Wow!

Wow #1 - the windows and the door came today.  The salesman came through and brought with him a strong young man (a.k.a. Mark in the blue shirt) to help with the unloading.  And Debby came over to help muscle the big window into place.  Even with the windows on the sides taken out it weighed a LOT.  I took photos.  Thanks to measuring all the rough openings 1, 2, 3, 4 times and more everything fit exactly like it should.

Wow #2 - Please note in the bottom left photo, Brian finished the roof and is taking his final bow for this part of the project.  He's offered to come back if we need him - I already have sheetrock in mind.  It's not every homeowner who is lucky enough to have a working architect in resident for a project.

Wow #3 - Bottom center, the windows are all in.  John finished caulking & nailing the window flanges of the big window and is applying the final layer of weatherstripping tape around the edges.  It doesn't dare leak.  The others will get done another day.

Wow #4 - the last photo...  Some things just magically appear when one is away having a relaxing, farewell to Brian, spur of the moment, elegant, delicious picnic lunch on a beautiful spring day.  Case in point is the blue dumpster.  Now to move the trash seen to the left of it, into it.  Where is Mark of the blue shirt when you need him?

Back home & building again...

Do you remember when you could actually see the house when I took a picture from this direction?  Now the apple tree has leafed out so much there was no getting way of getting a good shot of this side of the roof.  You'll just have to trust me (and Brian), the shingling's done.

P2 - Brian finishing up the last side of the roof.  Please note he's still able to squat at the end of the day (or perhaps he's just no longer able to stand...)

P3 - Sage, today's job site dog.  He belongs to Brian and came to oversee things for a couple of days.  Sage and the cats have yet to figure out who's top dog.  There was a lot of glaring and posturing going on today.

Please note...

Every good building project deserves a "topping out" ceremony where an evergreen bough is placed when the highest point of construction is reached.  Not to be outdone of course...  Last night we had our own short ceremony.  Please note John & Brian on the roof.  Please note Brian's the one who's still limber enough to squat down to attach the branch.  Please note it's a larch branch, not quite an evergreen, but enduring none the less.  Please note the longest part of the ceremony was probably John getting up and down off the roof....

The ceremony was followed by our own Wed. morning trio in the new "orchestra pit".  The audience, in various stages of awe, are in the "new" room.  Notice Phyllis, front & right, who just arrived back from Florida via NC today (just for this event, I'm sure).  Last photo is Brian with some BBQ sandwiches.  We had chopped pork for dinner with 5 BBQ sauces, mostly from different parts of NC.  The vote for the best sauce was tied between the Eastern and the Special.  Please note the platter of asparagus all from my our own garden!

Have a good Memorial Day weekend.  We're taking a few days off as well so no blogging until next week...

Invention No. ???

Shown in rather slow motion (not too different than real life) is John using his on-site created "transporter" that moves a bundle of shingles from the ground to the roof.  Of course the real key to making this invention work is having a strong body on the roof.  Please note that in P6 Brian, even with a 50+ lb. bale of shingles, still appears able to leap buildings in a single bound.

P7 shows the overhang for the door shingled, bales of shingles on the roof awaiting tomorrow, shingles moved from the garage but still awaiting transport to the roof (tomorrow), & Brian still on the roof.  Please note we did allow him to come down since he was signed up to make us spring rolls for supper.  They were DE-licious!

Tiptoeing

Tiptoeing between raindrops, John & Brian began the work of fitting and installing the fascia boards along the edge of the roof.  They didn't quite get done before they were rained out for the day...

In case you were wondering... yes, the birds are getting quite used to flying in and out of the openings.  So far no "indoor" nests have appeared.  A new concept in nature centers...

Flippin' pages...

Brian's back (yeah!) so the last bit of roof framing on the dormer resumed.  Just before John & Brian finished putting the roof sheathing on the dormer, the monsoons arrived.  Buckets of rain coming through the south through those nice big south facing open window openings.  It became rather damp.

P3 - Keeping busy through the rains, John & Brian take down the remaining boards of the old inner roof.  (I took the opportunity to "review" some old magazines I hadn't gotten to...)

Violet is the color or romance...

What you are looking at in P1 is true love.  Not of the car, silly, although that does come close, but of two folks.  John & Judy met 50 years ago when John was driving an Easter egg violet Corvette.  Now what young woman wouldn't look twice at the driver?!  This coming February John & Judy celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.  However, to "help them remember" their courtship months, John traded in his Corvette classic & his "regular" Corvette for one of the limited edition 100th anniversary Corvettes.  I must admit I wondered how Corvette could be 100 so I looked it up & it turns out the Chevrolet company that makes Corvettes (in America) is 100 this year.  All 100 of these anniversary cars are black (what happened to violet?).  John & Judy call theirs Stealth Vette.  Who would ever suspect it was used to transport a pizza ring for a rusty old Weber grill?

