Week 107: Rafters

It was only a 4 day week but the team put it to good use and the rafters are almost done for the dining area.

Because we have a cathedral ceiling in there, and almost 100 years have passed since the house was built, the roof structure is quite different so Dean was sorting out how to align everything. It will be quite a thick roof because it needs insulation and venting. Another challenge is matching up with the original part of the house. We have plain rafter ends with no fascia but it is common now to have a fascia board on the end of the rafter for the gutters to attach.

This is one of a jillion small decisions that are coming fast and furious at this point. It isn’t a big deal on the east side of the addition because it doesn’t meet the original. On the west side, i know that the ends of the rafters are soft. This is a perfect reason why there is a fascia board used now, because if it starts to rot, you can take it down easily and replace it. Problem solved.

I think what we are going to do is use the fascia boards on the addition and just have it not match along the west. At some point i will have to get up on some scaffolding, cut the ends off the rafters, and attach a fascia board to match up. A lot of work but it will solve the issues. Ideally we will get soffits done at some point but that is not today.

They also took off the temporary stairs and built in the walls that will be on either side of the stairs and completed the sloping part of the roof for the bike shed.

Dean gave me a bit of homework and it was nice to feel like i was contributing again. I took down some drywall in the back bedroom so they can put a beam in and also salvaged some door trim. I also took the mantle down. I should have done this ages ago but i didn’t. The chimney plaster has cracked totally off so i cut all of the wallpaper cover and will likely take it all down next weekend. We can rebuild it once we are back in. We will have to live with the dust. We also are not going to move the window in the back bedroom yet. It is not on the critical path for getting us back in the house.