Sunday, September 21, 2014

the roof: week two



Monday morning the final touches were put on the roof before submitting it to scrutiny by the city building inspector.  This meant that the nails had to be driven flat,  all the seams even, the insulation was the right kind and grade,  the new plywood met standards.  We ended up having to have more preparatory work done that we had thought because of both the age of the original roof and all the new city requirements.  By the time the crew left, however, it looked ready to be checked.

New plywood in the front.  Pkgs. of new shingles stacked on the ridge line.

In the back
Tuesday morning the inspector showed up, crawled all over the roof and pronounced it sound!  Then started a whole new round of pounding  as the new shingles went on.  It has been very hot during this past week so work went from about 7:30 in the morning until 1 PM.  It's just too hot after that.  The work has been slow but steady and nobody has passed out with heat stroke.  Although I was sad to see my shake shingles go, I like how this looks.



Tomorrow they will finish up on the west corner in the back, anchor down the flashings of the skylights and solar tube, and generally prepare for Tuesday's final inspection.  There are a couple of things that have to be done inside the house, too.  Mr. C was thrilled when he heard this news but has been led, gently, to understand that it MUST be done.  It is now required that any room in a house that has a closet must have a smoke alarm so that means, for us, three smoke alarms when now we have none.  Any hallway must have both a smoke alarm (yes) and a carbon monoxide alarm (no).  The hallway alarms must be hardwired.  So on Monday, John will install two combo units in our two hallways and three alarms in the bedrooms/office.  These are  items we didn't need when the house was built.  If everything is as it should be (must be!) we should be finished with this little project.

But wait!  There's more!  The pool has developed a nasty leak and, before we head south again, we must get it repaired.






 We noticed we'd been losing water ~ there is an autofill function and you can hear it click on and I was hearing it constantly ~ and this is a very bad sign.  There is a crack on one side of the fountain feature and we think that's where the leak is located.  Mr. C turned off the autofill ten days ago.  As of this morning, the pool level is down 9".  Through some mathematical gymnastics (how many gallons of water in a cubit foot = 7.5 X the L & W of the pool X how many inches of water have been lost ) we arrived at 2,000 gallons.  Yes, we've lost about 200 gallons per day. 


We'll let it continue to drain until it stops and, the thinking goes, that will be the site of the leak.  So, she asks, what if it drains dry?  Then what?  Stay tuned.



2 comments:

Liz said...

Your new roof looks wonderful! I love the new shingles! So sorry about the crack in the pool. Yes, it is nasty.

And, now you know what I've been going through, after having the pre-sale home inspection, at the (very good) suggestion of my RE agent. I've had to install 3 new smoke alarms (CO2 one OK), had electrical and plumbing work done, and my dear, steady, handy guy, Russell, has worked his buns off for several weeks, coating the decks, coating the roof-- plus repairs on both. He has also done some misc. painting & fixed this & that. He has one more day here Wednesday, and we're done. The electrician, who I am ready to strangle, has one more hour to put in, and then, please God, I'm through with him. He came last Sat., took to sawing wood up on the deck, to make this ugly thing on the wall above the deck to protect anyone who might reach up and touch the wires for some reason (which has now been taken off, and replaced by Russell with something more attractive), and RUINED the freshly stained deck. It took Russell two hours to clean it up, plus now he'll have to restain the ruined part. Not only is the electrician much too important & busy to clean up after himself, but he keeps putting in an hour here and there, and rushes off to some other job. ARRRRRGGGGHHHH!

Please let this be over SOOOOOONNNN!!!

Liz said...

PS--I keep forgetting to ask you if you'd heard that they've just made a movie of "Gone Girl." Opens Oct. 3 at a theatre near you, just in case you wanted to experience that mess all over again! :-) I believe I'll give that one a miss...