Roof: Day 4

 Wa-BAM!  The roofers showed up around 8:30 this morning, and left at 12:30 this afternoon.  Now, THAT'S efficiency!  I can't wholly express how good it feels to have this project behind us.  Brett and I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off our shoulders.

Apparently we aren't the only ones excited about the transformation our house is undergoing.  Our neighbors...you know, the Thomas Kinkade ones...brought us over a bottle of wine as a thank you gift for improving their view.  Ha!

Obviously, our little house is not finished (is it ever?).  The next big project will be to paint it.  I mean, pink is fine and all, if you're into the dirty flesh tones...but we're going to take it another direction.  So, that's next on the docket.  We will be slow and steady with that one, I suspect.  There's not as much of a time crunch to get that job knocked out. 

For the record, it is STORMING here.  It rained hard for a brief bit this evening, then cleared up, but now all I hear is thunder and rain.  God, you hooked us UP with the perfect roofing weather.  Thank you, thank you!!  You provided the most perfect window we could've hoped for.  DANG.

Dear House,
You look even lovelier than you did this morning.  Just sayin'.
Love,
Andrea

The Roof: Day 3

  

 Like I said, thank goodness for new days.  Brett was tired from the night before, but somehow not totally discouraged.  Donning the t-shirt my dad made really gave him some extra pep in his step.  No more Mister Nice Guy.  As the image above shows, we will be living with OSB duct taped to our ceiling for the time being.  We will soon need to remove that section and replace the sheet rock, and re-texture it.  It's a bummer, but it's not the end of the world. 

Auntie Kacey was willing to watch Scout in the morning, and dear Busha watched her in the afternoon.  I am so, so, SO grateful for all the help with Scout.  Al came by for a few hours again in the morning (Alan, you've already clenched your title.  You just want to secure it further?) and helped make some last cuts for the final roof repairs.  Once Al left, B and I began clearing off the roof, ridding it of debris and nails.  That was my first time on the roof.  Brett advised me not to look around too much because I would surely want a second story.  Check out the view!  He was right, I did find myself longing for a second story.  But I'd quickly remind myself of our ceiling nearly falling through, and think...nah.  We're good.

On Saturday night the guys placed all the fascia board...with their headlamps.  So, Brett and I leveled it, and secured it further.

FINALLY, not a moment too soon, it was time to lay the felt.  Brett and I hopped to it and began rolling out the paper.  Brett was beginning to get a bit discouraged because it was taking longer than he thought.  Shortly thereafter our amazing neighbor, Russ, hopped on up to lend a hand.  Within a couple hours we had all the paper rolled out and stapled down.

 Pure (exhaustion) elation at a finished project.  We are more than ready to hand this roof off to somebody else, so that they can finish the job.  The roofers are coming today to finish it up!  Yeehaw!!!

We're getting somewhere, people!  Again, thank you to all the incredible friends and family who helped.  You guys RULE.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Dear House,
You are getting lovelier and lovelier.  Thank you for not letting us get swallowed up into the attic through the scary boards.
Love,
Andrea

The Roof: Day 2, Part 2

 

Above is the illustration Brett provided me with that explains what the h-e-double-hockey sticks happened last night.  It's the cross-view of our attic, looking down the line.  The sword looking thing on the left is the jack, placed on top of the joist.  Unbeknownst to us, the joist was already cracked, so upon jacking up the roof, the added pressure caused the joist to break even further, thus the falling-ceiling-effect.  The sad face in the lower left is me.  Brett and Eric worked until 12:30 am.  Apparently Alan (MVP) came by for a while, as well.  The guys were working until the wee hours, and even managed to slap up a piece of fascia board...with headlamps as their source of light.  Badasses.  I am so grateful for such an insanely hard-working husband, and such wonderful friends to help.  I'm also grateful for new days, and new perspectives.  

Here are a few more pics from yesterday before the ceiling incident.  I was able to paint our fascia board while Scout was napping, and managed to do the final touches with her on my back when she woke up.  Scout was not too into the sun shade though, and preferred sticking her head outside of it.  Once on the outside, however, she'd get stuck, and be unhappy about her situation.  The photo sequence pretty well captures how she looked much of the time while on my back...until I came up with the genius (if I do say so myself) idea to strap her cheerio cup inside the sunshade.  That gave me a good 15-20 minutes to get busy!

Eric and Al came over around noonish, and began the roof repairs.  As the picture shows, we are still hitting the jackpot with weather.  PTL!!

There is no telling what today holds, so I will make no speculations.  I will just hope for the best, and ask you to do the same!!

The Roof: Day 2

Today didn't exactly go as planned, which I've come to learn is status quo in the world of home renovations.  Brett's early morning Home Depot run took longer than he had hoped, Scout wasn't quite as willing to hang out on my back while I worked, the board repairs on the roof took considerably longer than Brett anticipated, our kitchen ceiling nearly came crashing down at the end of the day.  You know, the usual.

Our roof has a lot of sag to it, so Brett and Eric (a total champ for hanging in there.  He and B are still there working, and it's 8pm) were in the attic trying to jack up the roof, section by section.  I was cooking dinner, when I noticed a bunch of white powder on the floor.  Being the detective that I am, I quickly surmised that the ceiling had cracked...and that I better get out of the way.  Do you think that my house was getting back at me for calling it a "crack house"?  I think it was like, "Oh, I'll show you crack house, woman!"  Our ceiling didn't fall through, thankfully.  But nobody wanted to stand beneath it for extended periods of time.  So, I quickly finished up dinner, and swooped Scouty up and took her up to Nana & Papa's so that she could go to sleep (free of the loud noises that will surely be an accompaniment to the kitchen situation).  Who knew that today would hold THIS?!  Sheesh. 

