Carpenter on a Hot Tin... Er, Hot Plywood Roof

Neither heat nor humidity nor economic depression/recession/regression will keep us from our appointed porch building duties! I'm trying to uphold the mantra, can't you tell?

This weekend was hot - really hot. Not particularly the most comfy time to be up on a roof. But the guys worked on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday they actually had to re-do some of their previous work on the roof framing, but that worked out just fine because Sunday was all about the plywood.

First thing in the AM we boarded up the French doors (damage control, don't cha know) and Mike and I began ripping off the last of the old shingles. Meanwhile TJ and Paul were on top of us laying ply.

I took this pic leaning out of the 2nd floor window. Notice how the roof's pitch is not too steep - we talked about cutting the bottoms of chairs at an angle so we could sit out there. =)

And here's the same view from on the porch. Funny - the second we got the plywood up, the porch cooled down probably about 20 degrees. And all of a sudden, it looked bigger too. It was so exciting!

The trickiest, but coolest looking part was the joint between the two roof angles, as you can see here.

Here's TJ working on that funky angle.

And here's Mike working on the shingles. Shortly after this, I had to put down the camera and get back to work. Notice the cowboy hat - we were all pimping the cowboy hats - except for TJ, we haven't converted him yet.

Once we had the plywood removed from the top of the french door (because that's where the needed it removed to attach the plywood 'n stuff) we decided to strip the rest of the shingles off this wall. So we took off the protective ply piece and stripped the rest.

Here's the after shot.

The plywooding of the roof was pretty much finished by the time Mike and I finished stripping. And at that point everyone was so hot, we decided to take advantage of the new roof and did some serious chillen out under it.

Then we has some lunch and cleaned up - done for the day. Mike and I were both psyched. This pretty much ends the rough framing portion of our show. Next up is the ceiling of the porch. At the end of Sunday we decided on a height - so that'll be the next step.

Of course, with the 4th next weekend, the guys will probably not be back to work on it until the following.

Between now and then, Mike and I also have to talk to our roofing man. We need an estimate for labor/materials for the ENTIRE house roof, including the porch roof, which needs to be done ASAP, I would imagine, because it's just bare ply right now.

Anybody Out There?!

Feels like an eternity gone by in just a few minutes. I think back on all the goings on of the last couple weeks and my mind is just boggled!

As you all know, we were up at Laconia last weekend having fun on da bike.... That is, after Mike put it in the truck and drove all the way back to our house from NH on Friday and back to NH Friday night to fix the durn thing after we had wiring problems. Just wouldn't be a vacation without a little horrible luck. But Saturday was great... then Sunday we had terrible thunderstorms and had to leave early.

All in all, just another emotional roller coaster.

This weekend's already feeling like tomorrow - despite it only being Tuesday. There's just so much to do between now and then - I doubt I'll even notice a few more days going by.

And then it's back to work on the porch. Time to get a roof on! Plywood anyway. And after that, I'm not sure what's going to happen. We're running low on dough. But we have to get the roofing done and the siding on.....

Then there's that whole other do-to list of exterior jobs. And it's nearly July! Wow. Two mo's to go. Maybe three. We've got to keep pushing forward no matter what!

Raising the Ruff

Nope. It's not the roof. It's the ruff. Get it right.

Saturday was a beautiful day.... and I was stuck working in a windowless auditorium for about 14 hours. Not that I mind terribly - it's just a LONG day. I'm still exhausted.

While I was gone, Mike and the guys began framing the porch roof. This morning I took some pics and one of them came out like this:

I haven't the faintest idea why. If you can look closely and isolate one of these duplicates - which I have trouble with - my eyes just don't like it! You'll see that this is the side portion above the french doors.

And in this normal pic, you can see the front roof section. The only part missing is the difficult part where front and side roof meet. But that will have to wait, because this weekend is bike week weekend! And we'll be gone in NH from Fri until late Sun.... spending a ton of money that I don't have, I'm sure.

And here's the front. I think the funniest thing is that the grass under the porch looks better than the grass outside the porch. I'm sure that won't last long - but it just goes to show what a little shade can do for your grass. That's why I need some trees out front. Maybe next spring.

Sunday Story

Dateline, Sunday June 1st..... yes, it's already June 11th - so I'm 10 days behind. And if you think I've been neglecting this blog - you should hear about all the other stuff I've been neglecting... accidentally mind you.

I think I may have perhaps reached my limit on "stuff" going on. And brain overload has caused side effects too numerous to mention. Meanwhile Mike has been taking on mad side jobs on top of his usual weekly "guy friends to visit after work" list.

On to the Sunday story.

Of course, as you know, Sunday 6/1 was Mike's bday. And even though I hadn't originally wanted to do anything, see anyone, etc etc, a couple friends asked if they could come over with some BBQ stuff for a little impromptu party. I reluctantly agreed, but then decided to stop being such a poop head and invite more people. It was Mike's 30th after all.

