Jul 31, 2015

PROJECT DARKSTONE : Day 181

I don't know why, but things have been moving pretty slowly this week.  Mine is not to ask why, it is to accept what comes to me and eat icecream when I am frustrated.  

Richard and I have spent the last two days doing plumbing and electrical work.  And today when I got there, this was pulling into my front yard:


That, my friends, is a truck full of shingles!!!  That is right!  It is exciting enough to warrant 3 exclamation marks!

The shingle truck comes equipped with this handle little conveyor belt that they rotate around any direction they want.


And so, when the moment felt right, they rotated it around so that it was situated right over the roof.  It was magical.


And then, to my joy and surprise, when one of the roofing guys needed to get on to the roof, he just grabbed onto the conveyor belt and rode it too the top.  Lucky!

riding to the roof

Then he and his compatriot conveyor-ed all the shingles and tar paper and roofing paraphernalia onto the roof.  It was a very exciting morning!


They say the roofing starts on Monday.  Stay tuned!

Before I go, here is a very hard to decipher picture of the porch roof under the west windows.  As you can't see, there are cutouts with a shallower pitch around those windows, so that we didn't have to make the windows smaller.  I know you can't tell what I am talking about.  But I wanted you to know.


Goodbye.

Jul 24, 2015

PROJECT DARKSTONE : Day 174

A picture,  to tide you over.

Jul 13, 2015

PROJECT DARKSTONE : Day 163

The Roof is On. The roof is o-on. The roof is on. Now it's on the house.  Eee hee! The roof is . . . . On.

Those were song lyrics.  I realize now that it might not have been all that obvious.

It has been a long time coming with plenty of bumps and stops along the way but The Roof Is Finally Finished. 


If you look close at the above picture you can barely see the cricket on the roof. No, not a little chirping bug. Remember boys and girls, a cricket  is the transition from one roof area to another, designed to divert water.

Below we have the house's backside.  Classy as usual.  It seems to have a bit of toilet paper stuck to it. So embarassing.


Here's the view up inside the gable. I think it's a gable. I don't know, Roofs have a lot of parts.


See this bit of roofing in the picture below? Notice how the pitch on the right and left hand side are not the same? That is one of the things we really wanted to avoid, but eventually we just had to give up and accept it.


 And there you have it. A totally completed roof.  And as I understand it, as soon as the roof is covered with at least paper (that being the tar paper that goes under shingles) then the Heating and Air conditioning guy can come and start running vents.  But now the builder is at scout camp for the rest of the week.  Darn these Mormons and their busy schedules!  BUT, I think he has already ordered the windows, AND he asked us what color shingles we wanted.  So, things are happening, whether we can see it or not.

Jul 8, 2015

PROJECT DARKSTONE : Day 158

Here are a few more breath-taking photos to take your breath away.


We finally decided to accept the roof the way it is, and change some of our plans for the attic, so things are moving along again.  What you can't really see in the next few photos is the cricket they just built.  A cricket is a sloping section of roof built when two parallel sections of roof meet in a valley.  Did I describe that very well?  


It is so hard to tell what you are looking at in these photos.  


These could really be pictures of anything.  You'll just have to take my word for it.


Here is a view of the cricket from above the roof.  To get this photo I climbed up a ladder and stuck my head out between the joists like a meerkat. 


Enough.  I'm pretty sure you've got the idea.  I explained the heck out of it.

Here we have a hallway, complete with a little boy in his spiderman jammies holding a scrap of wood he has just fallen in love with and wants to keep forever.  Convincing my kids not to keep garbage is a full-time job.


3rd Bedroom.


A view from the 3rd bedroom, looking toward the hall.


Master bedroom.  You guys don't get sick of looking at pictures of 2x4's do you?  I sure don't!


And a bit of plumbing, to round everything out.   


This morning I met with a cabinet guy.  We are considering doing Ikea cabinets in the kitchen, but the builder convinced me to at least meet with the cabinet guy, so I did.  It was exciting and scary and fun and stressful.  I've thought about our kitchen A LOT, and I have a very clear idea of what I want, but there were still things they asked me that I didn't have the answers for.  And knowing that whatever dumb ideas I have are going to be in my kitchen FOREVER is a little daunting.   But we worked up a plan and he will come back with a quote.  And that is all I have for you now.  Until next time.  Adieu.