 Brett and Eric were regrouping when I left.  I really hope the food gave them some inspiration.

Needless to say, the felt is not on our roof.  Tomorrow will be another busy day, I reckon!  My fingers are crossed that tomorrow goes smoother than today!  Pretttttty please?

Dear House,
I'm very sorry I called you a crack house.  I will never do it again.  Ever.
Love,
Andrea

The Roof: Day 1

 Sorry, there was no warning.  This is the first picture because, well, this is the very first thing that happened.  Within about two minutes of setting out to work on the roof, the ladder fell as Al was at the top rung (not operator error, mind you.  Al is very comfortable on a ladder), and he fell with it, landing on top of the ladder, on which he hit his head.  He ultimately went to the ER, got 8 staples in his head...and CAME BACK TO WORK.  Can you say B.A.?!  Alan got MVP and Most Improved.  He stayed until the bitter end.

Once we got that all sorted out, the roofing project really set sail.  We had several guys come out and help who were total champs.  Many hands make light work.  Seriously, it was so huge having such willing friends!!  Annnnd our weather was very cooperative.  It was perfectly warm and beautiful out all day long.  Heaven.

 Auntie Kacey was the woooo-man and watched both Scout and Hadley today.  She's basically the shiz!  She looks pretty good with two babes on her hips, don't you think?  Maybe next round she can have twins, being that she's got the double duty so dialed in:)

 Here's the morning wrecking crew.  Are they a motley crew, or what?

 Kougs brought the girls by to sit in the sun and take in all the action.  Poor Hads got sunscreen in her eyes, and Scouty was having a hard time seeing her mom but not being able to be all up in her bidness.  So, their time was cut short.  But it sure was nice to see them for a bit!

 We were so pleased by how quickly the shingles came off.  After about 9 hours of hard work, it was all done, ready for a game of rooftop bowling.  Big Ry and Dave were kind enough to be a part of the afternoon crew, and were a huge help.  And, like I said, Alan was there till the bitter end.  MVP!

Brett was very encouraged to discover that, while there are definitely sections of boards that need to be replaced, like the picture shows below, the roof is actually in pretty decent shape.  Tomorrow begins the repairs, and hopefully the installation of the fascia boards.  Perhaps, if we're lucky, even the felt will go down.  We shall see!

Raised Garden Beds

Knowing that a new roof was in our future, we decided it was best to hold off on landscaping, er, taming the beast.  So, we have learned to embrace the whole bomb-went-off look of our yard.  BUT we have finally started taking steps toward permanence!  Brett built 6 awesome raised beds that are just begging to be planted with this year's goods.  Brett and I are beginning to get the major itch to get outside and get our hands dirty...oh, and reap the haaaarvest.  I'm beginning to dream of tomatoes.  Is that weird?  And the weeds have grown in so beautifully that it creates a faux lawn look.  It's quite lovely, I tell you!

Kind of like the fun surprise that it is to find the couple bucks that you forgot in your ski pants pocket from last season, thus enabling you to buy that cup of hot chocolate you desperately need, is this spring's surprise of the tulips that I {super haphazardly} planted last fall.  I totally forgot about them, and was so excited upon the reminder that there really is potential for life in our explosion of a yard (Gideon is still getting the memo that he is not welcome to plop down on top of my flowers).  I can hardly wait to get my hands on my dahlia tubers that are due any time (thanks noshblog)!!!

I have a feeling it won't be too long before Scouty's out digging in the dirt with us.  She and Gideon can have a field day burying things, and digging them up...so long as they're not in my flower beds!

The Roof

Alright Ladies & Germs, things are about to crazy up in hurrrrr.  We are finally cleaning up our act, with the hopes of no longer looking like we live in a crack house.  Sorry, rooftop garden, your days are numbered.  One to be exact.  Starting tomorrow bright and early Brett and his wonderful friends will begin the fun task of ripping off the roof that has more wave in it than the Pacific Ocean.  We can hardly imagine what our house will look like with a brand spankin' new roof!  Bring. It.  I just wanted to post pics to remind you of our little pink house (read: dump).  I sense a time is coming near that I will pull in the driveway and, for the first time since owning it, I will not think, "What a freaking DUMP."  Soon, but soon, peeps!  

Brett and I got all agro the other night and ripped off our oppressive back patio structure, with a sledge and bare hands.  BAM.  I honestly can't believe the thing stood for so long, being that some of the main posts flapped in the wind, but that's neither here nor there.  The main point is that we are in the mode of "let's clear this sheeet OUT!"  Like I said at the beginning, we are cleaning up our act.  I have a feeling our neighbors are thinking happy thoughts (especially our neighbors across the street, who live in a Thomas Kinkade house, who also happen to be acknowledged every year by the "Garden of the Month" club...who also have a perfectly centralized view from their bedroom window of our house.  Yes, they are thrilled.).

Wish us luck!  Gideon's tool belt is strapped on, and he's practicing his ladder climbing right this very minute.  Scout is going to do her part by wearing her Carharrts, and being extra good for her Auntie Kougar.  I'm going to do my best at whatever it is I do.  I'm still figuring that out.