Mid-week, dude.

Monday was a sick day. Felt really lousy at work, went home early and slept. Must have been a flu bug....

Tuesday was some better and we went to meet a motorcyclist friend for supper after work. We biked over to 73-8 intersection just west of Hawkins, the place was closed so we went to Happy Daze near Kennan. Had some really good Mexican food, chit chat for a while and a bike ride home through Hiway "O" (useta was 86)

Wednesday was O.K., except for work is not my favorite way to spend a Wednesday... not at Marquip, anyway. When I got home I built the two remaining soffit returns and got all the frieze molding put up on the second half of the building. Now come the soffit panels and aluminum fascia. Should get a good start on that tonight and finish up on Saturday. Then I can read the TWENTY PAGE instructions for the overhead doors and get started on that.

My airplane needs it's annual condition inspection before it can be flown starting July 1st. I took the repairman course last fall, so now I just need to get the forms tailored to my needs and do the inspection. Maybe Sunday????

I gotta go, Carlo


FlightStar on Floats

Saturday, June 23rd

I can't believe it, but I got up this morning at 5:40, made coffee and got on the roof at 6:10!!! I worked until 9:15, when the shingles got too soft to be on. This is how far I got, about two shingle lengths of a 6 course flight from the end.



The north end was still in the shade, so I started the three course finishing run. I made it just past half-way and had to stop. Then I cut a bundle's worth of caps, which is cutting the shingle into three equal pieces, just at the slots. Ready for later today....



At this point I made breakfast, some venison backstrap with two soft boiled eggs and toast. Yum, yum. Then I headed out to work on the soffits. Here it the first thing you do, make a wedge that is level on the bottom and goes toward the building far enough to meet the "wall extension".



Which in this case is a piece of 3/4" plywood, nailed to he end of the wedge and to the wall at the top only!

And what's with this advertisement for Paul McCarthy singing "Everybody's going to dance around tonight." I guess if you're famous, you get a pass on the songs you write..... no matter how mundane they are.



Then you just insert the soffit frieze molding between the plywood and the wall, nail it all into place.....



and voy la, you have a "soffit return". Now you just have to insert the soffit panels, apply the fascia and you're done.



Here is one of the most important power tools for construction projects. Second only to a "saws everything". This tool is essential for the "shingle application" procedure! Actually, I didn't turn it on this morning, but instead listened to the birds as I shingled. No other noise in the neighborhood at 6:00....



Here is a view of some of the components of shingling: shingles, nails, chalk, a bucket of tar, and.... opps, I guess I left my vodka gimlet in the pic!! Well, I guess that's as important as anything...



At last, a ridge cap!! Does it look straight enough?
Do you think I care???
The damn thing is done at last! It's DONE!!!!!









And here is a little view of the completed East side of the roof. I hate shingles, or did I mention that in earlier posts? After finishing the shingles, I cleaned up the area around the garage, fired up the bike and went for a cruise. I went to Ogema, toured the city and headed home, refreshed from the breeze and evaporation.

Now for the essential figures for shingles:

The roof is 40' long (480") X about 210" per side (41 courses of shingles).
40' means 13.3 shingles per course x 82 courses = 1093.66 shingles on roof.
4 nails per shingle = 4373 nails, not counting the cap.....

The ridge cap is made of 96 pieces of shingle, with two nails in each piece. That adds 192 nails to the total, bringing it to 4565....

4565 nails, for criminey's sake.... no wonder I hate shingles......

I gotta go, Carlo....

Saturday, June 23rd

I had a decidedly non-productive week. Monday, feeling under the weather, I got to work at 9:00.... felt tired out and wimpy all week, did no work at home. I took a nap each day after work, then watched TV and went to bed.... sheesh....



Thursday evening I napped and then got out of the house at 7:00 and mowed most of the lawn. Finished the lawn on Friday eve and then hauled the overhead doors from the shed to the garage and got ready for a weekend of work.



The first photo shows the entry doors are installed. The second shows the frightful box of parts for the overhead doors, complete with a 20 PAGE INSTRUCTION MANUAL!!!!! This one shows the door panels for one overhead door waiting to be installed. Seeing as it takes 7-9 hours (according to the book), I decided to work on the soffits instead.



