Update on the Game Room Roof

Progress has been slow due to the weather, appointments, and the fact that we are rookie roof framers.  The weather is cooler colder but not too bad, but it is the rain that is the problem.  We worked on the roof one afternoon while the precipitation waffled back and forth between a mist and small rain drops.  We finally quit when the deck started getting slippery because all of the leaves that fell in just 2 days.

The photo below was taken several days ago (so we are further along) and we are ready to put plywood sheathing on the gable end.  We had to wait until we knew what our roof pitch would be before we could settle on a gable vent style.  The house has two styles of gable vents and one of the vent styles is in the photo below and at the top of the photo.  

Our roof pitch is one that doesn't have a ready made gable vent in this style so we are going with the style of gable vent in the photo below.

We can make the vent after we finish with the roof as long as we make the cut out for the vent before we sheath the roof.

So that is where we are with the roof but we are getting there.  We are getting burned out on this project so the day we put down the felt paper and nail the drip edge on can't happen soon enough.  The roof shingle part will be hired out.  

We removed all the plants from the window boxes and the bareness is killing me so my plan is to fill one window box a day with evergreen cuttings.  One year I waited too long and the soil was frozen solid so I had to use hot water to thaw it out.  That was both a hot and cold mess.

Reuse Repurpose Recycle  

Storing Items for Winter

Just three weeks ago it was 90+ degrees and now we are looking at a hard frost any day. In an attempt to stay ahead of the cold weather we have been slowly putting away items for the winter.

Today we stored the garden hoses except for one short section. With our yard being large and the fact that we have flower and shrub beds encircling most of the perimeter requires us to use a lot of length of garden hose. When it comes time to put all that garden hose in storage it's a real chore. In the past we have put it off until cold weather. This makes it a real pain because the garden hose is stiff and doesn't want to coil neatly and more important who wants to deal with cold water when it's 38 degrees outside.

So today with the sun shining and the black asphalt warm we laid out the garden hoses to drain and warm up. Once the remaining water was drained and then blown out of the hose (R has enough lung capacity to do the job) we coiled the garden hose in manageable lengths and wrapped a piece of duct tape around it to keep the hose from uncoiling.

We then worked on the rocks around the roses by the driveway. We have that project complete except for a 2 foot section. We are lacking in the correct size rocks to finish the project. Tomorrow I will scour the yard for rocks and stones and hopefully that project can then be removed from the list.Today I also bought the remaining paint needed for my chain link project but I doubt if I will be able to finish it unless the weather warms up. The reason I bought the paint today was that it is on rebate at Ace Hardware this month for $5.00 off each gallon. If I wait until spring the price will probably increase and there will not be a rebate.

R might be done with his asphalt repairs for the year. He needed another pail of the trowel able patching compound but Home Depot says they have put it away for the year. R says he's going to try another Home Depot AND if that doesn't pan out....he'll try Lowe's.The ash and walnut trees have already lost all their leaves so we decided to use the leaf blower to remove the majority of leaf debris from the rocks in front of the house. I have also cut back most of my perennials so that spring clean up will go faster and I have less chance of breaking a young plant in the spring.

The cement bird baths will need draining but that is a job for R and G. My days of lifting and turning over a 50+ pound bird bath top are long gone. Next year they are due for fresh paint which I will do before the tops are flipped back over.

Tomorrow's agenda is buy a large plantation gold maple for the side yard where we cut down a dead ash tree. I am hoping that the yellow/gold leaves will contrast nicely with the dark gray paint on the body of the house.

After the tree planting we will need to mow the entire yard. I might lower the deck a notch since the lawn seems to be growing at hyper speed right now. Plus we need to harvest the remaining pears.Sunday's agenda is to work on the sun room doors and maybe start cutting down the jambs so that they can be trimmed out correctly like we did on the front of the sun room. So many things to do and quickly becoming so little time left before it snows.

We've Been Very Busy

We have been so busy that I sometimes forgot to take photos. But as R reminds me....."People don't need to see another photo of a trailer full of wood." He's right.....but don't tell him that!

I've lost track of the number of lawn trailer full of twigs, leaves, and branches that we have picked up so far. Far too many and far too many left to be picked up. We basically stayed outside on all the nice days picking up branches and raking out flower beds. We knew colder weather was coming so we made the best of the good days we did have.

We cut down two semi dead tall cedar trees that were on the back property line. Once they were down we were able to see why they were dying. They were completely rotted out in the center of the trunks. We haven't a clue as to what caused the rot.

Once the trees were gone we then had access to clean out the dead branches, empty walnut shells, and old leaves that have piled up over many many years. We then decided that we might as well get started on the dismantling of the old pool.

Sometimes in the past, probably whenever they decided to decommission the pool, they broke up the floor of the pool to allow rainwater to percolate into the ground. So that leaves us with removing the pool decking which is cement embedded with slate and removing the 10 inch wide cement pool coping (ledge/edge). We plan on using the slate to repair the slate walkways that need to be fixed through out the yard. The cement ledge/edge we will store because it would make great steps or a top for a retaining wall.

We can knock in the walls after all the slate and ledge removal is complete. In the meantime we removed the 24 inch high chain link fence that surrounded the pool. I wonder what the thinking was behind a 24 inch tall fence? R is making a scrap metal run in the next week and now is the perfect time to get rid of it. FYI for all you scrappers out there.....scrap metal is high right now and will soon go lower once summer arrives.

When the weather got cold again......we went back inside where we were back to stripping and sanding. We sold the two poplar doors that were too tall and are patiently waiting for the new door to arrive. The only reason I am patiently waiting is that I am waiting for some vintage ball top hinges to arrive so even if the door does show up we cannot install it until the hinges arrive.

I should finish up stripping the staircase tomorrow. That project went fairly fast because the paint was on top of varnish. The only hiccup was when I run across old carpet tacks that need to be removed. It was very difficult to get a good photo of the entire staircase because it is slightly spiral. The staircase will still need to be sanded and the treads will be stripped with citrus stripper because they will need to be stained and sealed. The rest of the staircase will be painted white with the handrail also stained to match the treads.After tomorrow I will have to make the decision of whether to move back to the living room and strip the baseboard and fireplace mantel or move on to the dining room OR finish the casement windows so when the weather gets warm enough to paint outside the casement windows are ready to go back into their openings. R is voting for finishing the casement windows.

The other day I was on the road as the sun was setting. Wow the sun was huge. There was a heavy haze so it filtered the sunlight just enough so you could see the entire outline of the sun.