Roof Project Progress

I've been silent about the house for weeks now. Initial progress seemed lightning fast with the roof tear off in just two days. And then Roger and his crew got involved. It took them two weeks to install the gutter. It turns out they lost a week to sickness and the need to order more material. Then there was an actual week for gutter fabrication and installation. The the roofers came by and in two days they installed the roof. While all of this was going on, the masons were happily tuckpointing and caulking away.

Then we hit a bit of a slow spot. We're waiting for downspouts from Roger. The masons went away to work on another project (I think the roofers scared them away). Matt the carpenter was busy with other projects. Things started moving again last week, but we're still not done. I had really hoped to have everything buttoned down by the end of October. I'm getting tired of driving up to the house and seeing scaffolding out front. It's looking now that we'll be done by the end of this week. Really.

So here is the status check.

Gutters - Roger is telling me that he'll have the downspouts in his hands on Tuesday and should have everything wrapped up by the end of the week. This weekend though I found a section of gutter that is not secured by gutter hangers, so he's got more work to do, that he doesn't know about it. I also have to go around and double check he soldered all the seams. The first day he thought he was down, I looked at the gutters and found two unsoldered seams. Roger seems to have a problem with details.

Masonry - Howie seems to think he'll be done on Tuesday. That's assuming that I don't find anything he missed or anything he did wrong. I'll be going over the house with a fine tooth comb tonight. Howie does pretty good work. There's a few spots he's missed and some of his caulking is a bit wide, but I'm comparing his work to the work done by his boss Larry, who happens to have 30 more years of experience than Howie.

Roof - The roof is almost done. The roofers put on the wrong color flashing around the chimneys. They are supposed to be coming to replace it this week. Other than that, shingles, underlay and roof vents are all installed. I was up on the roof this weekend and it looks good.

Carpentry - Matt finished his work last Friday. He put up new fascia board, new pine cove molding underneath the gutters and re-sided the dormer walls with cedar shake. He made only one minor mistake, that no one is going to notice. He also had to put up two unpainted fascia boards, which is not ideal, but not the end of the world. All the other trim and boards I back primed, primed and painted on the ground (with help from various friends and family) so that they would be extremely water resistant. Those two boards won't have the backsides painted, as I can't reach them now that they are nailed on.

Painting - As mentioned, all new wood was painted on the ground, by myself, the in laws, Pusher and Puck. Many thanks to all for your help! What remains is to paint the fascia on the north and south sides of the house, to paint the dormer window trim on the west side, and to caulk around the base of the gutters. I'm hoping to finish this in the next two or three days with the unseasonably warm weather we're having. The soffits are still a mess, but that will have to wait for the future.

With the sole exception of the scaffolding at the front of the house, the front is done. I'm waiting for the scaffolding to come down before I post a picture. I'm getting tired of this project. It's taken longer than I wanted, cost more than I wanted and not turned out exactly as I wanted. The end product looks good. I just hope it will last the thirty to fifty years I want it to.