Yay!  We have a Roof!  That only leaks a little!


Not bad for a rainstorm with over 1 inch of water per hour for over 5 hours through the night.  Apparently, the only leaks are in places where the screws with their little rubber washers weren't tight enough or where there was a formerly used screw hole that was too big or hadn't been filled in yet.  (We're experimenting with recycled tin for our roof.  We hope it's going to work out well.)





Better yet - we had river front property this morning.



Complete with Class 3 Rapids on the Little Brook.

How exciting.














This is a photo of underneath our new roof.  See where that air compressor is?  Right there is where my new great big bathtub is going to go. 


!!!Yay!!!!















. . . . . . 

Unlike this cat*, we have been feeling the advent of September with a great deal of discomfort.   It has been the "School is coming and we still don't have the roof fixed yet" variety of discomfort that only teachers and the spouses of teachers can fully appreciate.  We worried about it for a while Monday because of the rain and because of our exhaustion and because we were beginning to feel just a little bit helpless and hopeless. 

Bryan sat down and scribbled pictures of sticks on pieces of paper and tried to explain them to me.  I nodded sagely and turned away feeling rather bewildered and, I imagine, looking quite a bit like Buttercup before she stepped into that patch of lightning sand.  On Tuesday we looked at the weather forecast and saw that there were 5 days in a row that did not predict rain and certain doom for roofing projects.  Bryan promptly climbed up on the roof and began tearing off pieces of tin.  I began exhibiting small signs of extreme stress, like chuckling under my breath at strange and unlikely times and rocking back and forth for no apparent reason. 


You see, last year my brother-in-law, Jonathan, tore his roof off with similar abandon mid summer.  He blithely explained that he was going to build a few new walls, reinstall his rafters and put new siding on in order to have an extra story on his house.  He anticipated that this project would only take a week or so, especially if the weather behaved the way the forecast predicted. 



He took his roof off.

We had monsoons.  Water poured out of the electrical sockets in his downstairs living room.  All of his  lovely sheet rock walls downstairs were destroyed.   Several rolls of insulation were saturated.  High winds and rain squalls persisted for WEEKS.  It was like Jumanji without the stampede and giant alligator.  The whole family played games with thunder and lightning in a desperate attempt to get Some work done whenever it was dry and light enough out to work and then to get SOMETHING over that house when the rainclouds invariably began rolling in.  It was a nightmare.  It was so traumatic that when his wife came home and saw that our roof was off, she almost threw up in her driveway.


Perhaps stimming in the corner is not such a bad coping strategy considering the experience I've had with absent roofs.

Perhaps my terror was unfounded.  Progress has been good. 

Tuesday. Day 1.  No great pictures because the day consisted mostly of Bryan consulting with Amish men (who do not enjoy having their photos taken), writing checks and hauling lumber on the hay wagon over to our yard.  (You can see that my lens is a bit greasy in this photo.)




Wednesday.  Day 2.  Tin gone.  Decking gone.  Naked rafters.  Scary things falling from the sky.

























Thursday.  Day 3.   Old rafters gone.   (I worked at the Arts Council so did not get to witness scary things falling from the sky nor all of the silly horseplay on the naked roof.)   New rafters up.  Dormer framed up and built in.








Friday.  Day 4.  New decking.  Tin begins to be cut.














Saturday.  Day 5.  Will it rain?  If it stays dry, we'll  get our tin on. 

We're over budget but things are moving so beautifully fast and smooth.  It looks very promising.  Dad and Jonathan and Trenton and Ken and Mickey and Robert and Mom and Greg and Nichelle have been so incredibly helpful.  The men and Mom have all pitched in on the actual labor and Nichelle and mom have helped me out by taking turns with me to prepare meals for everyone.  It's been great.  I'm still rocking and chuckling quietly, though.




*(This cat believes herself to be Queen of the Universe.  And she can climb walls.  She has actually Climbed Up The Side of The House and gotten in through the construction project.  There is no keeping her out.  She is every cliche' you have ever heard about stubborn, persistent cats who keep coming back.  And she's absolutely adorable.  I'm trying SO hard not to be in love.)

Here are some photos of the outside of the Beorningstead

Yes, it looks a bit beaten.  It is beaten, to a certain extent.  It is an old, old house that hasn't had any real TLC in a long time.  There is a new addition that is still a bit shoddy and has no siding on it at all.  The front porch is in desperate need of new supports, bottom enclosure, trim and finishing.  The asphalt siding has pretty much seen the end of its useful life.  The well house needs either to go away completely or be completely re-built.  And new trim or a good paint job is needed around all of the windows, doors and soffits.

