Don't Look Up, Down, or Out! and The Birds

That should have been my motto throughout the exterior construction. 

 I'm glad that some people on this crew were good with heights. I'm also glad that so far there have been no construction accidents. I hated to look when work was going on up high, but getting a photo of it for future memories seemed like an important reason to scare myself!

A home-made scaffolding extension had to be made to be able to finish the back second-story siding. Shudder. 

(My family reminded me the other day that this lap siding was not our first choice. It was a design change mid-way. I think we were going to put more board-and-batten on, but I am glad we changed that to a more interesting mix. )

So much tedious work to install, caulk, paint... and just when you think you are done you have to get out the ladder and do more...

... because it turned out that these beautiful, big brackets were a favorite landing place for birds. So up the ladder again to install bird spikes. 

Then wouldn't you know it, we found out that our insulation/siding sandwich was mistaken for a literal sandwich by woodpeckers. 

The 2" of foam exterior insulation, combined with the fiber cement siding on top, happens to make the same sound that a rotten, bug-filled hollow tree does to the woodpeckers. They LOVE those kinds of trees, so they LOVE to hammer on our house. Another trip to the roof to install shiny mylar tape that flaps and flashes and makes noise at the house corners. That worked! But after a few months the noise was driving us crazy, so another trip up there to take it off. Lately, they have been trying to explore in the rafters. Up on the roof again to put in extra bird blocking (in additions to the bird blocking already in the attic vents). 

 Opening windows works every time to startle new woodpeckers, since our windows open outwards, and until we get a more permanent solution that is what we will do.  

With all this high-up work, do you think we should have just built a balcony all the way around the house?