Sunday, May 23, 2010

More Roof Brackets, Fascia Done (sort of)

After consulting with my Mentor, who reassured me that putting nails through the roof was standard practice, especially in light of the fact that we were replacing the roof anyway with a standing seam, I went ahead and put in the roof brackets. I needed two more and our good friend CF said he had plenty and not to buy anymore but borrow them from him. Sounds good to me, though they are not exorbitantly expensive. These things add up, however, and being frugal is just in my genes. For the record, as my Mentor knows, I suffer for it.

With the brackets in (note the green rope-for my harness), I now needed something that would extend the platform up the root and allow me to work higher up. An extra ladder would have worked perfectly, but I don't have an extra ladder. I had to make this crazy elaborate set up just to get onto the platform which involved one ladder flush with the roof and a second ladder just to get up to that one. I could have borrowed a ladder, there are plenty out there, and our good friend and neighbor K&BJ offered his (they have several, they're farmers), but I figured I could come up with a solution that was simpler, cheaper, and definitely much less safe.

So I built one. I figured it doesn't have to be perfect because it is not holding up my total weight since it will be laying flat against the roof. It works pretty well, and in a pinch, I can still borrow one, but for now, this works fine. In fact, I don't know if you noticed this, but not only are the windows gone from the dormers, but so is most of the fascia. Of course, taking the stuff off is the easy part, now I have to cut, stain and install the new fascia, which is a bit of a bummer, especially with the heat really starting to kick in and the multitude of wasps nests that are in the dormer, but that just adds to the fun, and only increases my cache amongst real men. For the record, I've been stung enough times by wasps and hornets to know that they don't hurt that bad, but somehow, when they start flying around my head, I can't help but panic, which is a bad thing to do when you're standing on the roof of a house.

And on the subject of fascia, all of the fascia on the ground level is done. Putting those last pieces at the apex of the gable was not easy, because they had to line up. Oh well, nothing a little wood filler can't fix. All that's left is, you guessed it, the fascia on the dormers, my favorite subject to whine and obsess over. I'm going to kind of miss it when it's all done... yeah right.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.

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