Done, Done, Done and Done!

  Face #4 is done. Everything is cleaned up. This completes the re-shingling of the entire roof even if it did take me more years to do it than I had planned. This started 7 years ago when I discovered that the south face in the sun had turned into total crumbles- about all that was preventing leaks was the tarpaper, which the original roofer had not even installed properly (don't get me started on this topic).

So here's the view of the whole thing- as much as I can get into one picture.

Here' the face I finished today. A stiff breeze made the ridge challenging, but I got it done! Sorry about the shadow, but it was afternoon.

This was last spring. This was April 2014, before cleanup and before I put the last few pieces in on the right edge.

And October 2013

I'm really thinking I shouldn't have to do this again. Next time this needs a roof it's likely to be someone else's problem.

While I was up there, I felt obligated, as always, to take a picture of my kingdom. It was looking rather drab today, but there it is. It's actually shrunk quite a bit in recent years, but that's not a quality story. Maybe someday I'll share it.

Om put all the used shingles (carefully checked for nail removal) in the driveway to help with the ever-eroding sand surface.

Then, I tried to get everything put away, the hoses rolled up and stashed for winter, and the front porch cleaned off. I almost made it. It's not supposed to rain till afternoon tomorrow. We'll see if I can get myself in gear in the morning to finish.

In other news: I finished chapter 5 in Dead Mule Swamp Singer.

See Did She Do It?- 2020 See This Year's Roofing Project- 2014 See Looky Looky, I Played Hookey- 2013

Intense

  I knew I had to get a lot done today as soon as I learned that I was "in" for a vendor event tomorrow. I will still have Sunday, but I had to make a lot of progress on the roof. And I did! I put up 6 bundles of shingles. This is not nearly the record of 9 in one day that I did in the spring, but I was not under THAT much of a weather panic.

Don't worry about that torn tarpaper. I'll get that covered when I get there.

Still, the day was a little intense, since I also had to go buy the second half of the shingles. I can only easily load/unload 6 bundles at a time in my car.

I have to tell you a little side story. When I checked out, the young girl who waited on me was looking around desperately. "You'll have to wait a minute until I can find some big guys to help you with those," she said.

I said, "I loaded them myself last week, and I expect I can do it again." I confess to secretly smirking when I get to say things like this.

And look how we ended the day in the west! Really intense. Those colors are true- cherry red to reddish purple.

I like the long view that shows the extent of it, but a closer view is good too.

In other news: Yes, there is other news! I also did a load of laundry.

See Discouraged/ Encouraged

Discouraged / Encouraged

  The last few shingles to come off were exceedingly stubborn. The original roofer actually did a good job of sealing the edges that butt up against the vertical wall of the other section of the house. That made them really hard to get off. Especially up there at the top where there is no space to work, and the angle is too steep to balance on.

I took me two "shifts" (An amount of time I work until I get too annoyed, thirsty, tired, cold, hot, whatever. Usually about an hour, but it might be 90 minutes or 30 minutes.) to get those last shingles off, and the roof swept. 2.5 hours! I was pretty discouraged. When I finished last night my hips were sore, my butt bones were sore from scootching along the surface at odd angles, and I was much more tired than I thought I should be.

But at 2:45 today, I finally had a clean surface.

Took a rest and started taking shingles up. Did one shift, came in for a drink, and realized that I was not sore at all and I felt pretty good. Decided I had better take advantage of that and do some more. I got two full bundles put down before it started getting chilly and dusky.

This should go pretty quickly now! The only part that gets tiring is carrying the shingles up the ladder.

Once again, there is no other news, but that's OK. This is what I'm supposed to be doing this week.

See Here We Go Again

Here We Go Again

  It has to happen. These shingles are not good.

The good news is that this is the last face to be done, and then the entire house will be re-shingled.

The weather is giving me a true gift of warm and rain-free time to get the job done. I started yesterday. Got about half the old shingles off. There is enough glare, and enough loose asphalt crumbles, that it's hard to tell, but the clear area is smoother.

Didn't quite finish today. The edge by the vertical wall and the ridge are being really difficult. Close, but I just ran out of steam.

Should be able to finish clearing and cleaning and start the new ones tomorrow, though. This face is smaller than the one I did in the spring, so it should go faster once I get going. There are no vents to work around either.

There is no other news. I'm tired and sore. but it's good to be getting this done.

See Remember the Roof

The Sedum on the End of a Stick

 
Cleaned out the gutters today. The front one was completely full. I guess that nice black loose mixture of dirt and roofing crumbles made a great sapling nursery. There were 4 baby trees growing in it.



