August arrived with hot, humid days, and glorious sunshine, and it finally felt like the kind of summers we used to have. The last two summers were so cool and rainy here, especially last year. The down side of hot humid days is that it's really difficult to work up on a roof for most of the day. Rob tried to take frequent breaks, and would head for some shade periodically, but the heat definitely slowed him down some. The plus side was that we had lots of wonderful, cooling walks in the river at the end of the day! Much to our surprise the same fabulous weather continued into September - and for the entire month !! We had day after day of sunshine, blue skies, warm temperatures and very little rain. The good weather continued even into the early weeks of October.
With the foam and strapping all installed, Rob set to work in early August to getting the plywood up onto the roof. This job went fairly quickly for the most part. The only weather issue was when the wind picked up too much. That's no time to be on a roof with a giant piece of kite-like plywood in your hands!
The tractor really helped with this job. Rob built a nice little gizmo on one of the tractor forks to help move the plywood around.
Rob thought starting on the north side of the house was a good idea. There was a bit more shade on this side later in the day, so he could get some relief from the sun. The first piece of plywood went up !
As usual, I was there to take photos of some of the progress, but because I'm at work 4 days a week, I missed the chance to photograph some of the various stages. Before I knew it Rob was working on the east side....
Once the plywood was up, Rob had to install some very sticky waterproofing membrane in some areas. Not only is it sticky, but it has a peel-off backing, and you can imagine how much fun that is to deal with on a windy day! He's lucky he didn't just stick himself permanently to that roof.
Rob was feeling pretty happy when this section was finished!
The south side was the final section of roof that had to be done. Turkey vultures flew overhead and checked out the job. Look at that lovely blue sky too...
As soon as the plywood was up, Rob was able to determine exactly how much metal roofing to order. As the roofing would take a few weeks to arrive, he did some site clean up, and moved the scaffolding away. The timbers for the workshop were supposed to arrive shortly, and he was anxious to get working on them, while he waited for the roofing to arrive.
We decided to take some time off on a lovely sunny Sunday afternoon, and headed across the Ottawa River and over to the Quebec side. We had a fun afternoon, exploring some new areas, and enjoying some rather lovely views of the river. We discovered a vibrant arts and craft area, and met some lovely people!
This is an old stone stable, that the owners have converted into a gallery. They have done an amazing job, and are now digging out the basement below. The same town also has an art school, and we spent some time there looking at the featured artist's work. I had no idea the school was so close to us, and hope I can take some classes there in the future!
The timbers unfortunately arrived later than promised. It's hard to watch beautiful days slip by, with so many jobs to do that require decent weather. But finally, early one evening, the timbers arrived.
While they unloaded the timbers, I wandered off to admire the crescent moon in the evening sky. They obviously didn't need my help! I was reminiscing too about how excited we were when the first load of timbers arrived...
Our firewood was also late in arriving, but we weren't as concerned about it, as it was pretty much too hot to be splitting firewood anyway! We left it to continue drying until September.
Rob didn't even have a chance to get working on the timbers, as the roofing suddenly arrived as well!
We decided that it was best to go ahead and get it up while we had the chance.
Unfortunately, once Rob unwrapped everything, he discovered that the roofing manufacturer had cut the eave starter to the wrong specification. He had to wait another week for the proper size to arrive. Which it did - but it was still cut to the wrong size, so another week or two passed....with kudos to the building supply company who worked so hard to get the shipment to us after the roofing manufacturer failed to deliver it here on site on the third try!
While waiting for the proper roofing shipments, Rob switched gears (again) and decided to finish the strapping on the sides of the house. He didn't want to spend too much time getting all set up for working on the workshop timbers only to have to stop and put everything away. With all the delays, we also realized that we were running out of time this year. The timbers were probably not going to get done after all....
Once the strapping was done, Rob started to clean up inside the new house, and prepare for acid staining the concrete floor.
Just before he started staining the floor though, the roof parts arrived - and they were the proper size this time!
Once again, he started with the north side of the house. Things went well, until he decided to make some changes to the placement of the plumbing stack. He'd been fighting with the decision, but really wasn't happy with the placement lower down on the roof, and wanted it higher. As he got nearer to roofing around it, he realized that if he was going to change it - he had to do it now.
I thought we were finished with looking for 4 inch pipe connectors, but found myself back in various hardware stores, clutching a list of needed parts. It's amazing how many parts we seem to have now.
