Men at Work

Under the house, over the house, in the house - crawling with men. These are some of the over the house variety providing us with a fancy schmancy modified bitumen roof, new flashing, larger drains and more vents. The company, Collins Roofing, is run by three Irish brothers. It is pretty spectacular.

The roof came off, the light came in. Our skylight opened up and it's even better than I was hoping. My initial hope was to help bring a bit of light into the dining room as well. Mission accomplished.

Perhaps we'll even keep the open airy, outdoor room feel too. Who needs a full roof, I kind of like the slips of light peaking between the boards. The picture below however was not a planned skylight, simply more of the ever so present dry rot. Not to fear gentle readers, all was replaced with spiffy new boards. This is of course at the lowest point in the roof, right in front of the teeny-tiny drain. Funnily, as with most of the house, the old portion (pre-back addition) had a great slope to the roof and lasted many many years. The new roof has at best a 2" slope for a 20' run of roof. The roofers are also trying to fix that little oversight.

Here we have more men at work. Go men, go.The process went something like this: Roofers showed up at 7:30am, prepped and began removing old roof. They cut out rot, expanded drains in exterior parapets, expanded drain between old house and newer addition, rolled on tar paper, and began nailing down tar paper for the next several hours. Continued nailing. Nail. Nail. Owners of new roof, aka me, receive messages from neighbors that the nailing can be heard from miles away. Walk miles away, hear nailing. The flame throwers came out. E commented that it was like our own mini Burningman on our roof. Unfortunately, the rain put an end to all the fun, but neighbors if you're reading, tomorrow is full blown flame torch day!

The men under the house continued to fortify our house against future earthquakes. And the men in and around the house began to fill the walls that were opened due to the dry rot with insulation. It's so pretty and pink.

I had another ebay success today after yesterday's bitter disappointment. After deciding on a coordinating light fixture to our newly purchased porch light, I found that several, un-restored but very restoreable versions were available on ebay. Since I had success with my last beginner light wiring project, I thought I'd take it a few steps further.

These are destined for the mud room door and the kitchen door. Both will get sand blasted and powder coated black. I'll then wire and buy matching shades for them. Voila, two vintage cast iron sconces for less than the price of a single new one. I'm sensing some hesitation and disbelief on your part. Don't worry, I think E has a bit of that going on as well.

Now, going back to yesterday -

E had some more quality under house time.

I got to stay above ground and wire the kitchen outlets while he drilled the holes and ran the wire. We got a total of four of these outlets hooked up last night and I'd never have guessed it, but every single one of them was in use today. I even caught one worker searching the house for a free outlet.

E also installed all the duct work, both bathroom fans and our microwave range hood, making today's roofing a reality. Now we've come full circle.