The whole point of building the porch was so that I could prepare the house for rendering. To that end, I ran 3 rows of tiles (and associated lead soakers) each side of the roof alongside the house, and then mortared in the first of the ridge tiles. As I will be sitting scaffold boards on the roof for the rendering (called plastering everywhere but the UK, I think) I didn't want to tile the whole roof:
You'll note in those photos that I also put a vertical batten at each stud location, and fixed 4x1s either side of the windows, 3x1s above, and generally 2x1s below. I am now ready to tackle the window surrounds.
Because I am using render carrier boards, which are 15mm thick, rather than laths or "wire" (EML = expanded metal lath), which are much thinner, I need a little more thickness in the architraves around the windows than I was planning. To this end, I set up my planer in such a way as to be able to run long rebates in ex 75x19 PAR, then glued it to the architrave:
That gained me about 9mm in thickness, which should be about spot on. After fitting all the cills, I tackled the windows under the eaves first. Before, then after:
These three windows are done differently from all the others on the house, because they are tight up under the eaves. I ran the architrave around 3 sides. All the other windows will have a pentice board, which is a traditional local feature, simply a sloping board above the window head which keeps the top of the window dry. Here is an example:
I have always made these such that they can be removed and replaced even once the building is rendered. The fixings are on show underneath, so you would simply undo the screws and slide the board out. This is because the pentice board is highly vulnerable, and will be the first part of the exterior of the house to rot. So in 20 or 30 years time, or whenever, the can be replaced easily.
Here is the same window with its architraves in position:
And this is how the render carrier board will butt up to the sides of the window architrave:
The theory is that the render will be about 12mm thick. I reckon there is about 18 or 20mm of exposed architrave, which gives us a nice edge to finish against.