we sure would love to see better communication about the crew schedule. That’s still our only real complaint, so overall we’re very happy with Allied.

And by the end of today the crew had the first coat of paint on the house. Here are a couple of pictures:

First Coat on Siding, Trim Not Yet Painted

So far we’re very happy with the way the paint looks, and can’t wait for the second coat and the trim work. After that comes the replacement of the windows, and that’ll be it.

The Last Few Miles

Well, the house is finally done. The windows have been replaced, the trim up and painted, and the punch list complete for the most part. There was the inevitable chasing things down with Allied to get things finished, but nothing too difficult or unexpected. Overall we are very satisfied with the job that they did and the price that we paid. I’ve gotten that question a lot – how much did it cost? Well, I don’t want to put Allied in a difficult position of having to match our price, but I also want to let you all know the rough cost of a job like this. I’ll put it this way, Allied did all of this:

  • Remove and haul away the old siding and trim (which is wood and is basically disintegrating at this point)
  • Replace any bad/rotten studs (their quote includes up to 32 feet of stud replacement)
  • Wrap the house in Tyvek
  • Install Hardiplank siding and trim
  • Replace all the windows with new Simonton Reflections lowE, argon filled vinyl windows
  • Paint the Hardiplank, trim, existing cedar scallops, and miscellaneous remaining wood with two coats of Sherwin-Williams Superpaint

For roughly $20,000. Our house is two stories and approximately 1900 square feet. And here’s the finished product:

All Finished!

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