All things happen for a reason, right? When I decided on 8" wide ship lap, I went down to Home Depot to get some other supplies and decided to take what they had in ship lap boards. It wasn't a lot, perhaps 120 board feet. I was passing EBS in Camden and decided to get some more boards from them. I started with the Home Depot boards, which, by the way, are probably reject boards from every other lumber yard in the country!! The Home Depot boards covered my first stretch of wall almost completely, save for one board from EBS. You can tell my progress from on cutting and fitting across the wall, it goes from awful to pretty tight fit! After I proudly finished my first wall...keep in mind as you read this that it was only 8 feet long, I rounded the corner and was very proud of my tight crisp corner. Second board up from the EBS batch and I realized that the boards were different. The Home Depot ship lap is beveled to look like V-match and the EBS boards are flat, so they butt up against each other, creating a flat surface. AGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!

This would only happen to me...leave it to me to not notice this. I called my sister for a rational opinion and she couldn't contain her giggles into the phone. I asked her if she thought I could get away with doing the end walls in beveled ship lap and the others in flat, and she agreed that if I didn't want to take the wall down, this would be the best solution.

After getting a good run of the flat ship lap going however, I decided that the other wall will come down.....I am calling it my practice wall...I didn't want that V-match look anyway and was disappointed when I started putting it up and noticed the beveled edges. So now I am a day behind.

I do have to report that I love my new Makita 10" composite mitre saw. It has a laser and a rolling arm that is super easy to use, plus it has a dual beveling capability for board ends. I had thought our old Delta saw was fine, but one of the contractors broke the plastic blade guard and we couldn't find a replacement for it. It was on sale at Home Depot and I had a gift card from Christmas, so it was $100 cheaper than normal. My new Milwaukee 5" orbital sander works great on getting the boards to fit together well without more cutting.

I am happy to report that I am having a great time putting up the walls and have renewed energy about the cottage.