We're still at it...

We're still working on the addition. We've been plugging away one or two hours at a time every now and again when we can squeeze it in. If nothing else, this whole process is teaching us patience... We're almost ready for our next inspection after which we can get shingles on the roof and house wrap around the exterior walls. Our photographer is at a soccer game tonight - hopefully I can post a picture tomorrow (or the next day....)

More roofage...

When I came home from work; I was greeted by this beautiful sight!Sara and Jesse were up on the roof nailing up the last full sheets of OSB. That means we only have to cut a few more pieces to weird shapes to finish up the roof and then we can call for an inspection! Assuming we pass, we can then shingle the roof (hiring it out...) and wrap the exterior walls in house-wrap. Then it can rain all it wants because our addition will be protected from the weather.

By the way, if you were wondering what Grace was doing while the kids were up on the roof - she was on the ground, telling them to be careful...

Roof to roof

Guess what we did today... Worked on the addition; what did you expect?

We hit a tricky spot today. We had to figure out how to attach the existing house roof to the addition's roof. I think we did OK. We only did the side of the house that no one will ever see - we decided that this was the area we would practice on and once we were good at it and knew what we were doing we would do the same thing in a more visible, public spot. It involved cutting a little more of the old roof off so I was up there with my trusty reciprocating saw again - I got all of the cutting done without any unpleasantness - which was good in one way but it makes for a fairly dull blog post. The picture below shows the fascia board connected to the old fascia board (height-wise it is a perfect match!) I'm getting ready to nail the last of the rafter tails on. Hannah was helping me. (On a side note, I had to take her ladder away once she got up into the rafters; then, just after this picture was taken, Grace came home and I went to visit with her while completely forgetting that Hannah was stuck on the roof... She eventually climbed to the peak of the house, took some pictures and yelled for someone to get her a ladder. Someone did.)

Here is a picture that Hannah took while she was stuck up on the roof. It gives a pretty good indication of our roofing progress to date.

We have been blessed with beautiful weather this past week - we could work on our project for a few hours every night after work. By Thursday, I was missing the rain if only to get some time off.

Someone stopped by today and remarked how quick things were going. Everyone was outside and everyone laughed... Actually we've only been working at the construction phase for a couple of months so I suppose we can't complain. (We still do...)

Finally - the roof!

This picture requires more of an explanation than I am prepared to give right now. Suffice it to say I have a vast amount of respect for those who put sheets of OSB on house frames for a living...

With a lot of help (Grace, Jesse, Sara, Hannah, Lisa), we eventually got things as roofed as is possible for the time being. (We did some yesterday too...) Actually we can still cover the "tail sections"... tomorrow....

Labor Day

Labor Day (also Grace's birthday)... We managed to get 12 feet worth of fascia board attached on both sides of the addition today. We had finished the tails and gotten them attached earlier in the week. With the fascia boards on we can begin to put the actual roof covering on the thing which will be a great relief given the rains of Noahic proportions we've been having lately.

We only worked for the morning since Grace had to work and the rest of us went to a church picnic. Still it seemed to be a productive day. We've got to figure out how we're going to finagle a greek return out of this thing yet - I'm pretty sure that's going to take some doing...

Below, for your viewing pleasure, are photos of us installing the fascia board.