But the structure itself is amazingly sound.  AND there are no bats and the water is clean.  We all love the layout downstairs.  The rooms are very open and connect in ways that make air and traffic flow through the house very smoothly.  There will be lots of wonderful hide & chase games with the dog & kids in the new house!  The upstairs rooms feel bigger in spite of it being a smaller house overall.  Plus we will have two potties.  Yes!  Two potties!






This photo shows the old, rusty roof that needs to be replaced as well as the recent "sun porch" addition that needs siding and trim.  That big window does amazing things to light and warm my studio. I can't wait to get moved in!  (The dead tree needs to go, even though the kids like to climb on it.)







You can see the well house here - see how it sits so close to the house?  Our well is under there and when this was a working farm,  milk was stored there in a cooler until it was picked up by a dairy truck.  Bry likes the idea of maintaining that bit of history but I would like that side of the house to look cleaner,  the well house also blocks my view of the back side yard from my studio.  Alternatively, there has been discussion about taking the well house down and building it back to join with the house, making our woodshed larger.




Inside, Bryan has finished the beams to replace the supports that used to be in the livingroom.  The wodstove will nestle into a tiled area right there between the two beams.  We are very glad to have the pole gone from the center of the room.  We are also very glad to have had so much help from friends and family getting those beams installed.  It wasn't a one man job!

Now that the beams are done and most of the wiring has been run, we can start putting insulation in the living room and kitchen areas.  Then wallboard can be put up and we can get another escrow check out to work on the roof.  We might be able to do that this week! 

Have I mentioned how eager I am to move over there, even though the place is still a shambles?  We are all so happy in that space.  Maxx is happier with the landscape around the house - there are so many more ways to get hurt and messy there!  Plus I am tired of having Bry gone so much to work over there.  I may change my mind, but at this point, I would rather live in the project than have to keep running over there to work on it.  It is also a pain to drag everything over there, pull materials out of storage and then lock it all up again when it is time to leave.  Mom & Dad, Jonathan and Mrs. Proper are all right there keeping an eye on things, but it is a bit worry some to not be right there all the time.

Here are some more neighbors.

Jenna ran over to say hello when Maxx and I went to Jonathan's to take distance photos of the Beorningstead. 











 And Lyra announced to us that she will be providing the neighborhood with some kittens soon.


















 . . . .

The roof, which was tight and secure all through the storms of summer and record rainy season of fall, has decided to leak.   Everywhere.  Thousands of little rivulets, puddles and pools.  Dribbling down into my studio and warping the ceiling in that room.  This is maddening. 

On the one hand - it is only the back roof, relatively small, over the part of the house we intend to put the main bathroom and, eventually our bedroom.  Because of Bry being so sick post surgery, we did not have time to install the insulation and wall board as planned over the winter.  No building supplies were ruined.  No labor was wasted.  That is a good thing.

The ceiling in my studio was ugly anyway.  We've talked about putting in a skylight in the bathroom because there is no window there but since we didn't plan on doing anything to the roof, decided not to.  Now maybe  we'll put in a small sky light over the bathtub.  (How much costs a little skylight?)

On the other hand, we wanted to move in over Spring Break.  We were all set to install the pump, finish running the plumbing, install and prep the sub-floor, install the shower, potty and vanity, insulate and put up wallboard and prepare the spot for the tub over the next three weeks.  Now those three weeks, and probably more, will be spent pricing, procuring and installing roofing materials.  That will delay our move-in which will delay our ability to really push the Ft. Jackson house (Which is really at it's most lovely at lilac & poppy time) on the market.

We're not sure yet what the extent of the repair/replacement will be.  The back roof is OLD.  The reason it is leaking is because the original tin roof was installed with nails that have no gaskets or other kind of weather proofing.   For decades, those nails have been doing their job, keeping the roof on, without leaking.  We don't know if it was because the house spent the winter without heat (doubtful - that part of the house wasn't heated anyway) or if this spring was just THE END for that particular aspect of the house's construction.  That's likely.  It's been there for at least 30 years.

A good roofing screw will have a bit of rubber thing-gummy under the head so that when you screw it down tight, it creates a water tight seal against the tin.  When we fix this roof, we should be able to expect it to last for the next 30 years or so.  Happily, the rafters are still good and solid so this will only be a repair, not a re-build.  We are a little concerned because most of our available escrow money is tied up in - guess what - insulation, wall board, sub-floor, plumbing and fixtures for the bathroom that is supposed to go under that roof.  We can't get more $ out of escrow until those are installed and the bank inspector comes to check out our progress.  We can't install these beautiful things until the roof that will protect them is repaired.  We can't repair the roof until we have more money to buy materials. 

What fun!  We can probably get some more escrow money freed up when we finish the downstairs wiring, install light fixtures in the front of the house and put wall board in the kitchen and living room again.  That roof seems to be sound - it is newer and better constructed.  We may also need to come up with some creative ways to boost our income in the next little while to provide more cash for this process.

Anybody want to buy a scarf?