First up: Soffit.

With the supplies delivered and those issues resolved, it was time to get to work.

I decided that it would be best to start with the soffit.  A little simpler and easier, lower to the ground, and a good way to get myself acclimated to construction work.  It was a wise choice.

I started the soffit on May 13th.

My friend and neighbor thought he'd be funny, take a photo of me, and send it.  Joke's on him, I actually used the photo.

First up, was removing the gutters.  I knew it was unlikely to work out, but I hoped to disassemble and re-use the gutters. They were in fine condition, and the long runs were one-piece, so had been installed by professionals.  Alas, it wasn't to be.  Whatever gutter cement they used to attach the corners was amazingly durable, and it was soon apparent that I would need to destroy the gutters to remove them.

Gutters, RIP.  Remember that green grass for a later blog...

With the gutters off, I could see just how bad the old fascia was.  The paint had been peeling for several years, and I was excited to finally be doing something about it.  It wasn't just peeled paint though.

The old fascia was in very rough condition.

It's hard to tell, and I can't remember exactly how, but I remember that I could tell that the large split in the fascia was there before the gutters were installed, which was done sometime before we bought the house.  That's something that should have been addressed then.

As far as actually installing the fascia?  Once I got started, it was really pretty simple, and there's not really anything I can elaborate on beyond what you can already find in YouTube videos.  The initial question I had was in figuring out how to attach the F-channel to the stucco.  In my internet research, it seemed a lot of the discussion centers around houses that are new construction or constructed with siding.  The problem lies in that my existing soffit was in place before the house was stuccoed.  It then sits horizontally under the eave, and butts into the fascia, about 1/2" to 3/4" above the bottom.

A better example.

I ended up going with Tapcon screws to attach the F-channel into the stucco, and will be sealing any gaps between the F-channel and the stucco with caulking.

The F-channel against the stucco isn't too large of a gap, but on the parts of the house that are stone/brick, the gap was pretty large.

That is the almost after.  It was in-process.  What I ended up doing is tracing along where the F-channel would go, and then using a sledgehammer and chisel to chip away at the stone/brick until the F-channel would lay flat.

I underestimated how nasty inside the soffits would be.  It was essentially 53 years worth of dust, spider webs, and blown-in insulation that had migrated from inside the attic through the space between rafters.  I decided that one of the most uncomfortable feelings is having all of that grime on your sweaty arms for hours at a time.

Completed soffit.

When it comes to going around hip corners with soffit, there are a couple options.  What seems like the most common to me, is to come out at a 45-degree angle from the corner of the house to the corner of the roof.  I didn't choose that method, for several reasons.  The first is that it looked like it wasted a lot of soffit material.  Secondly, as you can see by the photo above, I've got a 2' overhang on the whole house, except for over the garage where there's a 4' overhang.  A 45-degree angle wouldn't line up, and if I did adjust the angle until it lined up, it would just look really, really weird.  So in the end, I went with just 90-degree angles.  I like the look, and it was much easier, as well.

Shortly after I finished our roof, our neighbors had their original plywood soffit replaced.  The owner said, "I found a guy that did it for only $1600.  I say 'only $1,600' because I had several quotes of $4,000 to $5,000."  Their house is split level, so it only has about 75% the soffit square footage as our house.  I didn't price out the soffit materials separately, but I know it's less than $1,600, and I went with aluminum (versus the neighbors' less expensive vinyl).

I completed the soffit on June 28th.