More Day 1 Roofing

More Pictures throughout Day 2 from the camera I have in the tree:

Started the Roof in the rain

I got the roofing materials delivered Wednesday last week and in the absence of offered help, I decided to go ahead and start tearing off the East end of the roof since the weather 10-day forecast was favorable. Turns out that the forecasters decided to change their minds on Friday when I started, upgrading the forecast to scattered showers; I didn't get the change until after I came inside having just gotten the tar paper up on the roof and my tools cleaned up in time for the real rain to start coming down.

The shingles got delivered to the roof while Sam and I were at a movie, Happy Feet 2, which was actually pretty good. The guy was just finishing up when we got back to the house. I did have to move the 40 sheets of plywood, I got for sheeting the whole front, from the gravel beside the driveway, where it was unloaded, into the garage so it would be secure until I used it.

40 sheets moved one at a time, it took almost an hour. 

Sam helped with sweeping up the saw dust and clearing out the area for the plywood to sit out of the way a little.

While I was actually moving the plywood, Sam was busy painting my Father's Day gift, a frame he had put together at a HD kids project workshop in early June. 

I started out the day with "trimming" the tree in our front yard so I could mount a camera that would allow me to create a time-lapse video of the work I was doing. I got a little carried away, but it was necessary to get a clear view of the whole roof. 

Anyways, I got the old roofing cleared off and the shingles piled on the roof of the garage over the driveway since I forgot to put in the order for the garbage bin until after I started on the roof. The bin got delivered the next day, on Friday, and I got it all moved into the bin easily from the roof.

I digress. So I was anticipating needing to replace most of the sheeting on the roof, but found that most of it was pretty good on that side and I only had to replace one piece that was badly delaminated. It took a lot of effort to get the sheet out without totally tearing it to pieces. I have to admit that the staples they fastened it down with were doing their job well.

I got some of the insulation moved around while the sheeting was off and baffles installed in the rafter spaces where the vent holes are above the top plate. There were some obvious signs of something tunneling in the insulation, but no droppings, so that was at least positive. I have caught 3 mice in the past couple months in the kitchen, so that may be a sign as to where they were hanging out when not in the kitchen.

After trying to level out the insulation, there were some definite gaps in the coverage especially over the outside walls and there was a lack of enough insulation to adequately fill the whole area at the end of the house. There is a sheet of plywood that is put up I guess to help support the roof where the end roof is framed from the rafters that run the other way for the main part of the roof (if you can follow that without a picture.)

I started to get the sheet of plywood back into place and the clips in place between the rafters when it started sprinkling. I didn't think it was going to do much more and was thankful for the cooling effect. I worked to get it in place as quickly as possible and got it nailed in place just as it started to sprinkle harder. My neighbor got home about that time and offered to help with the tar paper before it really started raining. He and his son, who are evidently roofers, came up and basically took over putting up the tar paper and tucking pieces of it up in the vulnerable places around the gable, that I may not have thought of, so quick I found myself just standing there not knowing how to help them without being in the way.

It just started rainig when I was cleaning up the tools and getting down off the roof. It was a good start, but way slower than I thought it would be going.

Diggin' it

Ended up looking around on the net trying to find out how to survey my backyard and find the relative elevations based on the level of the dirt at the house. I had a really hard time finding anything that wasn't just for surveying property lines, but I did find that transit levels could do the trick but are basically just a laser pointer with a level on it. So I got the idea to use the rotary level I have, which you can't see for nothing outside, and use it like a transit level by turning it way down where it didn't rotate and using the large ruled straightedge I have to compare the height at the laser to other places in the yard.

It turned out to be a real pain to get it lined up right, to keep it level and to keep walking back to it every time I wanted to change the "direction" I was measuring, since it was only pointing it one direction at a time. It got a little easier when Aimee was able to come out and move it around for me as I checked different places in the yard.

I was able to identify that from the level at the house where the dirt is a little below the sheeting under the siding, the railroad ties along the back fence raised beds are about 6 1/2 inches higher and the ground 9 feet out from the south side of the house, where the raised planting beds will be next to the deck, is about 3 inches higher.

about 3 inches high at the line where the raised planting bed will be at the end of the deck that will be between the house and the planter along the south wall of the family room.

6 1/2 inches too high at the back fence planting beds.

There is the laser level at the southwest corner of the family room.

There will need to be a slope from where the level is out to the 9 foot mark where the trench is, but there is just too much dirt to remove if I try to level the whole yard from that point, so after talking with Aimee we decided to put a step up at that 9 foot point (at the same line as the end of the planter, ie extend the trench in the picture out to the left to the nearer stake in the ground). This will only be about a 6 inch step up to the grass and will basically mean I won't have to remove much dirt from the main grass level; I will just need to add about 3 inches of good dirt and level it out after tilling up the top layer of what is there after tilling up leveling and compacting the dirt that is currently there.

