Hi Everyone,Sunday evening at the Vineyard and time is hanging a bit heavy. So here goes Part 3.
Abby, can you transfer it to the 38samoset ave blogspot site? If you all haven't looked at this site yet, Abby has done a fine job weaving pictures with the text.
Peter, Ellyn, and Bob did return on April 26th. We met Dan and Connor and his mom who had come in the night before. The old roof was sealed up nice and tight, as well as the one window cut in the back wall and the window hole in the back bedroom which was awaiting a new smaller window. Thanks Peg and Bob for sealing up the place. Peter and Dan proceeded to unseal everything, and tear out the roof over the pantry, disturbing colonies of ants. I'm thinking that the ants aren't carpenter ones, since they don't seem to have devoured any of the walls. We needed to take off this roof and the old peak above the shower in order to build the new peaked roof extension. Peter focused on putting up the rafters for this extension and Bob installed the ledger boards in the pink room and back bedroom walls and drilled holes for bolts to go through the inside and outside ledger boards to make sure the roof rafters were well supported. Dan switched off helping Peter and Bob and taking Connor for walks. He certainly is a live wire. Ellyn frantically cleaned and organized the kitchen and took the stuff out of the pantry as the dirt sifted down through the old roof. On Sunday, Bob and Peter went to church. Dan et al. decided to take an early boat home, but first he carried the last 6 90lb bundles of shingles up to the roof so Peter wouldn't have to do it. What a guy! Ellyn had to take a noon boat so she could get to Boston to meet her plane, so Peter rode the cab over to VH with her and took the bus back. Bob was still struggling with the last bolt, so Peter held the head with a wrench and advised Bob to give the nut a big jerk - lo and behold it tightened. Bob helped Peter get the first piece of plywood up on the new rafters before he took off for the boat.
Peter stayed down until Friday morning, May 2. He finished putting up the rafters got plywood over them - a few tense moments here as to who would win, the plywood or Peter. Fortunately the victory went to Peter. He covered the new roof with water and ice just before the rain. Unfortunately, he was a little short on water and ice, but Chris Kelly and his motorcycle buddies came over on Thursday and brought some water and ice from Norwell on the back of his motorcycle. Peter also moved the dresser in the back bedroom over in front of the window opening and put 5 bundles of shingles through the opening and on the dresser. It seemed that we would not need them and he wanted to keep them dry so we could return them. The walls over the pantry were not in, so there was quite a breeze blowing into the kitchen. The rain stayed out, however. Peter left the crew early Friday morning to take the boat to Woods Hole, drive to Providence, and fly to Birmingham, Al, for a war tax resister's meeting.
When he returned on Monday, he found the house again sealed up tight - even a board across the door to the pantry so the wind and weather couldn't get into the kitchen. It was a fairly nice week. Peter cut out the window openings in the back wall. Before he could put in the windows, he had to put a second layer of TYVEK on the back wall. Bob had put on the first layer the weekend Bill Bond put up the roof. The first layer (5 feet wide) can be put on while standing on the ground. The second layer needed a ladder. Unfortunately it was quite windy and the TYVEK he had installed kept blowing loose as he was installing the part further down. The window openings made perfect wind funnels. Finally, after switching to roofing nails he got it nailed down. Both Peter and Bob put up the TYVEK upside down. C'est la vie. The window instructions said to cut the TYVEK vertically down the middle and cut top and bottom back to the sides- just like opening one of those 10 pack eat out of the box sugar coated cereal packages. Then you wrap the TYVEK inside and nail it down. I'll have Ellyn take a picture of it when she gets down on Thursday. The windows then slipped in nicely between the TYVEK and over some aluminum flashing on the sill. I had measured pretty well. Only one needed shimming. I left the Anderson stickers on the windows so the historical commission could see them and smile. After flashing the top and sides, the back wall was ready for shingling.
I then worked on the walls between the new and old roofs on Iroquois side. It was tough getting the angles right - lots of recutting, especially the part over where the peaked roof sloped down and the regular roof sloped up. I was glad to have the water and ice to seal off the cracks. It was touch and go getting the plywood up on the front of the peak over the shower. I was glad for the 2x4s we use to hold soap and those verboten razors. I finally figured out to nail a brace to hold up one end of the plywood while I was nailing in the other end. I left on Thursday, May 8, to go to Lexington in time to make soccer practice. I had an early plane to Milwaukee on Friday to spend the Mother's Day weekend with Ellyn and her mom. Before I left I finished shingling the lower roof, up the the peak. It took me longer to shingle that little bit than it did Bill to shingle the whole rest of the roof. I felt better about leaving this time since I had the walls up on Iroquois side (and the back wall was weather-tight).
I returned to Boston on Wednesday, May 14th, and finished the proceedings for my June conference, heading back to the Vineyard on Thursday. Everything was in good shape, and I shingled the front side of the peak using the step flashing. The width was just a shingle wide, so no cutting needed :) . It was too rainy for a couple of days to work on the roof, so I started putting in more of the floor. I first walked over to Vineyard Haven and put in an order and then took the bus back. I could have called but I needed the walk. I found a new route that avoids the harbor and the hill with the busy traffic. You go up to the library along School St, and then walk alongside the cemetery and cut over to Eastside Rd - the road past the hospital entrance. It takes 40 minutes to reach the lumber yard that way. Unfortunately, I estimated the width of the drain pipe wrong. I ordered 2" instead of 1 1/2". So the next day I walked back carrying the 10 foot 2" PVC pipe and walked home carrying the 1 1/2" pipe. I spent one day roughing in the plumbing for the new kitchen and laying another 4x8 piece of new flooring. I am to the kitchen door and seem to be about 1/4 inch below the kitchen floor. Not too bad as some underlayment will take care of it. Dodie will really have to duck going through the door. He probably already had to. It is like the door at Joy and Mike's across from the bathroom. It cleared up yesterday afternoon and I was able to finish shingling the roof. This morning was beautiful and after church, I cut out shingles for the cap over the peak and installed them. I thought that would be quieter. It clouded up this afternoon but I was finished with the roof and installing the window in the back bedroom. I did that so I could get to the shingles. We will only have four bundles to take back.
I put back the wood borders around that window and cut out a wood sill. It sure felt good taking down Norman's ladder with a finished roof. I spent the rest of the afternoon installing the last 4 foot section of the floor on Norman's side of the back room. I am almost ready to build the side wall, and then the new space will be completely enclosed!!!I met Norman on the way back from the hardware store yesterday and he told me to start early - 6:30 or 7 - as it wouldn't disturb them (his sister is back down). What a surprise. By the way, everyone in Oak Bluffs seems to know about our project. The guy at the hardware store asked if we had gone to the historical commission and I was happy to tell him we had and also got a building permit. Then when I was getting on the bus down by the park a guy asked me how the project was going.
Until the next installment,
Peter
