Correction: Don't blame the roofer

I blamed the roofer for breaking our window but upon further investigation it was already broken, apparently between days 9 and 22 according to my Flickr archive.

Day 40: Breaking through into the main house

Today was a big day. Last night we emptied the remaining junk from the boy's room and the builder went about removing the window and wall. Before and after shots are below.

We had visits from the geothermal heating guy that a friend used for his system, the plasterer, and a propane salesman, too.

Mike told me that the 6 foot tub won't fit in the space we thought - I misread the plans since the 6'4" space is from the outside of the wall to the far end of the tub, which means that the tub can only be 5'10". So we think that we're going to cut down the shower size a bit to accommodate. I got into a 5' tub at Home Depot last night and I just don't fit, so we really want a 6' tub.

We also made a quick switch to change the laundry room door from a swing-in door to a pocket door, and discussed adding windows to the wall between the study and the master bedroom to let in more light.

We also finally decided on the front door (Thermatru Fiber-Classic, able to be stained to look like wood, nickel hardware) and the kitchen window (6' wide). Decisions about tile, cabinets, countertops, appliances, fixtures, and more are bearing down on us.

More day 40 pictures.

Day 38: Part 2, a new roof

At 7am Cheryl and I wake up and realize that we need to lay the plastic down in the attic. We didn't do it last night because it was too dark and we didn't find a functioning flashlight until 4am. We got it laid down pretty quickly and a good thing because the roofers arrived at 7:30 and had most of the roof off by 8:30.

Before:

During:

After:

Oops:

I came home from bringing our daughter to an activity and at 12:30 the roof was done. I did some magnet work to make sure that the nails from the roofing were all picked up, and not surprisingly I found some, so the roofer with the big magnet bar ran over the ground again. We found a bunch.

The roofers installed GAF Timberline shingles, Pewter Gray (Natural Shadow), an architectural shingle, and while I will be most happy if I never have to get up at 4am to deal with leaks, the new roof looks great. The only problem was that Cheryl noticed that we have a broken window now. I suspect that it got hit by a ladder or something, but this should be easy to fix.

More Day 38 pictures.

Day 38: Part 1, We do more before 5am than some people do all day

At 4am Cheryl hears the shower upstairs dripping and gets up to shut the valve. But it isn't the shower, it is our son's ceiling that is dripping. So now she gets me up. We mop up the floor, place buckets and then decide that I should go into the attic to see if the source of the leak is apparent and put a bucket there instead. This is hard because we can't find a flashlight that works.

Red flashlight? Missing. BOGO solar flashlight? Dead from overuse by the kids who didn't put it back in view of the sun. Princess flashlight? Dead with corroded batteries since the girls no longer love Disney princesses, thank goodness.

Finally, Cheryl finds our head lamp flashlight, which is the best option anyway. The roof sheathing is stained in two easily-found locations, so I first tried the old "string to direct the leak into a bucket" trick, but I can hear that the rain is letting up, so there probably won't be much more coming in anyway. I pull up the wet insulation and find the pooled water near the light fixture. I ask Cheryl for a towel that she doesn't mind getting disgustingly dirty - she hands me a Disney princess towel (see above for why this is OK) - and I am able to mop up the water.

I take almost all of the pictures for this project, and this is probably a good thing, since Cheryl later observed that she considered going to get the camera to take a picture of me pulling up insulation wearing only underwear and a headlamp. At 4:30am that might have not been so well-received...

I went downstairs and noticed that there was still dripping coming from the light fixture. The light fixture, which is a dome shape, was full of water, so I was happy that the light's power was off (and I know that there is nothing hot in the fixture since I ...um... watched the guy install it). I untwisted the bolt holding the dome on and the rest poured out. I wiped the floor and went back to bed.