I ended my previous entry by musing, "What kind of paper are they using to wrap our house-in-progress?"

Even though today is Day 18 of construction on the house that we are having built, we had our Day 19 walk-through this morning. That meant touring the house with one of the site supers (superconductor? supercollider?) and reviewing what has been installed so far versus what was on the plans.

There were only a couple of things that shoulda been done thisa way but instead were done thataway, but they are simple things that should be easy for them to fix before the drywallers start drywalling.

But I also learned something I hadn't known before, which I'm sure any of you who have ever paid any attention to construction already knew. The purpose of the paper that they wrap around the house before they put up the siding is to act as the true protection for the house. ie, even though it's called paper (as in "tar paper", even though they don't really use tar paper any longer), what it really is is weather proofing. It's a moisture barrier to protect the outer walls. This is where all the real work is done -- or at least, so I'm told.

So the paper protects the outer walls. The purpose of the wood plank siding that goes on top of this paper is simply to protect the paper. The purpose of the paint that goes on top of the wood plank siding that goes on top of the paper that goes on top of the outer walls is simply to protect the siding. Apparently the paint itself is not worth protecting.