At 4 a.m. we, or rather the house, waved goodbye to Karol as he made his way back to Maine.  At a more respectable hour, John & Judy left for NJ.  And tonight we wave goodbye to Joe although I, for one, will not be seeing him leave for Florida at 5 a.m.  In the meantime, Joe who totes pistols in Florida demonstrated his air gun technique as we finished sheathing yet another side of the house.  Enough already.  Won't this sheathing & leaving ever stop?!

Inventions...

How do you get a big double black insulated pipe (or is that a double pipe big & insulated or...), at any rate, how do you get this pipe for the solar hot water units run through the 50' sewer pipe that was buried under the yard & addition into the addition?  This has been worrying John for weeks?  Fish tape snake?  Send a cat through with a string?  Blow a string through first with the compressor?  Sometimes the simplest idea is the best.  Joe & John just pushed it through.  Took all of about 5 minutes.

The sheathing was finally finished over the big window opening (after all the NJ inspectors were on their way).

And then there was the big invention...  You take an old Weber grill and a couple of cousins named John.  Get out the wheelbarrow.  Add a couple of old cement blocks.  Balance the Weber on the cement blocks in the wheel barrow.  Add one custom made (by NJ John) steal ring to the top of the Weber.  Figure out (takes 2 Johns and some old bolts - at least I didn't say 2 old Johns) how to remount the grate at a higher level so the pizza stone is level with the opening.  Add a rusty lid.  Invite Leigh over because she might just be more responsible in cooking the pizza.  Wheel your unit to where you have easy access to the new window opening and start making pizzas.  Result - 3 perfect pizzas, all of which were consumed.

A busy Friday...

The last "old roof rafter" in the sun room comes down.  We have to admit the room does look bigger and brighter (not that most of our friends weren't trying to tell us that to begin with...)  Okay folks.  Anything else we should do before we finish buttoning it in?

A bit more sheathing goes up on the outside...

P3 - While some of us were dabbling around the house, Joe was out bringing home more food for Saturday supper.  A good day was had by all...

Caught!

Yes, it was a beautiful day and the guys went fishing (after a stop at Quack's for breakfast).  Please note their catch for the day.  (They did admit they were helped somewhat in that the conservation truck had dumped about 500 fish into the stream just as they were getting there.)  However, a fish is a fish is a fish and these were fun to catch & will be very tasty.

Back at the home front where I've been working on the views from the new room, i.e. the garden.  I usually leave a plant or two of wild catnip to harvest for our little druggie, Bertha.  Our other cat, Gus, has never been interested... until today.  How many ways can a cat enjoy catnip?  Eat it... roll in it... inhale it...  life is good....

The majority rules...

Plan for the day...
  A meeting, rehearsal, elegant lunch, put up the rest of the sheathing & a little fishing.

What happened...
  A meeting, rehearsal, elegant lunch.  Debby, being the umpteenth person to say we needed to take down the old sun room ceiling, finally convinced us that everyone but us couldn't be wrong.  Sooooo... John & Karol have at it and actually made great progress.  They are here to tell you that removing a shingled roof from below is perhaps not the easiest thing in the world to do.  While they were doing this (& Joe was wisely out golfing), a cold front blew through (we won't mention getting tired excuse) so fishing was scratched from today's agenda.  Perhaps tomorrow...

Gone fishing...

No fish...

A new look...

P1 - Finally!  The green board is now covering the old part of the house.  That little project was harder than pulling teeth.
P2 - The great unveiling.  Since Joe & I were cooking in the kitchen & the others were in the "new room" (enjoying the crab fingers & fresh tuna dip Joe brought), it just didn't seem right to be only able to listen to them through the plastic.
P3 - The long view, compliments of Joe from the kitchen.
P4 - The shrimp dinner brought direct to us and cooked by Florida Joe.  He sure does know how to make a girl happy!

Odds & ends...

Today was a little of this, a little of that.  The sill of the old house finally got repaired & the wall insulated.  The scaffolding got moved outside (thanks once again to Joe's help - maybe tomorrow he'll get to go fishing).  The opening for the window got routed.  And another "inspector" showed up - Karol from Maine.  Joe, Karol & John are shown in the upper right photo trying out the new room.  So far, so good...

Caught...

Today we got off to rather a slow start - it was 37 degrees & windy after all.  Even by NY standards that seems bracing.

P1 to P5 - Work started on the dormer that will be over the sun room door.  Even Joe was called into action (he was caught on camera in P1) to help hold the modified porch post braces in place.  He may have thought all he'd do is fly fish but we thought a little stretching would do him good.  Using porch posts as bracing was my brain child but even I had to admit it was fairly time consuming to implement.  They do look great though so the extra work was worth it.

