11.4.2016

Jim moved all the painted soffit pieces up into the woodworking shop this morning. He'll keep them upright and apart for a bit longer to let them continue to dry. 

Jim also worked this morning on doing the final cutting of the sill for the side door.  We had to custom order this sill - it's a really nice one that should work perfectly for this door application.  But Jim had to size it to fit. 

Looks so good!  Jim has to fasten it permanently but is going to let the area underneath dry out really well from our rain yesterday. 

Then he went to work rebuilding scaffolding towers so that we can work on the rest of the front and the dreaded west wall again!

He needed to build higher so this far front tower is finally starting to come down!

Building up on the side...

Once Jim was able to get up on the scaffolding, he was able to make a jig for the corner trim and then take precise measurements to make the trim.  Here it's all made, drip edge put in and painted, and ready to be assembled.

Corner trim assembled...

Putting it in place...

Fastening it down...

Moving up planks so that he can reach higher...

Jim made the first piece of drip edge and is getting ready to install it...

Next step is to get read to put shingles on!  First the spacer...

Then Jim has to cut the starter plank to size...

Attaching the plank...

I spent most of the day working on unwrapping and separating the last pallet of shingles - just one more row to finish.  We are going to store them to see if we will need anymore.  When I was painting the shingles, I kept a tally of the number of shingles I painted each day - the grand total was 5670 painted shingles!

End-of-the-day picture...first row of shingles started!  We still can't get over how different the front looks now that scaffolding isn't hiding it any more - we're thrilled with how it's turning out!

 

High 51/Low 29

 

11.3.2016

This was a very rainy morning - kind of fitting to our mood after seeing the Indians lose Game 7 of the World Series.  Sigh...

Jim spent the morning doing some administrative work at home before heading out to finish up the car work.  He got everything done that he wanted and then had to do some rearranging with the Bobcat to get the last pallet of shingles out of the way of the garage door.  Once the car was out, he was able to move the pallet in the shop as well as the Bobcat, to keep it out of the weather as much as possible.  He even took the 4Runner and got its inspection done - so a big block checked to have all the car work done for now.

In the afternoon, he had to do a couple parts runs - one to Home Depot and the other to the electric supply company for parts that he needs to bring the electric into the building.

Then he had to figure out how to bring main power into the box and make all the connections fit - again, not so easy with steel.  He had to reposition the breaker box and even bend the steel flange to make the adapter fit in the side of the box.

 

High 56/Low 42

 

11.2.2016

This picture hardly does Jim's old shoes justice - they have so many holes in them and have pulled away from the sole that when we had our snow last week, he spent the day with wet feet.  He would still be wearing them probably, but I came home and ordered new ones.  Same shoe but just a bit different!  I think he got his money's worth out of those!

We are still celebrating the fact that the peak is done - it was kind of a shock driving up and seeing the front of the carriage house look so finished!

Jim worked a little bit on the driveway this morning - smoothing out some of the gravel that was dumped.  It looks really nice.

Then it was back to some detail work - Jim had to start working on the other side of the overhang.  This one is even more complicated than the other side because it connects to the valley and the house.  He got the last piece of copper head wall flashing on the top of the overhang made and installed.

Then he made the piece that goes on the side of the overhang, plus he had to cut the last shingle for this area.

Installing the flashing...

 

Putting on the rest of the hip shingles...

 

Then it was the complicated design of making flashing that will fit over the hip area.  Jim made a trial piece out of aluminum flashing.



Jim's design worked so then it was time to transfer the pattern to copper.

Once Jim made the piece and tested that it fit, he soldered it to make sure there won't be any leaks.

All done and cooling off.

Installing the flashing...

Fastening it into place...

 

Next, it was time to start dismantling more scaffolding!

 

And taking more down...



 Meanwhile, I was back in painting mode again.  I started out by painting all the window trim boards that Jim had made.

Then we put some runners up to sit higher than the trim boards, and put pieces of soffit up to be painted.

As they dried enough, we moved them to a staging area to finish drying.

Jim took down the piece of soffit he first tried out on the front corner of the house.  He had cut and fit it but it wasn't painted or fastened down.  Once I painted it and it dried, Jim predrilled the holes for the screws.  This is another task made so much harder by the steel framing - Jim said if it was wood framing, he would just staple it up.  

Putting the soffit back up all painted.

End-of-the-day picture....

 

Of course, that wasn't the end of Jim's day.  He stayed and did more car work.  He basically has things all put back together and the car is off the jacks.  He has a few things to go over tomorrow but then hopefully it will be back on the road again!

 

As soon as Jim got home, he started questioning whether or not he closed the front window where the air hose came out (you can see the hose in the picture above).  He couldn't remember closing it so he had to drive back out to the property.  It was good - he hadn't closed it - but sure made for a late night home for him.

 

High 61/Low 49

 

11.1.2016 - The Peak is Done!

What a giant accomplishment to celebrate today - plus some smaller blocks checked too!

Jim started the day by getting the newer 4Runner inspected for the year now that he got the headlight fixed.  He'll probably be parking it soon for the winter but it's good to have that task done.

Jim used some of his saved-up birthday money to buy a metal detector.  Living on a property that has Revolutionary War history, we thought it would be fun to explore.  We used it to try and find the piece of steel that fell off the Bobcat door, but we were never able to find it.  At the end of the day yesterday, Jim was using it a bit on the driveway looking once more and found a Catholic Miraculous Medal!  It's not ours (although I have a bracelet with one) but we are taking it as a definite positive sign - a medal of Mary found on Angel!

There was a heavy freeze overnight so things were really cold this morning.  Jim got the trim pieces made for underneath the rake boards.

Then it was back up on the scaffolding to work on the shingles.

Jim planned out the cuts for the last couple rows on the floor of the shop. 

Jim said that even though the rows were shorter, working towards the peak has been slower progress because there are so many cuts.

The very last piece - the peak!  Jim made this out of HardiPlank because there wasn't a shingle wide enough to make it in one piece.



Making sure everything works out...

 

Putting the very last piece in!

A giant thumbs up for getting this done!  As my mom said, "I'll just be able to breathe easier when that peak is done!"

Of course, it's not quite done yet.  Now it's time for the trim boards.

Fitting the trim boards...  Actually, using the HardiPlank for the peak caused Jim a little issue.  The planks are probably 1/32" thicker than the shingles.  Jim makes the trim pieces so precise that they wouldn't fit over the plank piece.  So he had to make multiple pieces.

All the shingles and trim are in place!

Just as we were admiring the carriage house, the gravel that Jim ordered came.  We really wanted to get this done before winter to help with mud as well as erosion.  Dumping on the upper driveway...

Then using the rest for the other driveway.

The gravel makes the driveways and lot look very finished as you look at the upper window.

The last task is all the touch-up painting of screws, caulk and exposed nails.

Then...drumroll...it is finally time to start dismantling scaffolding!  Not an easy task when it's so high but so exciting!  The tower built into the hill has been there for so long because of the complexity of that build.  Amazing to think it's time to take it all down!  First task is to move some of the planks.

Jim was able to hand some pieces through the windows but the majority will have to be taken down to the ground.

End-of-the-day picture...really looks amazing to see it all come together.  You can see it more now that the scaffolding is coming down!

A happy man peering out the window!

 

We had to cut the day a bit short because it was a Holy Day and we were heading to evening services.  But a great milestone day!

 

High 51/Low 40