Construction Update November 6 to 11, 2011

On Sunday I worked by myself putting down all the plywood sheathing on the roof that connects our house and the new closet for our bedroom and then extends over to the mid point.

On Monday the day started off with some serious rain.  We tried to work anyway, but we got cold and kind of wet... so Brendan suggested he would be happy to take off the rest of the day and go to town... which was fine by me as I thought we wouldn't see any roofers that day.

Within an hour of that decision Lance and his crew showed up and decided he wanted to start on the new roof over the studio.  We already had the Titanium UDL down, so even in the rain he could work here.

So I had to get cracking and get a couple of skylights set up on curbs and cut out the plywood between the TGI's... so I pushed and got it done before stopping for a late lunch.

Lance has a machine that takes 24-guage pre-finished metal off a roll and can form any length of standing seam panel right on site.  On the first day they did most all of the highest roof and up to the skylights on the lower roof.

When it wasn't raining Brendan and I put up as much facia board as we could.  Here we are doing the facia on the new pantry.

This is Lance is putting down the first layer of "torch on" roofing on the pantry.

This section of the our closet and bedroom is now ready for the metal panels.

Don't these metal panels look good?  This is the canopy that connects to the new closet lower right.

Lance with two of his boys are doing the second layer of "torch on" thru the cricket.  With five skylights so close together, this section is extremely time consuming and difficult.

On Thursday Shirley helped us clean out all the junk stored in between the trusses.  There was a lot of junk up there that we inherited from the previous owners and didn't even know what all was there... plus there was some of our stuff up there as well.

Then Brendan and I installed plywood on most of the ceiling in the garage.  When the old shake roof gets torn off, if we didn't have a ceiling here there would be a lot of debris that would fall into the whole area below... and it would be a huge mess to clean up.  Now we can just vacuum in the attic and then set insulation between the trusses... and save the mess getting into all our stuff.

With a ceiling in this area it makes it easier to heat this space if we so choose... plus it really makes it a nicer environment.

This time of year painting outside is not practical... this type of paint has an emulsion that needs some warmth to get it to dry.  So we have turned our cottage into paint shop for a few weeks... with poly on the floor.  Shirley has been painting almost every day here this past ten days.  The good news is the end of the facia boards is within sight.

This next week I will take more photos with the finished facia boards installed.  It is looking really good, but with the rain on the weekend we didn't take any more exterior shots.

Once again, thank you Shirley for the photos.

Add a Little Colour

There are many ways to add some colour to your life.  One way is to sign up for Amber Alerts... which is part of the "every Monday Matters" program.  Did you know that AMBER is an acronym that stands for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response.  It is a great way to help find missing children.

Where we live it would be rare for us to find missing kids... maybe missing deer.  So I suggested to Shirley that we might use some alternative ideas to add a little colour in our lives.  One of my favourite colourful ideas is to buy some flowers.  The cyclamen has become "our flower."

I purchased my first cyclamen for Shirley when we were in Grade 11 for Valentines Day... almost 50 years ago!  Since then I have seldom missed buying one in February, as well as whenever I see an especially beautiful specimen. This colourful flower holds some very fond memories for us.

What is your favourite flower to give?

Another suggestion is to either make or buy a colourful painting.  There is something cheerful in colourful art.  One never has too much inspiring art around... it is good for the soul.

As you may have noticed, both Shirley and I, we are pretty high on Van Gogh recently.  The incredible IMAX movie Brush With Genius is still playing in Victoria until January 20... and if we can we will probably go and see it again for a third time.  It is such an inspiration!

"I felt a tremendous affinity with Van Goghs deep feeling for the things he painted and how he exaggerated the colours of sky, chairs, faces, to bring them to almost more than life."

What exciting way are you going to add some colour into your life this week?