Inside looking out.... This morning I got onto the roof at 7:30 and worked until 11:00 when the shingles were starting to get soft. Then I put in the entry doors and looked at the overheads, and started to work on the soffits. I got back on the roof at 6:10 and worked until 7:50. This allowed me to get almost 2/3 of the east side done!! I hate shingles, shingle nails, tarpaper, roofing nails, chalklines, etc., etc.....



So I'm hoping to get on the roof tomorrow morning at 6:00 and if I don't get it done by 11:00, I can finish it in late afternoon when the roof cools. I WILL GET IT DONE this weekend!! Then I just have to finish the soffit work, and get the overhead doors intalled, then the party happens......
Ya, hoo!!

Later, Carlo

Over-due update.

Weekend before last Peg and I went to Marinette to attend Yram's house warming party. Weather was nice, the lake was awesome and food and drink was not in short supply.....
The following monday I noticed this message scratched into the sand in front of the garage. It's a little hard to make out but it said "Hi, Gene". Almost a week later I found out that Big Stick had stopped in on the weekend. To bad I wasn't here, I could have put him to work putting shingles on the roof....



During the following evenings Ivan and I finished shingling the west side of the roof and next day put the starter strip on the east side eave and set up all the marks for chalklines later on. Peg got a good start on the east side one evening (this pic is from the west). I have been avoiding the shingling...



In fact one night I was hiding out near the lodge but Peg found me anyway.... I guess I need taller flowers to hide behind.






This is Peg's start from nearly a week ago, and it still looks like this today. Peg has been busy with other things, and I have been avoiding the roof.



Mid to late last week I determined to finish putting the plywood on the walls. That took 1.5 evenings, and then I spent a couple evenings putting the plywood on the gable ends. That was a treat on my own, but I managed.



Saturday I finished nailing the last of the plywood and then started on the Tyvek house wrap. A vapor barrior used in place of tarpaper. I had heard that tarpaper retained too much heat and was not the best to use behind the vinyl siding we are planning on using. The wrap was 9 feet wide on a 100' roll, and the idea is to have as few breaks in the wrap as possible. I got a little bad start on the east side and had to cut the wrap at the southeast corner, but then was able to make it across the south and up the west wall without incident.



While I was working on this, I was heating some baked beans and brats in the grill. I had a nice little picnic lunch at 5:30 in the afternoon, then finished stapling the Tyvek at the top of the three walls I had done.



It was starting to look like a house at this point. I had hoped to get all the wrap done on Saturday, but it was too much. I quit at 7:00 and took a shower.



Sunday morning found me planning a way to get a 9' by 28' piece of Tyvek stapled to the north gable end by myself. I must have moved the ladder a couple of dozen times, but I finally got it on the wall!! I trimmed it off near the wall/roof interface and headed to the south side.



Putting on the two pieces of trimmed wrap on the south side proved to be much easier! After that, I hauled all the doors and windows from the shed to the new garage, then on the return trip I hauled the leftovers and scrap items from the garage to the shed. Then I started in on the windows. I took a several hour break while it rained quite hard, and managed to keep the recliner from moving around the house...



So, all the windows are in, but I didn't get the entry doors put in. Menards included the incorrect locksets, so we will have to get something different, then put the doors in.

Still need to close in the eaves, finish the shingles and install the overhead doors. Then a break (from this project, at least) until siding in the fall. Oh, yeah, someone will have to do the wiring....

Later, Carlo

Post-storm.....

Well, the big storm (if there was one) missed us and the garage is still here.

Tonight I finished mowing the lawn. Peg had started it on Tuesday and we've been busy since. It was pretty long... We picked up the rest of the building materials that had been on pallets outside and put them in the garage, so the yard is quite back in shape.


I picked up my brush cutter from Craig tonight. It had a problem and wouldn't run right, but he got it fixed. When I got home, I carried 6 or 7 bundles of shingles up the ladder to the roof. Only six more to go!!! I hate shingles.....
We're heading out Saturday morning for Marinette. Relaxing for two days!!

I gotta go, Carlo

It's Wednesday already!!

Monday evening Ivan and I finished the tarpaper and roof edging. Chuck showed up and we had a couple and BS'ed for a while. We decided to start shingles on Tuesday evening. Ivan and Chuck got here around 3:00 and we got about 2/3 of the West side of the roof done. Enough for one night.



