Up on the Roof

It has been a while since I have embarked on any major projects around the artfarm. When we first moved to the country 11 years ago I did project after project at a pretty furious pace. We inclosed the two car garage and sheetrocked and painted. We added a porch across the front of the ex-garage. We turned the drive way into a garden with raised beds and a fountain. I turned the old pole barn into a studio using materials I salvaged from the old cotton gin in downtown Elgin. We tore down the old stone chimney that had a leaky flu and replaced it with a huge picture window and added a wood-burning stove. We completely remodeled the kitchen, tearing out the old bar and cabinets, rerouting the A/C intake and thermostat, built a whole wall of built in cabinets and built a big island with concrete countertops. We added several gardens, a goat pen, a 13,000 gallon duck pond and cross fenced our land.

I was 43 when we moved and about 50 pounds lighter. I could work all day and come home and work in the evenings and all day on the weekends. But that was then and this is now.

We have been wanting to make one last major change (well, almost the last unless you count our desire to remodel our bathroom) to our house. We want to build a screened in porch along the east facing wall of our house . This gives the whole east side of our house shade. We also want to change the entrance to our house so that you would come in through the screened in porch. The huge picture window moves over to where the door is now. This will change the traffic pattern for the better. We can then have a good place in the corner to arrange furniture for a place to sit and have conversation.

So last spring over the break I worked on the porch for a week. I got all the posts set and the roof on. Then we entered the second hottest summer on record with one day shy of tying the record for most days over 100 degrees. Needless to say, I wasn't too enthusiastic about climbing up on the roof to put on the flashing. The flashing goes under the existing roof's shingles and overlaps the new porch roof to keep water from dripping down between the two roofs. Since we didn't get any rain this summer it wasn't a big deal to have no flashing.

So this weekend I spent about 8 hours on the roof putting on the flashing. It is not easy. The hard part is getting the flashing up underneath the existing roof. There might be an easy way to do it but if there is I don't know it. It is an awkward position to work in, down on your knees or laying on your side, trying to lift up the shingles and scoot a long piece of tin underneath it. I finally managed after a lot of skinned knuckles and fair share of choice words. After the flashing is under the roof it is just a matter of getting it all stuck down with various adhesives and screws.

Now we just have to wait for the first rain to see if it leaks. It is supposed to rain tonight so we'll see what happens. No we can plan on tearing out the entire front wall and moving around the windows and doors. I am hoping to take some time off work this fall to have a big chunk of time to do this. Once you rip out an exterior wall it is good to have enough time to get it dried in, in a hurry.

I can sure tell I am not used to doing this kind of work. I am really sore today. These old muscles are not as limber as they used to be.