Wood and Stone

A site to track our progress as we build our FirstDay Cottage Canadian house kit. Come on in, get a cup of coffee, set a spell and follow along on our journey or join in if you like. Check back for the weekly update (usually by Wednesday when things are going right) to see what we are currently up to!

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Sickos

We are definitely a few boards short of a roof (and a few nails short of a cask, if you ask most people we know). We had a 2 1/2 day weekend this week to finish up the roof, but we didn't make it all the way. The weather for Thursday's half day wasn't cooperating - it rained all day - so we worked Friday a half day instead.

Wendy told me when she picked me up at work that she felt dizzy and didn't want to get up into the rafters (she had been fighting a bit of a cold after nursing the kids through some Croup and general colds). So after getting a couple sheets of plywood we bought up into the space above the collar ties, and nailed to the scaffold planks up there (to provide a safe work surface to use the step stools on) she handed me up what I needed to get a start on remaining 2 feet of the road side of the roof. I managed to get the sheathing on and papered, but thee wind was brisk and it was cold, and Wendy was feeling so cold she had to go sit in the car for periods while I worked. Well, by time we got home, we found that she was running a fever of 103 degrees F.

By Saturday morning, her fever had broken and she felt that she was ready to come up and work. She was feeling weak and cold all day, but I couldn't talk her out of it and she persevered, though she was still not feeling up to being up on the plywood. I managed to finish the foam and strapping on the road side of the roof while Wendy cut the majority of the short boards for the far side. I started cutting the foam and Typar and figuring out how to implement Pop's idea to finish the majority of the roof from the inside before tossing the towel in a bit early. I figured she was weak and cold and we shouldn't stay much longer than necessary.

Finally, Sunday was the big day when we would finish the roof off! We got up there and set Wendy to work cutting the foam to length. The plan was this: Starting with the bay at the 'back' of the house (the big side with less windows), we would put on 4 sheathing boards that fit over just that bay (half-lapping the 4.5 inch rafter on either side). I started the nails for the far end of each sheathing board before putting it out there, so I could just knock them into the rafters without having to reach so far. The top piece had to be scribed and cut to fit for each bay.

With a roll of Typar just wide enough to fit over the newly installed boards, we stapled it between the layer coming up the roof and the layer coming over the top to create a good overlapping layout of Typar. Then two pieces of foam cut to the right width and length were put on and secured by a piece of 1x8 sheathing as strapping. This part was a little tricky, as the foam was positioned so that the joints would be broken in both directions (horizontally and vertically), which meant only one end of the strapping could be secured before moving to the next set of sheathing. I worked my way from the last bay toward the first one, and was able to get two of the four pieces of wood in the last bay nailed in before here just wasn't any more room for me up there.

The last two pieces, Typar, foam and strapping would have to be done from the outside - from the extension ladder. The great part is that the plan worked beautifully. With the scaffolding, some custom built staging in between, the planks over the collar ties, some plywood sheets and step stools, we were able to do the entire roof form inside the building, up to the last bay. The problem was that I hadn't checked the ladder height before starting to see if it was a workable plan. What happened is this - I had everything cut to the right lengths and had gotten as much done as possible without getting down. I gave Wendy the pieces I would need from outside and guidelines on the order I'd need them in and from where. Then I set up the ladder and realized that if I stood on the top rung of the ladder, I could just reach the peak. D'OH! IN order to put the roof to bed, I'd have to reach the peak AND over 3 feet in.

By the time, it was getting dark and we still had to secure the tarp against the raining coming before Thanksgiving, so grudgingly, we packed it up. After pulling out the rope (and the grommet it was tied to) we had on the tarp while trying to pull it back up and over the peak of the roof, I finally got the tarp by dragging it up and over from within the narrow hole in the front bay of the roof, then throwing it down the other side. Nailing in the battens by moonlight was no bargain - I hit my index finger with the hammer 5 times in a row trying to find the nail. In the end, we got the roof 99% complete and have a mostly watertight hat for the winter. After the holiday, we get to start covering the ouside walls in foam!

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