House WrapNow the roof was at last in place it was time to make the home weatherproof . The first stage was to protect everything with " house wrap " . This is a semi permeable material which allows the building to breathe but prevents rain from penetrating . It is similar to " Gore-Tex " in clothing allowing water vapour to escape but keeping liquid water out . It comes in 3 foot and nine foot rolls . I bought nine foot rolls but as I was working on my own cut some of it in half to make it easier to fit .
The product is simply wrapped around the whole building initially spanning window and door openings and stapled in place .
A hammer stapler is a good investment here . .There are also special fittings but in my view they are too expensive to justify their use . Lets hope the manufacturers do not work on the legislators to mandate them at some time in the future . The lowest piece overlaps the foundation by about six inches and each higher piece overlaps the one below . Vertical joins are to be avoided as much as possible and have a good foot overlap . There is a special overlap tape also which is quite expensive . I used a good duck tape instead though was not sure that this complied with the " code " or " best practice . The market leader is TYVEK though there are much less expensive alternatives also available at Home Depot . Wrapping did not take that long as luckily the weather was calm . It is a job best carried out with two and requires a lot of access equipment ( ladders , scaffold , planks ) 
Guttering
Here there are numerous small companies that specialise in metal guttering which they fold and assemble on site . The outside drainage had been already installed
ready for the downpipes earlier as had the rain garden . I decided to use one of these companies who turned out to be a family working together . The husband working the folder whilst the wife measured and fitted with the son . Where the chimney is going to be I had them run the gutter straight across but had two downpipes fitted so it will still work once the chimney comes through the roof and splits the gutter in two . 
. All in all the whole gutter system cost supplied and fitted around $ 1,000.00 . Doors and Windows
Here both interior and exterior doors come pre hung and pre drilled for locks . Exterior doors are much more sturdy and are also insulated . They come in standard sizes to fit the standard rough openings that were in the building .
All three of the doors in my building are under cover but I followed the usual procedure and cut the home wrap to ensure that any water travelling downwards would not get behind anything . The windows are similarly sized and come with a flange all round which is simply screwed or nailed to the frame .There is a product called window flashing tape which is rubbery and sticky backed used to flash windows and doors . It has full instructions on how to use it on its label . Briefly the procedure for windows is as follows . Initially you cut the centre out of the house wrap then cut a flap out at the top to go over the flange and/or flashing .
The wrap is pushed inwards at the sides and the cill and stapled into place . The rubbery tape ( 9" or 12 " wide section here ) is stuck onto the cill with the vertical part left still with its backing in place for the most part .to protect it from any water travelling downwards . This is to be placed over the final siding later to ensure that any water behind the siding gets sent in front of the lower pieces and away from the building . Next the window is inserted into the opening on top of cill flashing and the house wrap at the sides . Further narrower flashing is applied to the sides then finally to the top each higher piece overlapping those below . . In short use common sense and the products available and always consider how to direct penetrated water away from the building as you go .
Flashing the doors is to the same principle but they have no flanges so the tape is affixed to the door jams directly to protect them . To hang them firstly remove the hinge pins and the door and then screw or nail the jam on the hinge side to the frame ensuring it is absolutely vertical . Use wedges where necessary . Then re-hang the door and using it as a guide fix the top and opposite side of the jam in place with wedges and thin plywood . Screws are especially needed for firm support where the hinges and locks are .
Siding
The first job was to frame around all the corners , the windows and the doors with trim . The timber used for this comes primed in 5/4 thickness in various widths . To make up corners use a 3" and a 4" piece are screwed together . These are best assembled and painted with a top coat before being simply screwed in place . I chose to have a grainy finish to the exterior . I used 4" inch to frame most of the windows starting with a full piece across the top then side pieces from the beneath the top piece passing all the way down to stop at the bottom edge of the lower piece . At the top a special piece of metal is nailed on which overlaps the timber to avoid water sitting on the woodwork .
Eventually once all the trim was affixed it was finally time for the actual siding to go on . There are many choices for siding materials but the most common which I chose to use was a cement based planking . The market leader is called Hardyplank but I chose to use a more economical brand supplied by Cascade lumber . It came in 12 foot lengths of 8 1/4 " to give an overlap of 7" . It comes primed and I had the whole garage set up for weeks as a paoint shop where daily I rolled batches with blue exterior paint .
You simply start at the lowest point and work upwards . There does need to be some considerable planning and marking initially to ensure reasonable continuity around the corners and to avoid too much lengthwise cutting of the boards . At every vertical joint a piece of house wrap is fixed behind just overlapping the lower piece of siding again to force penetrated water back outside . I made a fey folded metal clips so I could rest one end of the board in the clip whilst I screwed the other end in place with the special hardy screws . You can nail the siding but screws are better and easier to do one handed as they sit well on the square tipped bit on my cordless drill . Each box comes with a new tip which does really help . Once finished all the joins are caulked . 
I really like the appearance of timber with the fire safety and durability of concrete .
Picture Albums click link to view !
Tools
Finishing the exterior
Windows etc..
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