There are warnings out for tonight through tomorrow night for intense storms. Figures. Peg and I got most of the wall plywood on tonight, don't know if the added structural effect of the plywood will overcome the wind-catching aspect of it. Before the roof was just one big kite, now it's a big box kite..... Good grief, anyway.

Going to Marinette this weekend for the house warming (a.k.a. big party)at Yram's. Should be a nice change from constantly working around here.... I'm not complaining, mind you.

I gotta go, Carlo

Sunday report

Not a big day of work here. We got up about 7:30 this morning to try to get the tarpaper on the roof. First, I had to snap chalklines on the gable ends of the roof and saw the plywood flush with the outer fascia board. Then we put the drip edge on the two eave sides of the roof.


We were ready to start the paper (Peg had cut some 20 foot pieces so as not to have to handle the whole role on the roof) and I went for the staples. Could not find a box of staples in the miscellaneous box! I scrounged around and found a very partial box and we started in. Today was also Peg's mom's birthday workday, so she had to leave about 11:30 to go to Phillips. I ran out of staples shortly thereafter so I called Swede and he had a bunch that I could have. Got them and continued. I was hoping to get the roof all covered as it was supposed to rain today, and as I was putting the last row of paper on the first side, it started to sprinkle. I cut a piece that would lap over the last row, go over the ridge and cover the highest plywood joint on the second side of the roof. I got that stapled down as it started to rain for real. Six days in a row for rain.... drought, anyone??? So I quit on the roof, moved stuff in the garage so the last three dripping plywood joints would do the least damage, and headed for the shower and Phillips. Everyone was working away when I got there(3:00), and they had eaten dinner at 12:30. So I got a plate and fixed myself a lunch, and it was good. I washed up the dishes I had used for lunch and then headed to the TV room at the end of the house. The official task list had been finished, so I didn't feel too bad about this. It was darker in that room and, of course, I fell immediately asleep. For an hour. I'm finishing the day by doing nothing but having a vodka gimlet while reclining in the living room chair.... Adios....

Saturday shenanigans....

Peggy is working on putting in the last row of plywood pieces (17.5" wide)to close up the ridge. Ivan was down here for a while this morning, then we got rained out. He had to go to a relative's birthday, so Peg and I were on our own after lunch. Peg worked in the garage to lift and push the 4'x8' plywood pieces up to where I could reach them from up on the roof. This means she had to lift them up an push them up above her head and hold there while I got a good enough grip on them to hoist them the rest of the way up. She did nearly 40 sheets of it!!!



And she's still smiling after all that.....


We placed the rest of the plywood, put in a few nails in each, then I went around with the pneumatic nailer and nailed it all down.




This is the nailer, it runs on compressed air from the compressor down in the garage.



Here's a different view of the house and yard!



And here's that veiw again from the upstairs window. When I finished the nailing at 6:45 this evening, I told Peg that I was too pooped to do the tarpaper this evening, it would have to wait. I hope the rain holds of tomorrow till we get it covered.

Friday update:

So... I did stay home from work today. I started in on finishing the nailing of the fascia boards that Peg and I put in place the previous evening. Seemed to take forever, moving ladder, up-down, yadda, yadda..... Here Peg caught me in action as I was putting in the official truss spacing 2x4's. I did this with a 100' tape stretched along the ridge so as not to accumulate error along the way.



When I reached the opposite end, I needed to pull in the flying gable rafter about 3/8", which also straightened out the fascia board on the north end..... and made the roof the correct overall length for maximum shingle usage/least waste. It may work, I'll let you know.



I was working alone today, and managed to get the rest of the 2x6 fascia attached to the building, then did the truss spacing as described above. Then I put on 8 sheets of wall plywood on the corners of the building. This would prevent the walls from changing shape and collapsing with the weight of all the plywood going on the roof. Peg made it home today about 3:00 and helped with the spacing project, then lifted 7 sheets of plywood up to where I could grab them from my perch on the trusses. We got those sheets placed, spaced and nailed down by about 7:00. We started on the roof plywood by 5:00 and now have a sequence of how to go about things, so it should go faster tomorrow. Also, Ivan will be coming down in the morning to help, bless his soul......