Board Batten

Found in the wall cavity along with a t-shirt

The truth is that everything that isn't adobe/stucco on this house was, originally, board and batten. The years passed since this roof was built along with the enclosed porch, maybe on Feb 19th 1955, and eventually someone just didn't want to spend any money to replace the rotting battens. So they tore off the battens and covered it all with the cardboard siding. I wondered what I would find when I went to replace the cardboard siding with truwood siding. And I found the boards are in OK shape. Just needed a few spilts glued back together and new battens from the mixed-width material I had laying around. I can always replace the siding if this leaks but I think it is as weatherproof as the cardboard was.

Cardboard siding...I knew I wanted to replace it but decided that the original hidden boards were good enough to keep.

You can see the orange original color and the original roof line covered by the boards...along with the unpainted area that was under the original battens.

The current status. Not pictured is the insulated wall cavity of the porch around the door. If I'm going to put an A/C unit then there must be insulation in the walls and the ceiling. The gable is going to look unfinished until I can figure out a solution for the left end. See, originally the whole porch on the left was sided with board and batten, so the upper fake gable that is the second roof blended with the siding of the porch. But since I replaced the siding of the porch with truwood instead of board and batten, it looks mis-matched. 

I'm not looking to do anything radical to this house. New siding. New paint. New windows. New Roof. New electrical. I want it to be functional. I'm not changing the profile. I want no leaks.

So, I have moved to the south side where there is new Truwood siding that was also screwed to the original boards after the battens were removed. The south side wood is in worse condition but after 65 years it's all very serviceable considering it is an uninsulated porch that wasn't maintained. I plan to remove all the siding, all the boards, and insulate it, replace what electrical wiring is exposed...cover it with tar paper...and then flip the boards around and put the boards back to either act as sheathing or, depending on their condition, put the battens back and paint it. 

I replaced some board and batten in the last national park I worked in and the boards tend to curl and if they are hung too close to the dirt then they rot. I wasn't in love with the functionality of it but I don't have a better solution.

My neighbor shared this photo of this house in perhaps 1955. This is before the fake roof was built over the original adobe part but after the porch was enclosed and roofed. I'd say it's no more than a year or two old. 

I like the look of 3x3 double hung windows but the view from the inside actually makes sense to leave them single slider windows with exterior screens. My neighbor likes to weed eat her lawn in such a ways as to cast pebbles into my window and break them so fancy windows are not logical.

I think because the roof was built over the original roof it will be very hard to make this look like an authentic adobe house. The porch isn't authentic and the double roof isn't authentic. Even if I stucco the porch it will look odd with big windows. The plan is to insulate and replace the board and batten.