Siding

We had an interesting weekend. We started our latest project that I had previosly mentioned in a post below... re-siding our house. We are in the process of removing the 70's era aluminum siding and replacing it with Hardiplank. I'm hoping it looks updated when we're through. It was a family affair. The inlaws came into town and were a tremendous help. My mother-in-law watched the boy and cooked while the father-in-law brought a lot of tools and helped with the project. By Sunday afternoon we were all exhausted. We did have more able bodies on Sunday - two of the wife's cousins came and helped out. Everyone was extremely helpful. Just to summarize, we are removing the aluminum siding, sheeting the whole house in 1/2" 4 ply plywood, installing a vapor barrier and installing the Hardiplank siding and trim. We haven't decided on paint colors but, obviously painting will come after that. At some point after all that is done we are going to replace the gutters - if we are still alive! We got one side and part of the front to a point where we can start with trim and siding. I think we've got at the very least 2 more weekends to be at a point where I can finish up the loose ends. Then the painting will begin. This house was very cheaply built. When we removed the aluminum siding there were large gaps in the sheeting letting air in all over the place. We're hoping the addition of the plywood will close up the gaps and also create some more sound barrier to block traffic noise that we hear from the expressway which is about a 1/2 mile away.
I'm sore today from all the lifting and ladder climbing - as I'm sure everyone else is. I'll post some pictures of the process a little bit later.