Well House Roof

Some nice weather in June also brought back the roofer (finally!!!)

The first day consisted of them fixing the damaged wood.

Next was the shingle & dumpster delivery:

They ripped off the old roof:

New roof going on:

 We had a couple of issues with the roofers, so not sure that we'll use them for the house (which will need to be done in the next couple of years)... we will have to see if/how the issues are resolved! 
I am very happy that the roof is finally on and the building is protected from the weather!  We can now stop worrying about the stuff inside the well house getting ruined and can put everything back in place in there.

Standing Seam Roof

Last week they installed the standing seam roof that is over the half bath, butlers pantry, and back porch.  I LOVE it!

Over the back porch

Looking away from house

Looking towards house

But there's still a lot more work to be done...

Roof Progress

I'm thrilled to write that the roofers have arrived!
They came early Saturday morning and got right to work...

They were back on Monday to finish up the other side.

I love the little snow/ice guards!

The standing seam metal sections of roof still have to go on, but our contractor wants to wait a little bit so that the gutter & siding guys aren't standing on them as they work (potentially denting them).  

We've had several torrential rain storms in the past two days, and I'm happy to report it's mostly dry inside.  There's a little bit of leaking where the metal roofing meets the house, but the contractor is going to put some flashing up to hold us over until the metal roofing is completed.

Next up should be the windows!
They've been ordered and should arrive in a day or two.

Attic Landing

We were super pleased when we came home and saw what they did for the doorway that goes into the new attic space... we were thinking that it was going to be a rather small door on the existing landing between the second & third floors (which has a sloped ceiling due to the roof line).

We thought doorway would go somewhere here

We came home to find out that they had framed out that whole landing, and it feels SO much bigger!

Here's the new view, taken from the same spot as above...

We were happy to see that the hardwood floors reach all the way back to that sill!

Here's the view looking up the steps from the second floor:

There will be a full sized door, and an arched window on that back wall.

There's even enough room to put a chair or little shelf or table on the landing in front of the new wall that will be to the left of the doorway!

Here's the reverse view from where the new window will be...

We thought it was going to be an under-eve, crawl space for storing bins, so it was a huge surprise to see how much space is going to be here!  It's now got me thinking of uses for it other than storage... sitting room? sewing room? library?  Who knows... finishing off this space is like #142 on our list of things we need to do around here!!!!

Enough daydreaming, back to the present... 

Another exciting thing for us was that we got a peek at the original shake roof that was under the existing slate roof.  

They had put a wood frame on top of it to attach the slate:

We love seeing the history of the house and how it was constructed!

So, this was our last great surprise before the rain... 

which was not a great surprise (especially since the roof is not yet on)!

More to come on that!

Phase 5- Tree House Complete!

We left off with tar paper on the roof, and now the shingles are up too!

Mike finished up the "bridge" that goes to the lookout tree:

It's was a bit scary, since it's over 10 feet off the ground!








And then the cargo net arrived- Mike had custom ordered it for the length & width we needed.  We got the green color so it will blend in with the pine trees.











We ran the cargo net under the bridge, so that it's more secure if the boys lost their footing on the bridge.

We're calling it complete!

The boys decided to decorate by having their guests sign in...

I'm pretty sure this won't be very cool when they're 14 years old!  ha ha!

I love this one!

Related posts:
Phase 1: Building the platform
Phase 2: Framing the sides & putting up siding
Phase 3: Ladder & roof framing
Phase 4: Roof & Rope

Building a Tree House- Phase 4

Sorry for the lack of updates on the blog!  August was a busy month between family vacations and then preparing for back to school.  But we've gotten a few things done around the house in between all that!

Here's the latest on the tree house... 

The roof is almost done- Mike put up the plywood and tar papered it.  Now we just need to do the shingles.

Rope entrance is complete- We got a nice gauge rope for the boys to climb up and down.  Mike knotted it at intervals to make it easier for them.

Here are photos of the inside:

This is the "rope entrance"

This is the "ladder entrance"

Now we're working on the crows nest entrance... you can sort of see it here:

We're taking down those boards on the tree in the foreground, and replacing them with new.  

The boys will have a little bridge going from the tree house out to a little stand within that tree on the right.  We've ordered cargo netting for the sides of the bridge.  

I'm hoping we'll have it totally done in the next week or two!

Related posts:
Phase 1: Building the platform
Phase 2: Framing the sides & putting up siding
Phase 3: Ladder & roof framing

Tree House- Phase 3

We're keeping things moving with the tree house...we left off with half of the siding completed...

Mike finished up the siding, and then turned his attention to building a nice sturdy ladder.

He buried the bottom support pieces to keep everything in place:

It's also attached to the tree house at the top of the ladder, so no chance of it tipping. The end of the ladder extends into the "room" a bit, which gives a nice handle for getting your balance coming in or  preparing to go down the ladder.

Next up was getting some structure in place for the roof:

 The weird angles made it a little tricky, but I think this will look great once the plywood & shingles are up. 

(Right now we have the blue tarp over it to protect the wood from rain)

I'm so impressed with how Mike's put this together. 

Just a few more steps to go before it's ready for the boys to take over!

Related Posts:

Phase 1: Building the platform

Phase 2: Framing the sides & putting up siding

Icicles

The winter storms just keep coming!

I looked out the window the other day and saw this...

HUGE icicles hanging from the front gutters of the house.

I'd guess they were 3-5 feet long!

They're pretty, but surely not good for the gutters- or the front porch roof if they fall!

Mike took a broom stick, opened the 2nd floor windows & knocked them all down.

I do wish I got a photo of the front of the house (from the outside) with them!

But it was cold... I don't like the cold... at all!

But with the rate of snow & ice that's been coming down this week, I may have another chance soon!

Barn Roof Finished

Last summer we put the new roof on the front half of the big barn...  but shortly after phase 1 of "Project Barn Roof", my brother (who was helping us with the roof) had a serious break & surgery on his wrist.
Obviously, the barn roof was put on the back burner!

Now that he's fully healed, he came back to complete the job :)

This time, Mike went up to get some up close pics... the back of the barn roof was in bad shape!

In progress...

And Done...

Hard to tell in the photo from the ground, 

but it really looks fantastic.

(I was too chicken to climb up for photos!)

Another HUGE THANK YOU to Nick for helping us with this!