Moving Right Along

The week of June 8 was not as busy as the week before, but productive nonetheless.  The main roof was finished on Wednesday evening with the help of a few great guys. By Friday, both porch roofs were stable and shingled, the scaffold was removed, and the balcony had new flooring.   Jack's former student, Dan, was able to assist Jack for the entire week and was a huge help.  My mom,dad, mother-in-law, and I worked outside cleaning up the mess that was once a garage.  We pulled nails out of salvaged boards and burned the rest.

This week, we were able to start some new projects. It was refreshing to have a quieter week and let down a little bit.  Jack replaced exterior trim while his mom, my mom, and I worked outside and in the attic.  The attic was full of debris from ripping off the old roof, and it took several days to get it completely clean.  Nancy, my mom-in-law, has been my attic companion since we bought the house.  We've cleaned it over and again after different projects. It should be immaculate by the time we're moved in!  The last couple of days we have been putting up insulation and drywall.  It's great to see the walls come up and the rooms come together.  It won't be long and we'll be painting.

 It is a relief to be completely done with all things roof related.  As a clean up girl, I can say it would be just fine if I never saw another shingle, shake, or piece of tar paper ever again in my life.  :)

Front porch roof, rebuilt

Former garage

Drywall delivery!

An Epic Week, part 2

By Thursday morning, the roof was half-finished. The most challenging part of the project was done, and it felt great to have it behind us. While running errands, I would drive by that side of the house just to see the finished work.  I'm the kind of gal who likes to see results, and it felt good to see one side of the house completed.  All week long, passersby would slow down or even stop on the side of the road to see what we were doing.  We  received shouts of approval, honking horns, and even a thumbs-up.  It felt like our community was cheering us along, and we were encouraged to press on. By the end of the day, the portion of the roof we were working on was stripped, sheathed, papered, and partially shingled.  We replaced the rafter tails on the front porch and a lot of the trim that was damaged.  The day ended with a quick rain shower that resulted in a double rainbow right above the house.

The excitement began to wear off by Friday. We were all tired, and it was hard to keep motivated even though the end was in sight.  However, we kept chugging along, and by the end of the day the part of the roof we started was shingled, and the columns were put back on the porch.  We had an abundance of workers and not enough to do around the house, which was a great problem to have.  Some of us started tearing down the garage, which was in terrible shape.  The roof on the building was in disrepair for years and it was caving in.  Just before supper time, the clouds crept in and it started to pour.  After dinner, we finished cleaning up and called it a day.

On Saturday, the front porch roof was rebuilt, and the side porch roof was stripped.  Some friends, my dad, and I continued working on the garage, salvaging what we could.  The more boards we took off, the more unstable the building became.  When we saw supporting beams swaying, we knew it was time.  My dad was able to use his backhoe to knock the rest of the structure down. Even though the garage wasn't officially condemned, it was definitely a safety hazard.

It turned out to be an epic week. Almost finishing the roof was a huge accomplishment, but we were also able to tackle other projects that were not on the agenda.  We are so thankful for everyone that came, whether they were able to work or just give words of encouragement.  Our community is the best.

Replacing the columns

Our yard looked like a parking lot.

Notice the rainbow over the house.

An Epic Week, part 1

June 1st marked the beginning of "Roof Week", a week we looked forward to and loathed at the same time.  We knew it was going to be a huge task, and having people up on that mountain of a roof was unnerving for me.  As the time grew closer, some people we thought we had lined up for work backed out, mostly for reasons beyond their control.  Needless to say we felt a bit stressed.  However, we still had some great workers that were planning on helping us.

Sunday morning came, and the blessings began.  Our church stepped in and offered to help out with planning meals for the group of workers for the entire week.  Lunch and dinner were provided from Monday to Friday.  This was amazing and unexpected.  I was prepared to feed them, and it probably would have taken up most of my week, planning and executing meals.  Not only did these ladies step in and help, but we were completely spoiled with wonderful food all week long.  Other people also helped and dropped off cookies, coffee, water, and other things.  Amazing.

The weather was calling for rain on Monday, but we started anyway.  It was a bit drizzly to start, but it cleared up in the afternoon.  We had several guys there to assist us, a few of whom were Jack's former students.  The roof had three layers of shingles: two layers of asphalt and the original cedar shakes.  The cedar shakes were especially messy and were harder to remove than the asphalt shingles.  A group was on the roof working and others were on the ground sending up supplies and cleaning up debris.  We also had people working around other parts of the house tearing down porch roofs, trimming bushes, and tearing out that ugly antenna (thanks Dad!).  What a crazy and wonderful day! After working 13 hours, we went home.  The first portion of the roof was stripped, sheathed, papered, and partially shingled.  Nobody fell off the roof, and I breathed a sigh of relief.  Day one was complete.

On Tuesday we had more people, and the amount of work that was completed was awesome.  Our friend and pastor, Mel, and his construction crew came to help out for the day.  Friends and family were there once again, many just volunteering to help, even when their schedules were busy.   It was humbling and wonderful.  Day two ended with the most complicated (and leaky) part of the roof stripped, sheathed, papered, and partially shingled.  

On Wednesday, we finished shingling the section of the roof that we started the day prior and continued to work on the porches.   It was not our intention to work on the porches so much, but in order to roof the small gable above the balcony, we had to make the balcony straight and support it.  In order to support the balcony, the roof below it had to be rebuilt, and so on.  It was kind of like the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.  It all had to be done eventually, so we went for it.  The porch roofs were in rough shape.  They were rotted out in many areas, and were very unstable.  Minus Jesse falling through the porch roof up to his waist, it went well. Wednesday ended up being very productive, even though we didn't work on the roof itself as much as we had planned.  We had new helpers come on Wednesday, as well as many others who had come the day prior.  We were full of gratitude.  

To be continued...

Assessing the porches

Shingles delivered, scaffold set 

Our Monday crew

Sheathing the roof 

Support system for the balcony gable.  The entire beam and some of the porch rafters needed to be replaced.

Our friend Trevor came to help out with one of the many dirty jobs.

Getting Ready to strip the old roof

Tuesday morning.  What a crew!

Tuesday afternoon

Every night (except Friday), we worked until we were out of daylight.