Week 3 Day 1 Monday June 26, 2006 Any One for a movie?

Hi, after a "relaxing" weekend, we started work bright and early today. At the usual time of 7am. Luck is with us and we have a stretch of sunny weather ahead of us-though the downside is its hot! The crew was cooking today on the roof and tomorrow might be hotter. Much was accomplished today. The center section of the roof was removed to make room for the tower. Michael was part of the crew today. I took pictures, cleaned up, pulled nails, etc. and even happily made coffee in the cool kitchen. After the shingles were removed(what, no tar paper....mmmm.the reason the plywood warped), the plywood was removed, then the rafters, and then the north wall was built on its side and stood up. The floor was also built for the tower and I neglected to take the camera up when I went up to inspect. The windows will be cut later.....they aren't due to arrive here till after July 27, so we may have a big dark box on our roof till then. We'll ask tomorrow, and maybe we can put in a "temporary" plastic one....So work ended at 6....everyone really tired, but I think pleased with the progress.

At this rate, we'll be painting wall board in no time. Its great it's going so fast.

Love, Jane

Tuesday June 27, 2006

Cooking on the Roof. Jane's glad there is such a thing as "men's work".

 Hi, hidden work today, attaching the rafters of the south roof to the new tower floor, etc, so not a very interesting day as far as pictures go. Poor Zapper was sick, no doubt from the heat, so it was a three man team. As you can see, I do work, so finally Michael took a picture of me painting the plywood that will be the roof in our mudroom. I did get some pictures of the new tower floor and wall with plywood windows. The heat (95' in the shade) was worse today so work finished at 3:30. Greg would get here at 6;00 am if he could convince Dave, but that's not going to happen (lucky for me). So despite the "easy" day, I'm drained as usual. The weather forecast is 40% chance of showers tonight. It's a bit threatening, but tomorrow should be sunny again.

Love, Jane

Wednesday June 28, 2006 Week 3 day 3. Did I hear Gregg say "6:00 am?"

Hi, It was another lovely, hot day, but a few degrees cooler than yesterday. We had no rain last night, and tonight looks clear. The heat is wearing the crew down, though Mike hoses himself down to keep cool and he says it works wonders. Because of the heat, Greg has decided to start work at 6am tomorrow. Doubt I'll get up, but it does get pretty noisy..........Zapper made it to work today, but was the unfortunate victim of a board falling off the roof. He got hit on his lower back. He made it through the day, but he was pretty sore. Luckily he didn't get hit on the head, though he said he got hit on the head with 3/4" rebar(metal bar) and survived just fine....he has a tough head I guess. The day started with another slight set back. Last night we decided the windows needed to come up 3" so the upper part of the north wall had to be rebuilt. But I'm glad our mistake was caught now, not when the windows were installed. The three other walls went up, though they, too, have plywood covering the windows. We'll have to wait quite a while for the view! The 2 beams also were attached. I spent a little time sanding the posts in my studio.

Love, Jane

Week 3 Day 4 Thursday June 29, 2006 Topping It Off

 Hi, woke up to Michael asking me where the windows are to go on the north side of the mud room. Hummmm. So I got up at 6:15. Didn't sleep so well, thinking way too much about building. Zapper stayed home today to recuperate, but Michael was able to fill in. Another nice day, and only got up to 90' and was a bit breezy, so it wasn't such a horrible situation on the roof. The mudroom north wall was raised early this morning by Dave and Mike while Greg had the complicated hip roof rafters to cut. Then later in the day, Dave and Mike got them up. Pretty impressive. I asked Greg if he liked doing puzzles as a child, and of course he said, yes. He said he had trouble with Rubric's Cube and had to take it apart to figure it out.

The week ends, thankfully, today. They like working hard for 4 days to have 3 off, which pleases Mike and me, too. There is a tarp over the tower rafters, so hopefully, we won't have any big wind storms this weekend. None in the forecast, but it has clouded up a bit. So we'll have time to think about the greenhouse, make a run to the dump, catch up in the garden, and maybe even relax a bit. Have a fun 4th of July weekend.

Love, Jane