Shingling Progress

We've finished shingling the north side of the house. Now for the south side.

You can still see some mud from our boots up there, but I think we'll let the rain wash that off.

We've also started putting up the 2x6 tongue and groove planks that make up the second floor. I don't have any pictures of that yet so I'll write more about that later.

Shingling

Since we've had all the fun we can stand putting up ice and water membrane, we decided to start shingling as soon as the temperature would allow. But before we could start shingling we needed to do some prep work.

We decided to go with 1x6 cedar fascia and standard drip edge. I spent the extra money to purchase stainless steel ring shank nails for the fascia boards. We could have used galvanized, but I didn't want to risk them eventually corroding and staining the cedar.

We also needed to put up some flashing in any area that could potentially be at risk for a water leak in the future.

The system of shingles we chose comes from the Novik company. It's a company out of Canada. The product is Novislate. It is a polymer panel made to resemble slate tiles. I won't go into to much detail about the panels since the website does a good job of describing the system.

We chose them because they are a good choice for collecting rainwater and they come with a 50 year warranty. A long lasting shingle is important for a roof with a steep pitch like ours. So far they haven't gone on as easy as I thought they would but we are getting the hang of it. One thing I'm a little concerned about is the fact that they tend to scratch easily. Only time will tell if this will be a problem.

We are a little further along than the pictures show, but we didn't snap any pictures the last time we were out.

Mini-Roofing

While we are waiting for some of our shingle supplies to come in, we are working on some "smaller" jobs. One of them is the small section of roof beneath the shed dormer. We wouldn't have to have this roof here, but it makes it so we can run a gutter the total length of the north side. This is what it looked like before.

We started by cutting mini-rafters. I took us a little while to figure out the angle and get the length right. But once we did, my Dad and I didn't have any troubles cutting them with the miter saw.

Next we ripped a piece of 1/2" OSB on the table saw and nailed it on with 16d nails.

And then we covered it with the same ice and water barrier.

I have to say, if you are going to do any roofing - do it from the ground. It's so much easier!

It Happened Again

Thursday was a beautiful day, so we worked on the house wrap for the gable ends. We were able to get the east end completely done. For some reason, the store I bought the wrap from only had red seam tape. So for now our house looks like a candy cane.

Everything went swimmingly. We used 2 inch plastic cap nails to secure it to the OSB.

I'm not sure if they had to be 2 inches long but I was sick of pounding nails that I couldn't fit my fingers behind which was the case for the ice and water barrier on the roof. Speaking of the roof.

As I said, Thursday was a beautiful day. Friday was a different story. Friday we had a blizzard with winds gusting at 60+ mph. I wanted to go check on the house, but by the time I got off work the highways were already pretty dangerous. So ... this happened.

In light of the recent events in Japan, our little bit of destruction is insignificant. While we were picking up scraps of ice and water barrier from our house up to 1/4 mile away, I couldn't help but think about how awful it would be to wonder if your family was still alive.

So, today we cleaned up the ragged edges and began putting it back up. This time we'll use more ... everything. More nails, more wind strips, more nails in the wind strips. It's a good thing I married a woman as stubborn as I am.

We Finished Covering The Roof

Last weekend we finished covering the roof ... finally.

I have the day off tomorrow, and we are going to work on putting the house wrap on the gable ends. One step closer to being truly dried in.

A shameless plug
Each year, this being the third, I participate in a charity called St. Baldrick's Day. We raise money for childhood cancer research. You can read more about it (and donate - hint hint) here. All donations are appreciated.

Back In The Saddle

We fixed the storm damage

And then some.

In the first two photos the seemingly random pieces of lumber on the roof are actually strategically placed roofing protectors - we are calling them 'wind strips'.

The second two photos are the work we got done tonight. We covered the shed dormer on the north side of the house. It goes really fast when you can actually stand on the roof.

We Had A Set Back

We were all fired up to work on our house tonight. When we left the house on Sunday, it looked like this.

Then, a wind storm came through with wind gusting to 60 mph. And tonight it looks like this.

When we pulled up, our hearts sunk into our stomachs. In the grand scheme of things much worse things can happen to a couple. Nothing is broke that can't be fixed. Nonetheless, tonight we cry in our beer.