There other project that I got done just before coming in for dinner was to extend the pavers in front of the shed so that the dirt didn't spray the shed when it rained. There is a little more grading around the shed that needs to be done, but with it being a good 2-3 inches above where the grade around it is probably going to end up it should keep water from pooling around the shed or getting in it at all.

I am feeling more and more confident about our plans for the back yard now and with them coming together a little bit, it is getting kinda exciting. There have been changes along the way as we have had to adapt to difficulties or to make the work more manageable, like putting in the step-up in to accommodate the higher than expected lawn area, but it is starting to come together. There are still a few things that we have to figure out, namely the main part of the deck and how to possibly figure out how to place the pier blocks precisely enough that the deck will be stable and flat forever more.

On we go.

Dirty work / raising the roof prep

Dirty Work:

I have been having a hard time with my back ever since we got back from Montana. The drive really messed with my back equilibrium and even the adjustment at the chiropractor hasn't really relieved it; I should probably go back sooner than my normal every three weeks. Because of this issue with my back I have been a little leery to do any real strenuous work with digging or lifting. I was really concerned I was going to bend over and pick up something small and blow another disc, like it happened last time. So I have spent a lot of the last couple weeks taking it easy, stretching, icing, laying flat on my back as much as possible to see if over a week it would loosen up enough for me to feel like it wasn't going to snap at any moment.

That didn't happen so I was out today shoveling dirt hoping that the work would loosen things up where taking it easy wasn't working. I seemed to do just fine except for being a little weak, or more like not as strong. The full wheelbarrows of dirt seemed to be so hard to handle today, at least at first.

What I got done today:

• the trench along the south side of the house for the lawn sprinklers got fully filled in
• the extra piles of dirt that had grass growing in them were moved to the front yard (about 5 loads in the wb)
• the area between the house and the cherry trees got graded down to about where it needs to be
• the trench on the south west side of the Family Room, that goes to the sprinkler valve box, was halfway filled in
• filled in part of the trench by the deck area where the drain connects into the downspout drain so that I didn't have to avoid the hole and dip there when running the wheelbarrow by that side
• the grass that was growing along the south planting beds that I didn't quite get with the sod cutter was removed that the ground along that whole area was dug down to make it more level with the rest of the lawn area.
• I started digging out for a second row of pavers in front of the shed so that the dirt doesn't spray up on the shed when it rains ( I need to power wash the shed walls to get the accumulated spray removed; the hose sprayer isn't strong enough to remove it and I don't want to have to scrub it.)

The trench is filled and the ground around it is mostly leveled out

This shows the area to the side of the house where I removed the pile of dirt that was there and graded it below the siding and away from the house toward the cherry trees. It really seems like I am going to need to remove a bunch of dirt from the lawn area to get the yard graded to the back fence. Not fun.

I used about half this pile of dirt that was left over from digging the dry wells. I should be able to use the rest of it in the trenches that are left and in the raised beds I will be putting in along the south side of the house and along the south fence.

It looks like a long list but really doesn't seem like that much sitting here thinking about what it feels like I accomplished. It was satisfying especially since I did all this after getting up at about 11:30am and getting out there about 12:30 with only about an hour and a half break at dinner time to eat, read and rest my back. I got up so late cuz I have been trying to finish a book, Isaac Asimov's Foundation series "Second Foundation". I went to bed last night, well this morning about 4am.

Raising the roof prep:

I ordered the roofing materials for doing the rest of the roof. It will be here on Wednesday and then I need to wait to make sure there is going to actually be a dry spell before starting to tear the roof off, re-sheet almost the whole front and side roofs and then put on the new tar paper, ice and water shield (in the valleys and on the hips), and shingles.

I hope they are able to get the shingles to the back side of the house. If it is the same boom loader flatbed that they delivered with last time it shouldn't be a problem. They were able to get to the ridge and seemed to have more extension left in the boom they used to move the pallets of shingles. I really hope I ordered enough.

I really need to find some help in getting this done since doing it myself will probably take me about 3 weeks. Dad is planning coming to help, as long as I can actually start the week after next and it doesn't end up later when he will be gone to his 50 Year High School Reunion trip. 

(I just realized I should take some ibuprofen so I keep the inflammation, after the work today, at a minimum. BRB)

I have such a hard time asking people to help me, especially since most of the people I would be asking are not going to be available during the week and that is when I would be able to get a lot of work done. I guess if I can get some help with the exhausting work of removing the old roof, shingles and sheeting, that would put me in a position to get the new sheeting down and tar paper on pretty quick. I really don't feel close to any of the people we know here and even though I know they would probably take the time to help if they were available, I have a hard time thinking they would be glad to help me.