Now the gutters are cleared. And I accidentally learned that this is a really easy job give two conditions. It rained yesterday evening, so there was a layer of water at the bottom of the trough. That acted as a lubricant so the contents slid very easily. The end cap popped off when I put pressure against it. What a serendipitous moment! I just put the wheelbarrow under the end and chunk by chunk slid the whole mess out of the end of the gutter! Replaced the end. Done. Trimmed the tree a little more.



But then I had four baby trees, right? So I planted them. I think 3 of them have half a chance of making it. The fourth is a quaking aspen, and they don't usually transplant well. But I had to try.



The temperature was right on the money for me! I was so energized. Mid-sixties. Light breeze. I just couldn't not try once more to reclaim my front flower bed. I got two patches done. Here's the one with my lovely yellow lily that appeared. But it won't bloom this year. Something already ate the top out of it.



Here's the other part I got cleaned up. Something already ate the biggest hosta. This is why I keep giving up flowers.



And the sedum on a stick? Home Depot has a potted sedum that I want quite badly. But I shouldn't spend money on plants. So, I'm telling myself that if I get this front bed completely cleaned up, I can buy that plant. We'll see if that is enough motivation. It might be.

I have a small, fairly local vendor event tomorrow. Let's hope that lots of people are so tired of not having anywhere to go that they will show up. And spend money.

See One Garden Fairy, One Garden Liar

Refrigerator Soup Day

 
I spent the morning in the kitchen. Dehydrated a couple of things for hike food, frosted the other half of the birthday cake before the rest of the evaporated milk went bad, and made refrigerator soup. This one isn't quite as good as sometimes, but it's fine. Good solid soup. The only thing that wasn't a refrigerator clearing item was a can of kidney beans. But it was pretty old. Good to use it.



In other news: Om and I got all the rest of the old shingles cleaned up. All that's left to do is the second round of caulking in a few days and clearing the gutters. I also dug up a few more small autumn olive that had sprouted in the yard. And I may have figured out what the problem is with the mower. We shall see about that.

This sounds like I really did a lot. However, it was really hot again, and I mostly worked in little spurts with cold drinks in between. I have something quite interesting to show you tomorrow.

See Refrigerator Soup, Deluxe

99 and 44/100 Percent

 
Remember the Ivory Soap claim- "99 and 44/100 percent pure?" That may be good enough for soap, but it's not quite enough for a roof job. The ridgeline is finished, but I'll need to do a little more caulking in a couple of days.



Here's the face I just finished. That is 100% done.



There is still a little bit of cleanup to do, but Om has been helping with that. A wheelbarrow that is not falling apart makes it a lot easier too.



And the gutters have to be cleaned out. But not today. Today was hot. The first really hot day this year. Heat and I are not friends. I managed to finish the ridgeline, and then I ran a couple of errands that couldn't be done on the holiday yesterday, but that's about it, except for sitting and sweating. My body needs to adjust a bit.

The sky was great! For a while it looked like a storm was brewing to the east, but then the gray all cleared out and turned into these impressive cumulonimbus clouds.



I've really enjoyed being on top of the world as the surroundings green up and everything looks so fresh.

So, I need to take this job to 100%, or it won't pass the test. But I think there's actually 100% chance it will happen. Of course, then I still have to do that final face. Maybe this fall. That sure won't wait another 6 years. Those shingles are getting bad.

Fun fact: That one remaining face on this house is the only roof on our property that I did not do. Including the barn. Although, three of us worked together on that. A long time ago. Now, the whole barn is in danger of falling, but we can't afford to do a darn thing about it.

See Did She Do It?

Did She Do It?

 
It was a gorgeous day. Can't ask for better than this.



But the question is: Did I finish the roof? Close enough. The answer is that the ridge is not quite finished, but I got enough done that it won't leak unless we have a hurricane, and it's not supposed to be very windy. I just finished, at 7:27. Spent a lotta lotta time up there today. Put up 9 bundles of shingles. I wasn't sure I could still do that, but I guess I can. Had to eat some extra food.



Now for a shower and then nothing else of consequence today. I am delighted to kiss the gnats goodnight. They must have little buzzsaws for mouthparts. I had to put on my hiking headnet to finish the last two rows. They were just brutal.

See Who Will Win the Race?

Who Will Win the Race?

 
This is how far I got today. Pretty darn good. Is it enough? We shall see.



If we are talking about the race with the roof across the street, I already lost. They put on all the underlayment and all the red metal roofing today.



Interestingly enough, The Amish must be doing the roof themselves (this is going to be an Amish/Mennonite store). How do I know this? Take a look. There is one woman up there who was working right along with the guys. I don't know how they can do stuff like this in a dress. But GIRL POWER!



