New Roof: Day 2, Part 3

10:30: The back seam doesn't look good either.

This was also not a surprise, it matches up with the water damage in the kitchen ceiling.

10:35: So off comes more boarding.

The facia piece is also damaged, but it's not structurally significant and will dry out once the rest is repaired.

11:09: With the board on the front replaced, it doesn't take long to get the underlay on.

The ice protection goes up the valley too.

11:43: Marking off the hole for the larger of the two sunpipes.

This pipe was the most problematic item of the whole process. The larger pipe only just fit between the roof beams (14.5 inch clearence, 14 inch tube), and the instructions were just complex and unclear enough to confuse the roofers.

1:06pm: Shiny domes for the sunpipes waiting for the roofers to finish their lunch.
As they arrived about 15 minutes after I got up, that was fine with me.

1:09: The new shingles start going on the roof.

The edges are the tricky bit, once they had the overlap right they were very quick.

1:23: Fourteen minutes later, one guy has done about half of that face of the roof.


1:23: and the foreman has done over a third of the front slope whilst still keeping the rest busy.


1:26: The far side is coming along, and you can see the hole for the bathroom sunpipe.


1:59: In goes the dome for the bathroom.


2:05: The back slope is almost completed.


3:33: The front is almost done, except for the recalrant dome.

The guys at the top of the valley are putting in the last of tiles on the new ridge vent on that side. The guy on the ground was obviously the lowest in the heirarchy - he spent the entire day cleaning up the old roofing material and moving it to the skip.

4:27: All done, just cleaning up.


Early morning some time later, the final results:






... and the new roof makes the back look even worse. Once it's warmer painting that is high on the list of things to do.

Snow

Our first snowfall in the house



(nighttime snow. you can see the large compost bin under construction behind the tree).

The next morning, not long after sunrise. Everything looks pretty with snow.

Detritus free garden

The Township Building Inspector finally signed off on the demolition (the requirement had been to remove the pile from the back yard). So now we have a clear garden ready for planting things in the spring.



(Pictures taken early in the morning whilst S. was still asleep. You can see the start of the leaf pile behind the tree. On the left is the 3x3ft wire compost bin that S. thought might be large enough...).

Adventures in Plumbing

Today the leak:




was back. Apparently, just fixing up the POs hack job:



wasn't sufficient. However, having demolished bits of the interiors of the kitchen cupboards last time, this time it was easy to fix using... drumroll ... the right parts! It's amazing how much easier, cleaner, and less leak prone it is when you connect pipes using a joining piece between the fittings rather than chopping them off and using clamps.

Yay?

Some relatively good news, for once. When I was in the kitchen last night, mixing up some bath salts, I heard a hissing noise and noticed dripping water coming from beneath the cabinet where the leak was...the inside of the cabinet was also wet, indicating that the leak might have nothing to do with the heating system, but rather with the water lines going between the sink and dishwasher.

M checked it out today (with minimal dismantling of our counters and cabinets) and tightened a few connections...and the leak appears to have stopped!

We had some minor annoyance when we drove around later to look at roofs - the roofers gave us the addresses of other houses they'd done so we could look at roof colors - and we ended up in several more post-war planned developments wherein all the street names begin with the same letter. Last time we went out we were in the "R" neighborhood; today we ended up in "Q" and "C".

The annoyance entered in when we discovered that not only did the streets begin with the same letter; some of them had the same danged name. So we were looking for two houses on Crystal Place, but we actually ended upon Crystal Drive, looking at the wrong houses (both streets had the same numbering system!). It ended up being too dark after that to see what the roofs on Crystal PLACE looked like.

Dreadville Doldrums

I don't know whether to declare this blog on hiatus or not. I certainly haven't felt like writing in it.

I don't really feel as thought we've gotten anywhere in the past few months. Mostly, I sleep too late, eat erratically, and spend too much money on my revolving perfume oil collection. Hoorah, depression.

Last month we had our furnace serviced...wherein "serviced" actually turned out to mean a nearly 5-figure sum to have the whole bloody thing replaced when the old one (not serviced in years by the P.O.s; what a shock) spewed near-lethal amounts of carbon monoxide when turned on. Oh, and the water heater leaked gas.

As the additions have been demolished, we're in contact with the roofers again to have the roof replaced, tentatively scheduled for the end of December. It'll probably snow, hail, rain, and sleet to deter us, though.

There's been a mystery water leak in the kitchen ever since the heat was turned on. It seems to be getting worse and, unfortunately, the only way to access the leaky area is to dismantle/destroy/demolish our kitchen counters. Whoop-de-effing-doo.

Other news? Hmm..

M's leaf pile in the back yard has grown to gargantuan proportions. We only have three trees, so he's been raiding the neighbor's yards for leaves, up to the point of liberating the leaves from their yard waste recycle bins. We dragged down four large pallets that were for some reason in our attic to corral the leaves, though there are more than will fit.

I got bamboo shades for the front door and the dining room window and installed them. Such excitement!

I unpacked and/or stowed away the boxes that were still cluttering up the living room. It's nearly box free now, and actually looks like a living space. There's still a whacking great hole in the wall, and we're using one of those cotton tapestry throws as an area rug, but at least it isn't boxville anymore.

Varmints

Some festering toerag stole our ladder!

The sad part -- well, other than being robbed by filthy thieves, of course -- is that we don't know when, because we can't remember when last we saw it. This, despite walking past it every day for the past month or so in order to use the front door. Rrgh.

Smashy Smashy - A Pictorial Journey of Destruction

Up to the minute updates! ...are not the case on this blog. So, it's been quite a while since the last post. I started this one on 10/11, hoping for the inspiration to make it a bit more detailed...but that hasn't happened.

Since our last update, we've demolished both of the previous owner's additions, successfully hung some curtains, and had a near disaster with our furnace. More about the latter two later. In the meantime, here is the skeleton of yon ancient post:

Two weekends ago A while ago, M's father came over from Merry Olde England to help us demolish the PO's leaktastic additions. Thanks to my back acting up, I wasn't much help, but they and A got a lot done in a short time.

Here's the back addition -- the 17x10 "family room" -- before the destruction. The thing that kills me is that the windows they installed (or, more accurately, built around) in there were the only really nice windows in the entire house.



A shot of the inside, after the wall panels came off. They painted the stucco green before they put the wall up. Only Satan knows why.



After pulling some of the insulation out of the walls, we discovered where all the ants that would occasionally invade our kitchen were coming from...



Our poor, poor roof:




Nearly there...



A little push, and the wall falls down!


Fare thee well, ye spider-ridden, below-grade, flooded, duct-taped, stinky room o' filth!

...Well. Not quite. Most of it's still in a pile in our backyard.

Pretty Pic Spam

From the 250 acre park down the road from our house.





Just to prove that our being masochists wasn't the only factor behind the decision to buy this house. We like pain and nature.