Hoping he cut the hole out in the right place! (He did!)
As Rob worked away on the roof I started on the job of splitting the firewood on my days off. It's a task I actually quite enjoy, but I don't like stacking it, so just kept tossing the split pieces into new piles. Rob promises he will stack it all once the roof is finished!
Rob demonstrated one of the many cuts, bends and folds he had to do to the metal roofing and flashing.
We were both relieved to see that the pile of roofing was starting to go down!
I arrived home one day to find that that Rob had to make changes to the wood stove pipe installation too. The north side was proving to be more difficult than anticipated, but once he got past the stove pipe, it got easier.
And suddenly - the north side was done! (And look at that gorgeous blue sky again. I don't think we ever saw such clear skies in the whole of last year. Do I keep saying that?)
Next up was the east side, and we both knew that the valley would be a bit of a learning curve.
I can tell when I go over and the radio isn't playing, that Rob is trying to think and to figure things out. It seemed like a good time for me to go back and keep splitting wood! I knew he'd figure it out, and he did.
We both think it looks pretty good!
We couldn't believe that the weather was continuing to be so warm and pleasant. The days were slowly getting shorter, and the nights were cooler, but we had plenty of sunshine and warm days. We were in the river several times in September, and could comfortably sit out at the river's edge, wearing light hoodies, and watch the sun go down. It was lovely!
Remember when Mom Snapping turtle was busy looking for a place to lay her eggs, but we thought she'd given up on the new house site ? (Here's a photo of her in front of the house in the spring)
Well one day we spotted a baby snapper in front of the house! We gently moved it to another spot near the house, but a little ways away from where we found it, as we didn't want it to get hurt by us or the tractor. I raced home to look up the best place to relocate it; closer to the river, or closer to the shallow channels where the other turtles seem to hang out. I came back to find it was gone - it had already wandered off!
As Rob moved to the southern side of the house, we were both getting pretty excited about seeing the roofing project finished. This side however, proved to be the most difficult, and the weather finally began to be a factor again. Cold nights gave us heavy dew which made the roof slippery (and the ice one morning didn't help either!) Rob found he had to wait until later in the morning or early afternoon before he could safely go back up to work on the roof. Luckily the sun would dry it fairly quickly, once it came round to that side of the house.
This valley was even trickier, and it took a while to figure it out too.
I was happy to come home one day and find it finished, and Rob moving on to the next section.
We could see that the light was changing, and although we were still wearing t-shirts, it was obvious that fall had arrived and this lovely weather wasn't going to last forever!
Rob had been working long days, so on Thanksgiving weekend we took a couple of hours off, and went and enjoyed a quick drive around the area, to admire some of the spectacular fall leaves. Then, it was back to work!
We could feel that these warm days were about to end. I finished splitting the wood, and Rob kept going on that roof. Thanksgiving night we sat out on the porch and were feeling pretty grateful for the lovely fall weather we had this year.
Of course, we knew it had to end sometime, and it did. Just one week later - it snowed. Not a lot, but just enough to make it dangerous to be on ladders and the roof, not to mention rather cold to be working outside.
Rob had just finished the upper south roof, and was working on the peaks when the first snow hit.
Today it's been snowing off and on, so he is working inside the new house. He is pre-assembling the peak pieces inside, and will wait until the weather warms up a bit later in the week to complete the job of installing them. On the plus side, he has the wood stove hooked up in the new house, and is slowly heating the concrete slab and interior, and is able to work in total comfort inside! It's amazing to be in the new house and to be sitting in front of that nice warm stove, imagining the days to come....
So all in all, it's been a busy and productive couple of months. The good weather provided us with some lovely long evenings on the porch, some relaxing times in the river, and some wonderful walks in the woods, as well as an incredible number of good building days. We have enjoyed lots of good meals, with a huge variety of local meats and vegetables from local farmer's markets and roadside stands. We made it to a rather special wedding, (congrats Sally and Tyler!) a good friend's birthday, (thanks for the invite Sam!) a visit with an "old" friend (so wonderful to see you Karin and to meet Pat!). Rob had a chance to visit family, and I had a chance to attend a yoga festival for a day.
We're hoping for a few more "warm" days to finish up with the roof, and that will be it for the external work this year. We have some chores to do around the cabin before the snow truly flies, and then Rob will begin some interior work on the new house. It should be an interesting winter.....
