10.31.2016

We don't get any trick-or-treaters at the apartment but we got to see quite a few of them on our way home from the property!  Every day is pretty much the same for us so we kind of forgot it was Halloween until we saw them.

Jim went to the Bobcat store first thing this morning.  When he took the door off for the first time, a piece fell and no matter how long we've looked, we haven't been able to find it.  So he broke down and went and got a new piece.  With inclement weather in our future, the door needs to be on.

Once he got back to the property, he did a little more car work while it was warming up.

Then he finally was able to get back outside to work on shingles!  Between rain and snow, there hasn't been any opportunity. 

The first thing Jim wanted to do was to put some safety rails up.  He's going to be building higher and working off the ladder (ugh!) so he wanted to make things as secure as possible.

Safety rails in place, he was able to start putting up shingles.

Getting closer towards the peak...

...and even closer!

Unfortunately, then it was time to raise the platform.  Not an easy task - there are no planks below that Jim can work.  So he worked from one tower to the next to get this plank moved up.

Then he moved up two more planks...

...in order to make a deck-like structure.  This really helped him be able to bridge the two towers in a more secure way since he'll be working off the ladder.

Ha - I think Jim is getting tired of me following him around with the camera!  At least he's a good sport about it!  I was trying to get a picture of how he fixed up the ladder.  He duct taped it together since he was just going to lean it against the house.  Then he duct taped a towel on the top so that the ladder wouldn't mar the shingles.

Quite the different perspective from down below!  Plus, there's basically nothing in the middle section so the deck really helps Jim be able to work more easily.

Marking for the next courses...

Attaching shingles...

These courses may be shorter but they require lots more cutting.  Now that the planks are raised, going in and out of the window has become more difficult too.

 

End-of-the-day shot...almost to the peak!  The front looks amazing!

Jim used the remainder of the night to tie up some loose ends...a headlight bulb burned out in the newer 4Runner, he used the new part to get the door back on the Bobcat, and he finished putting the brakes together on the other 4Runner.  A little more work and hopefully it will be back on the road!

 

It was a good day for treats and no tricks to be found - hope it was the same at your house!

 

High 47/Low 24

 

10.30.2016

A short day with the possibility of a few showers in the afternoon so another work inside day. 

Jim worked on making the window trim for most of the remaining windows - including putting the drip edge at the bottom.  They just need some paint and they'll be ready to go whenever Jim needs them.

He also brought in all our new trim from the truck, unwrapped it and set it up for me to paint. 

Jim used the remainder of the afternoon to do car work.  Although it's so nice to have a big space to work, he's still kind of working in substandard conditions.  He definitely needs better light and it will be so wonderful to eventually have the car lift! 

 

High 52/Low 34

 

10.29.2016

It was another cool and on/off rainy day so Jim just planned to work inside today.

He worked on the electric in the basement...got lights placed in the utility room and started wiring up circuits.

Breakers in the box and electricity coming to life in the shop!

Jim decided to make one of the lights in the utility room another safety light - one that will stay on all the time.  Once Jim unplugs the temporary lights he has in the shop, he's thrust into totally darkness as he has to lock up.  So he got that light working which will make things much safer!

After electric work, he went back to working on the car.  He's done so much - the front brakes are basically done.  He totally rebuilt one side of the emergency brake that was totally non-functional.  Look at the nice new shiny parts now that the right size came in!  More parts came to the apartment today too.

 

 Like father, like son - all those years of Kyle helping Jim with car work paid off.  Kyle's doing his first oil change on his car today!

 

High 50/Low 44

 

10.28.2016 - Framing Inspection!

I headed out early this morning to return 4 boxes of car parts to get core charges back and exchange the wrong parts that they sent.  Jim had to spend quite a bit of time wrapping them up - especially the calipers.

While Jim waits impatiently for the snow to melt off the scaffolding so that he can hopefully get back to working on shingles, he did more electric work.  He got the conduit that he bent previously fit into the downstairs breaker box.

He also started wiring up some outlets...

 

However, the big news of the day was the framing inspection.  After Jim talked to the building inspector, Jerry was scheduled to come out at 2:00 today.  Although we all know that Jim has done everything over and above, it's still a nerve-wracking experience.  Plus, since we are doing things so atypical, there is potentially a lot of places that an inspector could flag.  So there's some anxiety waiting for him to come.  We did a little spiffying up of the areas just for show while we waited.

 

But never fear, when Jerry came he was full of compliments with not a hint of a problem anywhere.  They spent a lot of the time with Jerry checking out some of the different building materials that we used that he hadn't seen before.  He was there over an hour and said only very positive things - nothing negative.  He said he thought we were making great progress and he was very impressed with the building.  Yay!

