This past weekend saw a bunch of little sub-projects get worked on, some even completed. We had a couple questions to ask of the architect, so he came out to the job site on Friday. He pointed out a couple of things that we had over looked and clarified some others. On the west side, he had drawn an ‘eyebrow’ of roof along the whole back 2/3 of the wall. We had done the easy part but had not connected the 2 pieces of the roof ‘eyebrow’. He let us know that the connected eyebrow was an important element of the design on the west side. Also, we have discovered a very nice 8′ x 12′ unfinished attic space. We asked his opinion on some ideas of maximizing that space. He’ll be providing some modified drawings which might include a small 3rd gable in the front.
From the stairs
Mark hanging like a monkey from really high up
Working on that important eyebrow roof element
Are we having fun yet?
Max in his favorite spot
Max likes to throw paper airplanes off this flat spot on the roof.
The rainy season in Carp is over. But now we are in the misty season — June Gloom. The old roof (sealed with at least 2.5 layers of composition shingle) is 100% removed. We now have the new (larger) roof of plywood. As the mist collects on the roof, it finds all the cracks and crevices that lead to my ceiling. Then the water finds the lowest point and makes its appearance in my living room. Much less water is in the house, but mopping it up still soaked 2 fullsized bath towels.
Lucy and I were riding in the car, and a Jars of Clay song was playing on CD. In the middle of the song, she says, “Mom, what’s Ha-lay-ooh-yah?” I realized that the word Hallelujah was sung over and over again in the chorus. I was so startled that she asked about that – at just barely 3! I told her it means ‘Praise God!’ She said, “that’s cool!”. Yes it is. 🙂
The house is coming along splendidly. In May we had 2 weekends off because we went to Carlsbad for a week’s vacation (has Toby posted those photos yet?). For the couple of weeks we worked in May it was Mark and Pop and me doing a lot of the pickup work. Then Kevin came over for the recent 2 weekends and the work flew. We have the skeleton of all the roof completed (I think). In order to get the front roof framed up, we needed to pour some footings for the porch posts. So it was back to dig-dig-digging. We even needed to break out the demoltion hammer and clay spade.
Dig Dig Digging
We found many worms as we dug and Lucy liked to hold them when they were all curled up. She walked in the yard for about 20 minutes with one in her hand. However, when they started to move around in her hand she screamed and screamed.
Worms
We formed up the new porch as one slab and tied it in to the existing small porch. Jeff the Inspector came by and liked how we set things up and signed off on all the footings on our punch card. He had us drop a tape from the peak of the house to measure the overall height of the building. Apparently, the City was anxious to find out the actual height of the building after the debacle of 14 inches. Pop climbed up on the roof and dropped the tape and the height read 27 feet 6 inches to finished floor. The architect had called out 27 feet 5 1/4 inches. The city was expecting us to have been 28 feet 2 inches. Jeff was pleased and said the city would be pleased to know that we were within 3/4 of an inch of what the architect called out rather than the 14 inches additional height. With an inspection passed, it was time to get the cement poured. The pumpers were a couple of very nice guys who let Max help with getting the cement in place.
Pump that Concrete
Smooth that Concrete
Finished Concrete
While the cementing was going on, the last of the existing roof was being demolished. Poppa’s truck was loaded up to the brim, but we got all the roof debris into one truckload.
Removing the old Roof
Lots of Debris
With the existing roof gone and the foundations for the porch posts in place, it was time for Kevin to kick the roof framing into high gear.
