Update on the Gameroom Roof

The roof is finished and we could not be happier.  We need a warm day with full sunshine for some of the shingles to relax and lay flat.  This doesn't happen in the summer because the heat makes the shingles more pliable but in the winter they are stiff and can crack if forced.  This is the southside so they will be flat as a pancake and also faded to match old shingles by springtime.

The ball is back in our court so to speak.  First off we need to install the pine corner pieces.  They are made of 1X4 clear pine.  We used clear pine so that there would be minimal bleeding of sap and no knots falling out as the wood ages.

One side of the corner was the width of the 1X4 and the other side was ripped down so that the thickness of the other side + the new width=the width of a standard 1X4.  We glued and clamped the pieces and then used the pneumatic brad nailer to fasten them together.

We removed the clamps once we had them nailed together.  They were installed and fastened into place with a 3 inch long finish nail and then countersunk with a nail set.

After the corner boards were all installed we then could install the 1X8 white PVC fascia board.  Why are we using PVC instead of wood?  The fascia board is covered by the wide white vinyl gutters that we are installing. Fascia boards see a lot of water, snow, and ice in Michigan and are prone to rot and paint maintenance.   We decided to go with a no maintenance material because to repaint the fascia board we would have to remove the gutters and the second story gutters are over 32 feet high. 

I like installing the PVC boards during the winter when the PVC is contracted and not expanded.  We had hired someone to do fascia replacement on the front of the house before we retired.  I specially told him TWICE not to leave the PVC boards in the sun because they expand and if he cuts them when they are warm there will be a gap between the boards in the winter when they contract.  Sure enough come winter there was a 1/4th inch gap between every board.  We ended up taking them down and reinstalling. Then we bought another board to replace the last one which was now over an inch short because we closed all the gaps when we re installed the boards.  Yes, we could have caulked but it was the front of the house, on the first story and vary apparent. Caulk gets discolored and has to be maintained and we were looking for maintenance free or as close as you can get to maintenance free. 

It was after that incident that we agreed if we had to redo the work, why pay someone in the first place?  Most people don't want to work on old houses.  So rather than chance it again we just do the work ourselves.  We figure if we do it ourselves and do not have to pay someone, then we can redo it twice or even 3 times for the same money.  We did pay a roofer friend to do our roof but he was conscious of our restoration and did a fantastic job.  

After watching him crawl around on the roof we knew that there was no way that we could done the work.  We will also hire out the chimney rebuilding or repointing.  Some things you just have to leave to the professionals.  

Most of the fascia is installed and the first run of gutter is hung minus the downspout because we need to finish the cedar shingle install first before we install the downspout.

We were making great progress until R had to have scheduled dental work done.  They did 3 implants and that was 7 days ago and he still can't eat and the inside of his mouth is still bruised in the area of the implants.  He was very bummed that he couldn't eat on Christmas day at my sister's house.  She's a great cook and this year's theme was Southern cooking.  It was delicious. 

I will do an entire post on how we hang our vinyl gutters and downspouts.  We do it slightly different than is suggested (at least since the last time I looked at their instructions) and they work perfectly.  They now offer a 5 inch gutter and downspout and we are installing that size.  We might replace a short piece of the old standard size where we do get some overflow during big storms.  But bottom line is we love our vinyl gutter system.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that R's mouth is better tomorrow and we can get back to work.

I have also ordered a new patio door and it will be here sometime in January.  AND it can't get here soon enough.  The old door is just about ready to fall out of the opening because of decay.

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