Time for a catch up post (or several)

How many entries can I start with a statement about how I haven't blogged in a while and I promise to be better about updating in the future? I wish I could say this is the last, but we'll see.

Anyway, a lot has been done over the past two and a half months, but for now let's start with some of the things we got done in September:

On Labor Day weekend we disconnected the electrical service, relocated everything to the new gable wall, and hooked it back up again. No one got electrocuted, none of the food in the fridge/freezer spoiled, and I was even able to make it to a friend's birthday celebration that evening (albeit a little late). The phone service was relocated a few days later. Because no post is complete without pictures, here's a shot of Dad on the scaffold working with the electrical lines:

A few weeks later, the house got a new roof. We realize that we would never be able to match our 15 year old shingles (which have discolored over time), and that we (meaning I) would never be happy with an eight foot stripe of not-quite-matching shingles on the roof. And really, no one wanted to hear me complain about it for years to come.

So we ended up hiring a roofer to re-do the entire roof. It was money well spent, and they completed the job in one day. If you're looking for a roofer in this area, let me know and I'll happily give you the contact information.

Of course, a new roof meant that we got to pick out any color shingles we wanted. Or, I debated over the color choices while my husband said he was fine with whatever I wanted and my father reminded me that I needed to make a decision and let the roofer know sooner rather than later.

Since I'd never been crazy about the gray shingle / yellow brick combination (I know some people love gray and yellow together, but I'm not one of them), we ended up going with Shakewood. Here's a picture of the roof on the day it was finished:

In the picture above, you can also see that we finished the Tyvek on the front of the house, and finished installing the new windows in the front. You can get a much better idea of the layout of the new windows now that the last old window is gone. The triple window on the far left is almost nine feet wide and fairly heavy, but installation went very smoothly. Same thing for the new double window that's to the left of the front door.

More to come in the next catch-up post.

Soffit and Siding

The siding and soffit on the new gable wall is more than halfway done.

In the picture below, you can see that there is just a small space at the top of the new gable wall that still needs siding. The good news about being this high up the wall is that it's above the living space so there's no need to put insulation between the tar paper and the siding. However, almost every piece needs an angle cut on one end of the other (both when we get high enough), which takes a little longer.

You can't see much of the finished soffit in the picture above (just a tiny bit at the bottom near the front yard), but the one below shows that one entire side is complete. Solid and ventilated pieces are alternated for better ventilation in the attic.

Tar paper, Tyvec, and two windows!

We passed the sheathing inspection and have begun installing the tar paper, Tyvec, and windows. The new gable wall is the furthest along in this process, with Tyvec, tar paper, and both windows installed. The front half of the roof has also been tar-papered.

Almost done the sheathing

We're almost done the sheathing, and if things go well finishing it up, we might be ready for the sheathing inspection as soon as Tuesday.
Once the sheathing is done, we can tar paper the roof and put tyvec up on the exterior walls. What you see in the photos below on the roof is black plastic, which is a temporary measure to protect everything in case we get rain before we are able to get the tar paper down.

The fly rafter went up yesterday

Pictures of the fly rafter on the new gable wall:

Window rebate!

Our window rebate arrived from Andersen this week, right on time (six weeks from the date that the windows arrived at Heath Lumber). I am really happy that I shopped around, even if it meant losing an hour of my life that I can never get back at Home Depot (which I normally like). I hope I'm even happier when we do our taxes and figure out what kind of tax rebate we get.

We have rafters

We have rafters! I took this picture after 8pm so it's a little dark, but it shows the progress that's we've made despite the heat last week. Thankfully today the weather was gorgeous, so Dad did some work throughout the day, with Chuck helping him in the morning and me helping when I got home from work.