P6 - Pouring a new foundation for the old part of the house.  Please note that I built the form so I'm not completely helpless.

P7 & P8 - Brian, Joe & I went foraging for mushrooms after lunch.  (He who will go unnamed, held down the sofa.)  The first photo are Pheasant's Back and the other is Brian with the first morel he ever found.  He/we were all excited.

P9 - Joe, who took most of the photos today, caught me working at weatherproofing the window opening.  What some folks won't do to get out of having their photo taken.

Feelin' gooooood!

That's how John & Brian felt today after they got the last of the roof sheathing nailed in place.  (About time too as the apple trees are leafing out and it won't be long before these "long distant" shots are a thing of the past.)

Just as they were finishing (by the way they receive extra points because it was a cold, windy, drizzly day), Joe showed up all the way from Florida to give it today's inspection.  Now that Joe's got that out of the way, I suspect some fly fishing will be in order not to mention giving some fly fishing lessons.  It turns out Brian has his grandfather's fly fishing gear but doesn't know how to use it and Joe is an experienced fly fishing instructor.  What will this mean for progress on our roof?  Stay tuned...

Hmmmmm....

I'm excited! The framing on the gable end got completed today and the roof decking is starting to go on. It's actually beginning to look like it might someday belong to the rest of the house. Now what do you suppose John & Brian are stewing on? 

2 minutes later, question answered.  They were just trying to decide whether or not to call it quits for the day.  The answer was "yes"...

A fly-by inspection...

Work was called this afternoon on a count of rain.  (Except perhaps for the lawn mowing.  John is out there right now, mowing & possibly singing in the rain.)  Even so, please note the green board that has appeared above the new roof so the day wasn't a total loss.

There was also another inspection today.  (I've lost track of the number of friends that have just happened to stop by to take a look.  Rather intimidating but always welcome.  Just hope they don't notice the occasional spot where where we're still waiting for inspiration.)  Today's inspection was a fly-by.  Our resident hummingbird is back and gave the new room a close look.  We failed.  The hummingbird feeder was nowhere to be found.  Guess we better get busy making that sugar water....

It's up there...

Terry showed up this afternoon just in time to complicate John's thinking on how the lighting in the new room might work.  Bottom line... don't worry about it John.  Patty & Terry have it all worked out.

We did manage to get the opening for the upstairs window framed today and have started on putting in the insulation panels.  Does the opening look big enough for a fireman to fit through?  It better be.  That's as big as we could make it without raising the roof and that would really put us over budget.

How much more?

You'd be surprised how much one can find to tear apart in an old house and still leave it standing.  Today we (mostly John with me "advising" from the ground) tackled taking off the sheathing above the new roof and taking out the old insulation.  Just what you'd choose to do on a beautiful spring day, right?

While the lady's away...

Deciding it might be nice for Noy, Brian's wife, to take a look at the project (it's not every wife that would let her husband go "play" with his cousin for more than a day or two), I took today off and went to Ithaca to pick her up.  Of course, one can't just GO to Ithaca.  I called in Susan as accompaniment  and we headed over for a lady's day out.  Rummage sales, grocery shopping, eating, meeting the mayor, touring some very sensible houses... not a moment was wasted.

Well worth every minute as the guys had worked hard in our absense.  P1 - Brian & Noy under the newly complete roof line with collar ties.  P2 - the promised valley shot from yesterday.  P3 - a long shot of the now completed red roof decking over the sun room.

The dreaded valley...

Try as they would to put it off, the valley between the two new roofs with all its compound miter cuts had to be done.  Shown here John & Brian are putting up the first of the rafters for that.  I admit that I was so excited later in the day to see them putting on more roof decking (looks like we're turning into the red roof inn) that I completely forgot to take a photo of the finished valley.  I'll try to do better tomorrow...

Heave ho...

John & Brian seem to be spending most of their time on ladders improving their cardiovascular profiles.  Please note the silver board insulation on the sun room and the first piece of roof decking going up.  (They were both happy and amazed that it fit.)

Say what?

John & Brian trying to figure out how to transition between the old roof and the new roof.  Not a problem says I.  Stay tuned for how it is resolved.

Meanwhile inside, I (a.k.a. the riveter) went merrily back to using the palm nailer to nail the hurricane ties in place for each rafter.  I'm still traumatized at the memory of hand nailing all 10 nails required for each tie for each rafter in the hop barn.  The nails are short and fat and just the right length to successfully hit your thumb everytime you loose your concentration, which is often.  The compressor driven palm nailer is an invention everyone should love.