So one of our main objectives for this summer was to get a new roof installed on this house. We saved the money for the past year, so cost is not a problem.
We have two chimneys on the house, and both of them will be coming down. The north chimney used to service the fireplace in the den. We tore out that fireplace at least 20 years ago, so the chimney has just stood there acting as another weak place on the roof, just waiting for water to find its way into the attic. The second chimney on the south side used to be a conduit for both the furnace and the hot water heater. A number of years ago, the furnace was re-routed to the back wall of the house; that left just the hot water heater venting out of the chimney. This past year, we put in a new tankless water heater, and that, too, now vents out the side of the house. We will be happy to see both chimneys go. Our new roof will have two less penetrations in it, and two less places for birds to try to build their nests.
Additionally, we want to replace the SolaTube in the kitchen and to install a smaller SolaTube in the main bathroom. Putting on a new roof will give us the opportunity to do both. We went to Milwaukee and purchased the two new SolaTubes. They await their installation.
So what is the problem? Well, before we can have a new roof installed, we have to replace the leaking polycarbonate roof on our covered back patio. (In Florida, we would call this screened-in room a lanai.) Our neighbors said they were shocked that the old roof actually held the snow load that piled on it this past winter, and we know that some of the structural boards for the roof were rotten. In fact, when Rick tried to pry out a nail on the north wall header, his hammer went right through the rotten wood!
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| With the old structure down, Rick fastens the new ledger board onto the house. |
Down came our old roof. For the past couple of weeks, we have been working to put up a new structure. The old roof was illegally attached to the end of the house roof rafters. We knew when we removed the old roof that those rafters would not support a new structure. (And we are further amazed that the snow load this past winter did not collapse the whole structure!) So Rick ripped out the soffits and installed a ledger board to the house. Lots of lumber and lots of painting gave us the new long board which Rick hung with rafter hangers on one end and notched support at the other end.
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| Our garage has become a production paint shop for all of the new boards that will go into the roof of the porch. |
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| The first day's support work got us into a rhythm of working together to get the cross-ties into the structure. |
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| The view from the dining room shows that we will have a solid structure onto which we can attach the roof panels. |
More lumber and painting later, we are now to the point of putting in the support pieces every 24" between the long boards. This should be enough to withstand snow loads for the coming winters. Once they are in place, we will add the transition pieces from the roof line to the new panels and screw the whole thing into place.
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| Work continued today as more cross-ties went up. |
Then we'll figure out what to do with the soffits and rebuild the side walls and screens to keep the porch bug-free. Only then will we be ready for the roofers to come in to attach the new roof.
Of course, the only problem with this whole scheme is that Rick is facing major back surgery, I am facing a second hand surgery, and Rick needs Achilles tendon surgery. Perhaps our bodies are trying to tell us to slow down a bit.
One day at a time. Tomorrow we will install some more braces and try to pick up the roof panels since Menard's is having a sale. Later this week we go to Rochester and Mayo Clinic to get Rick's back checked out, and heaven only knows what will happen from there.
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