The painters have been staining the shingles for a week or so.

The singles we are using come in a 8 foot boards, and are a system that provides more stability and waterproofing.  The shingles are nailed to a plywood backing, with a waterproofing material in between.  In the long run, these will be much less likely to curl much or allow any water behind them.

Staining them before they are put on allows the painters to stain the edges, which would otherwise remain bare wood.

We chose a semi-solid stain to allow a little of the color difference of the individual shingles show through, to provide more texture to the look of the outside.

The carpenters started mounting them today.

This system allows the carpenters to put the singles on much faster than the one-by-one method, so we should see some fast progress.

The shingle are the main wood element we have on the outside of the house.  We will have to re-stain them every 5 years or so.  The trade off is that shingles are one element where non-wood shingles don’t look nearly as authentic as real wood shingles, so we decided it was worth the maintenance for the better look.