The weather forcast keeps changing from 80s to 90s to partial rain to showers. I haven't checked it lately, sooo..... It still says that it is supposed to rain from next Saturday through the 4th, then get back up into the 80s by the 7th (where ther 15 day forecast ends). I will have to see how that changes over the next week and how the week after seems to be looking before I will know if I can start on the 5th or if I can possibly get some time start earlier.

Memorial pics

Here are the pics that didn't save yesterday. I put up the canopy before I remembered. Nice and sunny warm today.

Memorial Day 2012

We had a pretty low key weekend; didn't go anywhere except Walmart, didn't have anything special for food, didn't have anyone over. It was kind of nice to have a long weekend all by ourselves.

We watched several movies, played trains, planes and cars with Sam, had a couple tickle fights and rough-housed, and otherwise just hung around the house. Oh, we did make it to church too, in fact we all went together even though Aimee had to go early to do the Resource Center.

I did get out today and do a little on the yard. I got the extra boards on the middle garden bed to bring it up to the same height as the other two and got the strawberry cage started. I don't, however, have pictures since my phone decided to not save the pictures I took today; only one picture of some fire boxes at Walmart was there when I went to post this.

I will hopefully have more success tomorrow posting the pictures after I retake them.

Picking up the lumber failure

I will have to work on the video since Blogger doesn't seem to like the avi file I am trying to upload; but then neither does WMP or QuickTime Player, so maybe it is the file.

Anywho... I picked up the lumber from the rack that failed last week after we got home from Portland to celebrate Mother's Day with my mom and see them since we didn't make it up there last weekend. It was a good trip with nice weather until it rained Sunday afternoon and on the way home during the eclipse.

That was pretty cool, the eclipse.  I wish now that I would have stopped and taken a picture of the sun shadow on the clouds. We were able to view the progress of the eclipse while we drove home without needing to worry about eye protection since the clouds were our rear projection screen.

Anywho... when we got home and it wasn't raining yet, I figured it would be probably by sometime today, but hopefully not by morning, so I got to sorting out the lumber pile from where it fell.  I needed to then add an additional support and shelf brackets and distribute the boards over more shelves.

I had to survey the damage first since I wasn't sure exactly how badly the rails and shelving brackets were damaged. It looks like when the upper shelf fell, the support bracket hooks ripped through the metal between the slots.

The shelf that this load of lumber fell on below it was a different matter; it buckled under the load of the upper shelf hitting it and broke the hooks on the brackets. Both sides were pretty much equally bent.

The parts in the middle of the two brackets are supposed to have two hooks on them to hang on the slots in the rails. (I should have put an unaffected one in there too); with the top hooks being sheered off with the face of where they would be in the rail and the bottom ones just loosing the hook part.

I got the extra middle support installed by screwing in a brace between the rafters and that into the 2x4 used on end for the vertical support of the shelving bracket, like in the above picture. I had a board at the bottom of the existing two vertical 2x4s that was level with the bottom of the rails, so it was pretty easy to get the rail in line with the other ones.

Once I got that on I put in as much lumber as I could fit on three upper shelves and am hoping it isn't as much as was originally there before it failed.

Please excuse the darkness of this pic it was taken by flashlight and my phones wimpy "flash" after dark when I finished pulling in all the remaining longer boards and got them stacked to the side, mostly under the shelter.

This morning I was disappointed to find out it had been raining overnight but it hadn't gotten stuff too wet. I was mainly concerned with my trailer being out in the rain but it wasn't that wet and I put a tarp over it when I went out so it didn't get soaked with it rained today before I got it back under the shelter roof.

I put up another vertical support, about at the far end of the window in the picture below, to support the end of the long boards.  I think that one is at 10 feet from the first one, being 5 rafters away. The trailer kinda blocks it in the picture, but the boards on the bottom shelf are about 12-14 feet long, hanging beyond that last support. The lumber went on after that with the wire shelf coming next and all those shorter lap board pieces from the hot tub surround fit better since I turned the shelf upside down so the lip on the front went up instead of down, keeping the short boards from slipping off.

Sam was out there while I was doing all of this and I will have to see if I can pull a picture off of the security cameras to show him lifting one of the 14 foot boards and putting it up on the shelf for me; he wanted to help, but he did want me to do the rest by myself after that though.