But when I told Mike we were all having a party, he was not too enthusiastic about it. "I just want to get work done," he said. Well, then I threw my arms up and thought, "Why do I bother?!" But it was too late to cancel - it was already Friday when all this went down.

You know the story of Saturday. (see previous post) So we'll skip to Sunday.

Mike had me up at around 7 or 8 and we began ripping siding and shingles off the house - just like before, except higher up. (Because now the guys needed something to attach the roof of the porch to.)

I commemorated the occasion on one of the walls with a note and a smiley face.

Around 9 or 10, TJ and Paul had arrived to help us out. Meanwhile, our neighbor Rich brought over his staging for us to borrow, which really helped out on the higher, 8' sections.

Soon after that, I had make a Home Depot run for plywood, tyvek, and lead flashing. And I was not happy about it. The party was supposed to start around noontime and the house and porch were both in shambles and I had to leave my post to go out.

On top of that, the bill for all the materials was outrageous. Do you know how much a 12" wide roll of lead goes for now adays?! $140!!! I nearly died and prayed that this one roll would be able to get us through.

When I got back, I discovered that the guys had appeased the porch gods with some lizard torture.
And I suppose anything to bring some good luck....

Then I had to go on a beer run. Awesome. I was thrilled, as you can imagine. Meanwhile the guys put up plywood and began attaching beams to the posts.

The party started around 1:30, 2ish. And the guys were still working. I didn't even take these pics, I was too busy trying to apologize to everyone that the bday boy did not want to stop working. Despite the construction underway, the guys hung out and watched as Mike and TJ and Paul continued working. Us gals took our drinks to the picnic table in the back yard to at least get out of the kitchen.


The guys just really wanted to get all the plywood on and make the front of the house water tight. That was their goal. So they kept at it. I'm not sure what time they finished up, but at that point, we brought the picnic table on the porch and were finally able to all hang out together.

Here's the finally tally on trash:

And then we tortured the lizard some more...

And of course we had some good food courtesy of everyone (who each brought something to eat or drink) and our neighbor Dana, who made clams casino and jalepeno poppers.

So all in all it turned out to be a really good time and everyone said they had lotsa fun. Plus we got all the plywood attached.

A couple days later, Mike and I stapled on the Tyvek - and that's still at the point we're at now. We took a break last weekend due to extreme heat and did other fun stuff - like a dump run, scrap metal run, Rich's bday party across the street, drive-in movie, boating....

This weekend it'll probably be back to work though.

And that's the Sunday story. For all the pics, check out MYSPACE

So Very Outtofit

Out to lunch. That's the sign I should have put up on this blog. Because I've been 100% not here. Last week was madness, what with my wisdom teeth getting out, a settlement meeting, work madness.... This week will be no better. I got to work early this morning, tomorrow I'll be in the office at 5:30am for a shoot and not back until probably after dark, plus I have to work all day Saturday.

Joy to my world.

And I haven't even told you about the weekend before last.

Well, it was just a tornado of insanity. Saturday (the 31st) I did not feel well, but still I had to prep for Sunday's Impromptu-BQ for Mike's BDay. Meanwhile the guys worked on the porch in the AM and early afternoon - until of course it started looking really stormy out. Of course, after the guys left, it never ended up raining at our house. Figures. The Cape got hit pretty bad though I guess.

Wow. I can't even write coherently. I apologize. This post just sux! But I'll try and continue on anyway.

By the time the guys left on Saturday, the rest of the decking was done. And we had a new mascot - the scary petrified looking lizard. Our neighbor Dana found it in his garden and brought it over to try to scare me with... I wasn't scared, but the guys adopted it as our porch mascot.

At the end of the day, the guys tacked on our old makeshift stairway that used to be on the front door... you know, just so we could retire the step stool.


Here's the completed decking by the door. You can tell the difference between the Morse Lumber decking and the DeepHo decking. DeepHo stores all their stock inside, so their decking is dried out and lighter than the Morse PT decking, which is housed outside and is green. But it won't matter, the two will even out as they age, and we'll be eventually painting or staining it anyway.

But boy were we happy we got the rest of the decking from Morse. Their 14' pieces were as much as the DeepHo 12' pieces. How's that for a royal rip off? I don't even want to know how much I wasted getting all the 16' pieces there. Oh well. It's done now, nothing I can do.

Oh, and I forgot to mention - Saturday morning's delivery was our last huge delivery! All that's left to purchase now is trim, roofing, and clapboards... and paint and little stuff. I shouldn't speak to soon actually. All that little stuff ends up being super expensive.

And since this post is not quite all there, I'll attempt to tell the rest of the story in a second one.