We Got Sewer!

Today my brother-in-law, who's a former plumber, showed up and announced he's running our drains for us.  He and Felix dug a huge hole in the back yard and tapped into the clay sewer lateral, and dug it under the footing at the back of the house.  

We also completed the purlins on both sides of the roof, and are doubling up the rafters.  It rained for two days again, and we were vacuuming up water off our floor.  We're about two weeks away from drying in the roof, and it's supposed to rain the next two weekends!

The rafters are all doubled up, and now it's time to deal with those 70 sheets of plywood that are stacked up on the roof (Home Depot's forklift barely reached high enough to set it on the roof).  The plywood is all nailed off, and I nailed a few more sheets of plywood shear panel to stiffen up the walls.  We passed Nailing Inspection!

How Dry I Am!

Whoopee!  All the tar paper is on the roof, and we're finally dried-in!  I first tried this new fiberglass-based underlayment, but it has a loose grit to the surface that makes it way too slippery to walk on.  I returned it, and installed old-fashioned 30-lb. felt using orange plastic-head nails.

By the way, the roofing co. only charges $35 to deliver and stack all those shingles on the roof, which wouldn't even cover your deductible for the hospital visit when you kill yourself hoofing 72 bundles of shingles up the ladder.

Installed the drip edge and valley flashing, and actually started nailing shingles on today.  I bought a cheap pneumatic coiled roofing nailer from Harbor Freight, and it works great!  Since none of the plumbing vents, gas vents or electrical drops are done, I will have to cut those in afterward, as well as the skylight tubes.  

Dec. 24, 2002

The roof is complete!  Shown here is the slot in the sheathing that will be below the ridge vent.  It rained hard soon after this, and it was nice to lay in bed listening to the rain hit the roof without worrying what is getting wet.

Dec. 25, 2002