Sam then helped me dig out the lava rock that was between the house and that scalloped boarder. It took two wheelbarrows full to get rid of that awful stuff. I will still need to dig more out of the dirt there when I eventually pour a concrete slab or put fresh gravel down, but it looks much better now.

Driveway Drain

Sam and I ended up going outside after lunch today to put in some of the paving stones that were under the old hot tub beside the west side of the driveway. It will give Aimee a place to step out of the car and not have to be in the gravel, but anyways. I had put some of the left over gravel there, but it wasn't always in the right place since it didn't go all the way down the driveway, but this should work pretty well.

I got the area above the driveway drain dug out and got 3 pavers set to depth. I was hoping that the pavers would be as wide as the drain surround. I ended up spending the rest of the time to corral Sam into using his dump truck to move gravel or ride his bike or just mess with the broom; anything to help keep him occupied so I could be productive. He is so interested in being right in whatever I am doing and, to be honest, he really does work hard and is usually helpful if I get him directed and interested in something he can do to help.

While I was able to be productive, I was able to dig back the mound of gravel the gas company piled on the side of the driveway when they put in the gas line. It needs a lot more work before it is down to a level that I can either add a fresh layer of gravel or pave it with the pavers that have the diamond shaped holes in them and plant some grass or walkable groundcover on that side of the driveway. I will probably have to cut the asphalt on the road side of the drain so I can fit a block in there, but it should keep the debris out of the drain better. I had to shop vac out the drain to remove what had gotten in there since I cleaned it out last time.

I may wait for the rest of this grading until I rent a tractor to till and move around the dirt in the backyard; way easier.

bacheloring it this week, trenching

Aimee is gone on a business trip this week and Sam and I are left alone to our own devices. Our devices this week are shovels and wheelbarrows among train tracks, sand tables, trips to Costco, reading books and episodes of Team Umizoomi, Special Agent Oso, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Doc something -or-other (McStuffin maybe).

We spent the afternoon out back while I dug the loose dirt out of the sprinkler trench. Sam tried to help but was mostly just taking half little shovel fulls of dirt from the trench, the wheelbarrow, the small dirt pile left over from moving the dirt yesterday. He was really trying and it is the intentions that matter, I guess. I did end up getting him interested in finding big rocks from the ground or wheelbarrow or pile he was digging from and putting them in the red bucket; I will have to remove them anyways, so it was worth a try. I think he ended up with maybe a dozen or so, but it occupied him for a little while.

And when that failed to interest him very long, we went and got the sand table out and I had Sam shovel the fresh sand from the 5 gallon bucket to the table. 

So after working out in the yard, we read a couple books and since Sam wasn't resting well, I laid down with him. He finally cuddled his baby doll and kitty, with me using his teddy bear for a pillow and went to sleep. This picture is taken in the mirror beside his bed, which is why it looks a little weird.

It was almost 4pm when he finally settled down and fell asleep so I got up and took a shower while he rested. I guess he really needed the rest cuz when I got him up after my shower so he could wake up enough to go get dinner and go to Costco to get some provisions and ultimately a frozen yogurt/ice cream machine on total impulse. He was really sweaty and hot from sleeping under the covers in a 75 degree room and was just not waking up well, so I sat with him on the couch for about 10 minutes, talking with him. I then realized that the mail was probably here and carried him out to get the mail, then set him down on the LR couch while I got the RedBox movie we got for a free rental for Mother's Day and checked how long the rental went for. When I got back to get Sam's shoes on, I found him like this:

Then in the car, I think he dozed off again. We had even gone down the street a couple houses to say hi to Turbo, who is our neighbor's dog that Sam really likes. But as soon as we got on our way to get food, here is Sam in the back seat. He was so warm from napping that he wanted to wear the coat and gloves when we went out the door, but it was windy and a little cool, so I can understand.

He finally woke up fully by the time we had dinner and got to Costco. That was a quick trip and then on the way home we got a call from Aimee on her business trip. We ended up calling her back when we got home after a stop at FM for gas and movie return. Aimee got her Google+ account set up finally and we did a hangout and got to see her room and get some face time while she is away.

Sam wanted to take a picture to send to Mom of his extra special really big surprise he made for her this morning; evidently the torch light in the LR was too bright, but not too bright to wave.

I was kinda worried he may not sleep well tonight but evidently, even with all the napping, he was still tired enough that he didn't have any issues falling asleep.

Distractions, among neighbors

So Mother's Day. I have been trying to get this HD project, plant carrier, painted with Sam since we made it two weekends ago. The workbench took up the first week and I just didn't get to it until Saturday night when I painted the bottom, inside and out, so that it was sure to be somewhat water resistant in the case of the potted plant leaking. I got two coats of black on it after Sam went to bed, ready for him to paint the rest of it in the morning.

