First Roof Cover

Oh, this weather! After a drenching rain overnight, we awoke to a continued gentle rain. Phil headed up to town to get a few more rolls of bituthene and a sealant that he needed, so he used the time well (we had planned to have him go today anyway because not much is open on the 4th of July). Back home, he struggled with brief intermittent rain squalls. How annoying to be ready to go, shoes on, up on the scaffolding, only to have the rain start after a few minutes. Take wet shoes off inside: rain stops. Repeat throughout the afternoon.

Despite the once again shortened workday, he felt reasonably pleased with his progress. He put up the remaining joists in the first quadrant.

That let him actually screw down the first bit of roofing! Yay!

And he used the special sealant he picked up today, a polyurethane sealant (which he's never seen in any big box store): he was in raptures about how easily and cleanly it applied. One of the things we're learning is that different suppliers specialize in different things. Our original supplier managed to get all the block and various wood that we needed. We've used a more local company to get some insulation, and expect to order windows and doors from them: they are more wood people. A different local company specializes in concrete work. Not necessarily the cement, but the waterproofing bituthene and sealants. Another local company deals with roofing material, so when we order the rubber membrane to go up there, they will be that supplier. And, of course, the sand and gravel came from a different supplier. Then there's the electrical company, the propane company, the greenhouse company, the big equipment excavator guys ... it's amazing to consider how many things, from how many places, need to converge. But that's an aside.

He put up another two pieces of rimboard, leaving just a four-foot gap to fill in later.

He had noticed that several joists weren't quite meeting perfectly on the rimboard, so he measured and realized that the structure had shifted about a half inch along the span, so he unscrewed some things and had Jadon come help him hold it all in place to make it perfectly join.
So visible progress, yes; and maybe at a slightly more sustainable pace than a 15 hour day.

In the evening, as the mist rose heavily all over because everywhere is saturated and soggy, Isaiah went down to help him do a last half sheet of plywood roofing. He skipped shoes that time, and just went down in flip flops, because the plywood was already on site, and just needed to be screwed into place.

I had a startled moment today when I was doing some site cleanup. On the flooring rimboard, right next to the plywood, was a green lump of foam that stood out. It was a bit disgusting to consider that tan foam Phil squirted just last week had already turned green, so I bent to touch it and realized it was a little tree frog. So that's where all the frog eggs down in the crawlspace came from! It is tree frog celebration time here in the country. The cicadas had nothing on these little green guys: the volume outside in the evening is astonishing.