 

 

 

 

10.27.2016 - First Snowfall!

It was a cold start to the day with the forecast of much worse to come.  Jim knew that it probably wouldn't be a shingle day so planned accordingly.

His first big task of the day was to go to the building inspector office.  Excuse my rant, but building permits are so unfair if you are building your home by yourself.  I know that's because no one builds a home by themselves like this and they are trying to protect homeowners from unscrupulous contractors but still.  We ran into this same issue in Ohio - but permits are more expensive here.  They want you to renew them every year when, mind you, they have to perform the same number of inspections (footers, concrete, framing, etc.) whether it takes 3 years or 6 months.  Rant aside, Jim had to go renew our building permit.  He also had to reclassify it from strictly a shop to also include the building permit.

But business aside, it was good to reconnect with the building department people.  Every time Jim has to go into the office, he says how amazed he is at the difference between this and the county offices we had to go to in Ohio.  Here, people know your name, are friendly, invite you to sit down and have a chat - besides paying the money, it's a good place to visit!

Jerry hasn't been out in a very long time - Jim scheduled the framing inspection for tomorrow so it will be fun to have him see our progress.

Jim came home for lunch and was doing electric work in between, but early afternoon we took the truck to the roofing company to exchange the trim boards that came in the wrong size.  It was just beginning to snow...that's right...snow!  Jim was upset to see that they were already salting the roads - he wanted to get his work 4Runner on the road before that happened.

When we got back to the property, it was really starting to come down pretty heavy.  The flakes were huge and very wet.

Before I could head back home, I had to dig out my snow scraper!  Plus, it was a very wet snow so the roads were very slippery - I had to turn on my AWD.

It looks like it's almost Christmas instead of almost Halloween!

 

Jim worked on electric work and some car work, plus he had to get the old calipers all wrapped up so that I can take them to FedEx tomorrow.

 

Ignore the quality of this picture because it was dark, but it shows a very interesting fact.  Notice the left side of the picture - the roof is all snow covered.  On the right side of the picture, there is no snow on the main roof.  That's because we put the snow guards on the left side - they work!

 

High 32/Low 32 - 3" of snow!

 

 

10.26.2016

This is the sight that Jim encountered when he got to the property this morning - a big pine tree fell and was across the driveway!  He got it cleaned up over the driveway - we'll have to attend to it at a later date.

Then he had to spend most of the morning moving scaffolding and planks around to get higher.  Now that he's up higher, he's doing some marking for the next courses.

But before long it was time for the last scaffolding we can put up.  This picture shows how far away from the building Jim is on the scaffolding - plus he's SO high off the ground.

Putting up his safety plank in the middle area where there's nothing around him.

Working across...

Planks are moved up higher now but Jim is making good progress...

Doing more marking...

Planks up higher and more marking...

End-of-the-day....

 

Well, not really the end of the day because Jim stayed to do some more car work.

 

High 43/Low 22

 

10.25.2016

First thing this morning, Jim took my car to the auto repair shop in town to get my yearly inspection done.  Unfortunately, they were busy and told him to bring it back after lunch.  So he had to bring the car back, stop and pick up more diesel fuel, and head to the property.  After lunch, we headed back to the shop where my car passed with flying colors and got its new sticker for the year.  One car down, two more to go!

Jim got the other side of the trim installed underneath the gable rake boards.  He then had to move his scaffolding planks even higher.

So nice...Jim is able to use his table saw and out feed table again!

Building up shingles to the top of the window frame...

More detail work...Jim had to make flashing for the top of the windows, then put the starter boards on. 

Working on cutting and predrilling the shingles that will go above the window frame...

Putting the shingles on above the window...

...and on the other window.

End-of-the-day picture - all the detail work around the windows is officially finished.  Almost every piece today required cutting, painting, predrilling or something else that required Jim to crawl in and out of the window and go up and down the stairs 100 times!   Plus, the weather was really chilly - temperatures never made it out of the low 40s and with a brisk wind, it felt like the 30s most of the day.  I hesitate to put it in writing but they are talking measurable snow on Thursday - yikes!  It's quite the adjustment to working out in the cold (or in my case, sitting around in the cold!).

 

After all the shingle work was done, Jim transitioned to more car work.  He basically has the new calipers on, which is good because we can then send the old ones back to get our deposit returned.  The only issue was that he discovered that they sent the wrong rotors, so he'll have to exchange/reorder new ones.  But things have progressed well on the car work without too many major issues - not usually the case when dealing with a 20-year-old vehicle that's seen its share of road salt!

 

High 43/Low 28

 

Time to settle in with the remote to watch the Indians vs the Cubs in the World Series at the same time as the Cavs home opener with ring ceremony and raising the banner!  Go Tribe and Go Cavs!