More to the point is- will I win the race with the weather? Forecast says I still have tomorrow. Do you think I'll make it? I was able to work a lot today because it wasn't as hot. I lost quite a bit of actual roof time because I was waiting around at Home Depot almost an hour for them to find the skid of 52 bundles of shingles that their inventory claimed they had. They finally found them.

No other news today! I worked my tail off.

See It Must be Roofday

It Must be Roofday

 
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Roofday. Right?

I was not sore at all from yesterday. I can hardly believe it myself. And I got over a quarter of the new shingles on. This is going well. That was my goal for the day. Don't worry- I trimmed back that tree. The shadow makes it look like it's still very close to the roof.



And, look what's happening across the street. They have closed in the section between the buildings, and today, with a whole crew of workers and a nailgun (or 2 or 3), they put the plywoood on that whole huge roof. I don't think they can see me through our pine trees, slogging away with a jar full of used nails and a hammer, but I bet they would be laughing at me if they could. I'll bet they'll only spend one day covering it all, too. I wonder if it's going to have red metal like the rest of it.



And this happened. It was getting too thin and ratty, and I just wanted to wash all the tar gunk out of my hair easily. I may grow it again in the fall.



In other news: Yes, there actually is some other news. I did a load of laundry and dehydrated two pieces of hike food.

See I Done Good

I Done Good!

 
I have to do some cleanup yet, but look at this! I got all the old shingles off except the few I left on purpose to keep the edge of the tarpaper from getting caught by the wind.



Tomorrow I start new shingles.

Here's the mess I made.



If you think there would be any other news on top of this, you must be nuts. I'm whipped. Hopefully, I can still actually move tomorrow.

I think a couple of you must have said a prayer for me. I sure didn't think when I started the day that I'd be able to get all the old shingles off in one day. That said, let me remind those of you who do not know, I actually love to do roofing. It requires no thought and is extremely satisfying. The one problem is to squeeze it into weather windows. (Unless you own big tarps, which I don't. But I have a couple of smaller ones if I don't quite finish before the weather goes bad.

P.S. The subcontractor who did this roof originally should be taken out and shot. But since the identity of the person/company has been lost in the mists of time, you can't accuse me of being unkind to a particular person. But, it was a really poor job. I'm not talking about the shingles that turned out to be sub-standard, I'm talking about the quality of the work. It's a wonder we haven't had leaks.

See Remember the Roof?

Remember the Roof?

 
I just looked up previous posts about this to get the link for the end. I CAN NOT BELIEVE I last worked on this project 6 years ago.

You can be assured that the shingles on the front of the house have not improved in that time. They really need to be replaced. It looks like I get a weather window this week, and the stimulus check is being put to good use buying shingles made in the USA. Fortunately, I could still get the same kind and color.

As a reminder, I still have to do the two faces on the front of the house. I'm hoping for the larger one this week. I have managed to recall some information about the original shingles. They were supposed to be a great product made partly with recycled fly ash. They had a 30-year guarantee. They did not last 20 years (and contractor is gone and all info about possible warranty). The back roof, in full sun, shredded beyond functionality in 19 years. While I was doing the insurance picture-taking job I came across 3 other houses with the same kind of shingles. They had all deteriorated just like ours.

The front section you see here is not nearly as bad as the back had gotten, even 6 years later, but it's not great.



Yesterday, when I hoped to start, it did not stop raining. Today, it was a little windier than would have been good, but I made things work. I just kept the edges of the tarpaper covered so the wind can't catch it.

I only got about a quarter of this section cleared. This needs to be happening faster. Hopefully, I can actually spend more time on the roof tomorrow. Today, I had to get several pieces of the puzzle assembled and ready to use.

One piece of good news is that the original roofer put the tarpaper on this side correctly, as opposed to how they did it on the back side.



While I was up there, of course I had to snap the view of my kingdom and beyond. And you can see that nice smooth brown roof that was the result of my efforts in 2013 and 2014.



I had to quit earlier than I wanted to because I had to get to the P.O. before 4, and to UPS between 3 and 6. Then I had to buy more shingles, and go to the grocery store. Of course, while I was gone it started to rain again! What? Called Om to put some things away that I had left out. And now the lawn tractor won't start. I'll have to try to figure out what's going on with that.

Still a lot of empty shelves at the grocery. Why would there be no wax paper? But Brussel sprouts were on sale, so I treated myself.

This is the news of the day. I'll try to get my rear in gear earlier tomorrow.

See 2014 Roofing Project