Slow Curves Ahead

Ed is starting to get nervous about the upcoming winter. The roof needs to get up and water-tight and it's alot to do by himself. And just to add a punctuation mark to the sentence, we had an early fall-type rainstorm this week that dumped 1.74" of rain . Just a little wake up call.

Ed started Sunday by working on the arched fascia boards for the eyebrow dormer. He was worried that he would have to splice two boards together to get the width needed, but that wasn't the case. He made a template, and cut out four pieces. Then he primed all faces. See all that lumber stacked to the left of the photo? That is one of two stacks of spruce that are drying. Last winter a 100+ tree came down in hurricane winds, right across the driveway. We had it milled out, and Ed is going to use it to make all the interior doors, window trim etc in the new house. Cool, huh?

Monday morning, we watched the weather report. Of course all we get is Portland weather so we have to tweek it for our area...usually 2-3 times the rainfall expected for Portland, or twice as much as Astoria. We were pretty sure we could get through most of Monday without major problems. This photo is of the back, having learned a valuable lesson on the front, and that is.... I reeeeally don't like standing on wet slippery plywood, especially when it's at an angle, and my arms are up over my head and full of fascia board. So when we got to the other side, I decided to use the scaffolding that was still up on the inside and lean over. Much better! That's me...my first blog appearance.. I'm doing my version of Wilson on Home Improvement.

The fascia boards define the curve of the eyebrow dormer, showing the graceful line and fluid motion that attracted us to the house plan in the first place. To us, this is what sets the house apart. And it is historically appropriate for the area. There is a beautiful old house just down the road that was built at the turn of the century..the old one, not the new one. It has that same line. Ok, so this photo doesn't show off the curve like I wanted, but you get the idea.

Tuesday we had company for the day, so while I sat inside and yakked, Ed was keeping one eye on the storm clouds and another eye on wet slippery plywood. He started working on the roof sheeting, and spent most of the day figuring out how to get the darned plywood up on the roof without injuring the new fascia boards or himself. Then he had to figure out a way to get the plywood to go down properly over the curve of the dormer. He says he's got it figured out now and next week he should be able to make some significant progress. By 1500 it was pouring rain, and didn't let up all night. Ed tarped things as well as he could, but with just under 2" in a day it gets soaked anyway. We are supposed to have sunny weather by tomorrow (rains here all the time), and then possibly some more rain next Monday. As soon as Ed gets the plywood down, we will sub out the roofing (composite shingles). They can get it done in a day, and it is money well spent. After that we have to get the windows in and the exterior wrapped, and then Ed can take a breath.