Sam helped paint each side at a time; royal blue, a lighter blue, yellow and orange. It took several coats of each paint color and we were in and out of the garage as each color dried. Aimee was talking with her parents on Skype, so Sam was checking out what they were doing and interjecting his own information and antics in the process while we were inside.

Once the paint was all done and dried, we had some flower and lady bug foam stickers, they provided with the project, and Sam stuck them on the outside of the box. It was looking pretty good and all that was left was to give it to Aimee.

Sam seemed quite proud of his box and was maybe a little disappointed he was making it for his Mom; he kept saying he wanted to make one for himself. I will have to see what I can come up with for him to have one.

I ended up going outside and starting on determining how much dirt I was going to have to remove from in front of the Rhode we took out in the front yard: the ground along the front of the house is sloping the wrong way, toward the house. I discovered it was going to need to be dug down about 3-4 inches out about 8 feet from the house to give it a 2 inch drop from the level at the house. I still have to look it up to see what is recommended so hopefully it won't require it to be lower than that.

I guess I need a better picture... will try to replace this one after the sun goes down and my phone won't black out the shadows, or I could just take it with the DSLR that wouldn't have that problem. 

I got about a 4 feet wide section at the end of the house dug down to that level but realizing I was going to need to dig down that for all along the front of the house, as well as down the side of the house, was not a good realization. That 8 feet from the house is about where the grass is going to start so it looks like I will be redoing the grass in the front as well. 4 inches is just a little too much of a ledge next to the existing grass to not require to level it out a little.  It will allow me to make the grass area a little more level than how sloped it is now.

Since we were talking about what to do with the front next to the road when I was taking out the yucca, we decided we would make a berm like the neighbors across the street, with landscape timbers creating a retaining wall to hold the dirt back at the road side. I will need to take out the railroad ties that are there now, put in the landscape timbers (pinned together with spikes) and then use the dirt from next to the house to build up the ground for the berm.

While I was out there, the neighbor next door came over to fulfill his offer to help me move some dirt with the tractor he was borrowing. He and two of his boys, maybe his son and his son's friend, came over and moved the two big piles of dirt I had in the back, left over from the dry well holes that I didn't need to refill the holes, but will eventually need for all the raised beds we are putting in. I had to take down the section of the fence where the gate is so he could get the tractor to the back yard, but it is in such bad shape and the post by the gate was already broken off when I was trenching that all it took was me bending it at the other post til the nails gave and moving a fern out of the way; that got planted in the front by where I was filling in the rhode hole.

About 5 or 6 buckets full of the two boys and me shoveling what Chuck couldn't scoop with the slightly quirky tractor, we have a big pile in front of the shed where the grass will not be and the area where it was is now clear for grass and raised bed preparations. I was quite spent after trying to keep up with the teenagers, not that I felt I had to, I was just working along side them and getting way more winded than them. I guess I should have just stood back and let them do it.

I guess next I need to finish clearing out the sprinkler line trench so I can get that in, bury the sprinkler line and then get the new zone hooked up to the valve box. the hooking up may have to wait for a little bit until some other things get started, but will need to happen before grass goes in.

Unplanned Saturday Afternoon Snowball

So after getting Sam's workbench to a semi-finished working state. I took a break to cool off and the neighbor ended up knocking on the door asking if he could take the dirt I had piled up in my front yard for his yard. He had borrowed a tractor with a bucket on the front and a tiller on the back and spent a couple hours moving the couple yards of dirt to his backyard.

I was watching them on the side yard camera and although they were being quite careful with the dirt next to my 2 year-old tree, I decided to go try and work out front to keep a closer eye out. I started out working on the rhode hole next to the house. I got some of the bark off the piles I had made around the hole before we took it out and was putting it out by the street to make that look a little nicer before stirring all the dirt around in the hole. I then noticed that the water meter access was disturbed again, most likely from moles and I decided to work on digging out around it and putting in some retaining blocks.

I started digging and ended up getting pricked by the yucca leaves so much that I started taking out some of the starts around the outside of the plant to get it back out of my way. Well, this is what happened:

for those who are not familiar with our yard, there used to be yucca's between the fir tree and the irises.

and the tops are gone from this mess of yuccas; will need to dig out the roots at some point.

view from the street side

borrowed my neighbor's truck to haul the yuccas and the left over  bushes in the back that got damaged in the snow. 

the hole from the yucca after Tom, my neighbor yanked most of it out with his truck, with the water meter showing on the right.

The corner of the yard where the neighbor took the dirt from , where I limbed up the fir tree, the yucca gone and the dirt barrier for the water meter started.