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.

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.

Back Roof

Front Roof

Roof so far

I don’t like wearing wet clothes, but you get wet when climbing a ladder on the roof (to get to the second story roof) in the rain at 6:30 in the morning.

Water Inside

Turn up the sound on your computer to get the full effect. ] The early morning rain brought snow to the local mountains.

Snow Mountains

Snow Mountains

I am thankful that the rain didn’t start until 5:30a. I am thankful that the rain stopped (temporarily) at 9:30a. I am thankful that today is Friday and Toby wasn’t here alone. I am grateful for Austin’s True Value Hardware store being so close.

April 11-15, 2007 (Thursday – Sunday) It was time to put the roof over the new construction. Greg, Pop and Mark came up on Thursday (I still had to go to my day job) to work on setting up the roof beam and the rafters. One of the big questions had always been How are we going to hoist the 30 foot long, 600 pound paralam up 7 feet into the air? Well that was solved with a mechanical lift (whose maximum weight was 650 pounds. whew!) Thursday was very windy. So windy, that the ladders and other stuff were blown off the roof in the 40 mph gusts.

Pop and Hoist

Mark and the Paralam

Greg aligning the paralam

Thursday — This is what I saw when I drove home from work in the evening. Take a look at the palm trees in the background to see the effects of the wind.

Thursday evening work

Friday — Greg brought Buddy and we continued to put up more rafters. The front of the house is what was mostly worked on.

Friday work

Saturday — Greg decided to bring in the big guns for the rest of the roof. He recruited another of my Dad’s neighbors, Kevin, who is a general contractor specializing in roofs. God does provide. Kevin works almost as fast as Greg and got an amazing amount of work done. Our neighbor Gracie baked a cake for the working crew. The joke was that she was celebrating not having to look at a complete eyesore anymore.

Cake from Gracie

Let them eat cake

Front Roof Line

West side

Sunday — Kevin, Greg, Buddy and Mark were back again. The focus was on the back of the house. We wanted to finish the low roof over the office and get the plywood over the shed roof above the loft. We almost made it. The loft roof is finished and the rafters are in on the low office roof. We didn’t get the office roof plywood on and there is a bit of plywood missing on the east side, but all in all, it was a very productive weekend.

South West corner

North face – front of the house