Sunday, September 24, 2006

Roof repair gone overboard.

Well the plan was to build up the roof to allow for insulation. That meant removing some of the shingles and replacing some of the rotten wood underneath and then affixing the insulation pannels and re-shingling. Simple enough. But as we got started and as we removed the shingles and wood we ended up with a big hole in the roof.




Conveniently that day I happened to be working with my friend Jonathan who, as I discovered, is a genius.




The big hole inspired the genius Jonathan to formulate a genius plan. This is how the hole appeared to him:



TA DA!!! A BALCONY!!!!!! A balcony will be created 192 square feet large while sacrificing none of the usable interior space (it all would have been storage). Brilliant indeed.

There's just one problem, the ceiling is too low to get onto the balcony without hitting your head. A simple plan was devised. RAISE THE ROOF!




We altered the angle of the roof on the balcony side to allow for a comfortable access.




It used to follow the angle of the truss but we raised it about 18 inches.




This is how we supported it on the right side.

All in all I think this is pretty darn exciting. Yay!!


I also want to thank my friend and neighbor Chris Reiff who climbed right up on the roof with us to help out.


Chris is also something of a genius. He designs toys and runs a website that pieces together Start Wars parts from all of the odd detritus that happened to be lying around Lukasfilm in the 70's.

Thanks Chris and Jonathan!

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Holy Matrimony!

I'm sorry I haven't been posting for the past couple of weeks.

Here's where I've been:




That's right I'm now a husband and Sarah is now an Allan!

And...let's dance.



Next week I'm putting a new roof on the "homestead". That should be some excitement for the all you This Old House types. Incidentally, last minute wedding preparations included running electricity to the barn. I didn't have time to write my own vows because I was busy running conduit.