Matt and I have decided to take it easy this week, so the blog is going to be a little quieter than usual. To tide you over until we resume our regular program of renovations, I present a week of wildflower pictures from around the farm. Thank you for allowing me to loaf a little.
A new flower for me, Birdsfoot Trefoil
The uniquely shaped blossoms
Matt and I have decided to take it easy this week, so the blog is going to be a little quieter than usual. To tide you over until we resume our regular program of renovations, I present a week of wildflower pictures from around the farm. Thank you for allowing me to loaf a little.
The quintessential farm flower for me, Queen Anne’s Lace
Queen Anne’s Lace at sunset
Accessorizing your house with Mother Nature is always in style. For this fall, it’s about accessorizing your hair with natural elements.
Bring on the burrs
Burrs have long lasting hold and can be arranged in a variety of artistic patterns. Just touch them to your hair, and they will be held firmly in place, no need for additional pins or spray.
Removal is a challenge, but with a lot of patience, a gentle brush and high pain tolerance, scissors can be avoided.
Watch for these natural fashion accessories to appear at farms and forests this fall.
If there was a bright side to doing the roof–beyond rain not seeping into our house, of course–it was the garbage bin that we ordered.
Before
We took advantage of every cubic metre of our 40-yard bin to do a major clean up in the barn, the fields and even the house.
After
The indoor pool was the last room we cleaned out, hence the pool noodles and solar blanket. Can I just ask why you need a solar blanket on an indoor pool?
Underneath all of that are the shingles, the leather barn couch and numerous other treasures I was quite happy to say goodbye to.
Buh-bye junk
The final tally was 10,780.5 pounds, which equates to 4.89 metric tonnes, 5.39 tons or “freakin’ heavy” in Matt’s words–and a huge weight off my mind.
Anyone else out there find cleaning cathartic? This blitz was particularly rewarding, I think, because most of the junk belonged to past owners.
Matt’s a numbers guy, so as the roof was his project, it’s only fitting that I summarize his work in a statistical fashion.
Here, in a series of lists, is the story of how we reshingled our roof ourselves.
Schedule breakdown
I have to say a huge massive thank you to Matt’s dad and his friend. It was hot, dirty, heavy, uncomfortable work, and they put in a lot of hours, especially Matt’s dad, just to help us out. They supplied tools, equipment and expertise, and we could not have done this without them.
I have to say thanks as well to our roofing supplier AMA Roofing. They were a complete cold call, and we had a great experience. From the office staff I dealt with on the phone to the delivery man who brought the materials to the house, Matt and I were both very impressed. They spent a lot of time answering all of our questions and provided great guidance about how much to order and how to install everything. I highly recommend them.
Materials breakdown
You’ll notice that we went with a very light grey shingle. Its official name is dual grey, and it’s a combination of black, grey and white stones. At times it reads almost green or blue from the ground. This is not what I was going for at all, but I can live with it.
My biggest goal in choosing the colour of the roof was to pick something light. White roofs are more eco-friendly, because they reflect more of the sunlight, rather than absorbing all of that heat into our house. We didn’t want to go with a true white roof, but we chose a light colour to give us as much reflectivity as possible.
By the numbers
Casualties
I was a little bit uncertain about tackling the roof reshingling all on our own. This is a big job and does require a certain amount of know-how to do it right–know-how that Matt and I didn’t have at the start. As it came time to order the materials and figure out exactly how we were going to do this thing, I was very nervous and did consider calling in professional help. However, I’m a big believer that everything happens for a reason, and as we got closer to starting the work there were a few signs that showed me we were going to be okay:
As well as everything worked out, I cannot recommend roofing as a DIY. This is a really tough job, and Matt basically knocked himself out getting this done. I’m incredibly grateful that he’s willing to take something like this on, but we’ve both agreed we won’t be doing this ever again.
Final lessons
Remember on Friday when I said that I was hoping Matt and I would do nothing this weekend? Yeah, well, that plan didn’t work out at all.
Instead of sleeping in and sitting outside in lawn chairs for two days straight, we went and rented an auger.
We’ve had a number of people turn in the driveway and come all the way up to the house. Once they get to the top and realize our cars are parked there (i.e. we’re home), they make their way around the turnaround and go back down the driveway. Usually by this point I’ve come out of the front door to glare at them as they drive away.
We have a long driveway, so if people are lost and need to just turn around, we wouldn’t even know they were there. For people to end up at the house, they’re trespassing.
We decided we need a gate at the bottom of the driveway.
A gate needs posts, and posts need holes, so we needed an auger.
Matt and my Dad drill a post hole with the auger
Matt and my Dad ran the auger while I came behind and cleaned out the holes.
Why does the person with the shortest arms have to clean out the hole?
We do own shovels, but a hands-on approach worked better for me sometimes given what we found in the holes.
Lots and lots of stones
The auger did not like the stones.
It particularly disliked this stone.
This boulder became the bane of my existence for about an hour. We all took our turns working around it with the shovel, the prybar, even a pick. It was massive, and it wasn’t moving.
The post that was to go in this hole was supposed to be our hinge, so we needed it to be really solid. But with the rock in the way, we couldn’t get the hole deep enough. So, we decided to swing the gate the other way and drilled a new nice and deep hole on the other side of the driveway.
Then, it was a matter of mixing up our concrete and setting our posts in place.
I take a turn mixing while Matt adds the water
By the end of the day, we had four new posts in place: two at either end of the gate, one to hook the gate to when it’s open and a new post for the mailbox.
We braced the posts to hold them plumb while the concrete sets
Oh, and we also had more sore muscles and a few new calluses.
Have we reached the end of the to-do list yet? Has anyone spotted the end? Can you please tell me is it far away?
And please tell me someone out there got to sleep in and sit in a lawn chair this weekend.
The roof is done.
I’ll post a full project wrap-up next week, but right now I’m too stupid tired to coherently tell the full story.
For the weekend, I leave you with some photos of what happened this week.
The before shot: A portion of our 110 bundles of shingles sitting on the roof awaiting installation
Work begins: Matt and his dad start stripping the old shingles off the roof
The end of day one: Note the naked roof and the new shingles waiting to be installed
Let’s take a bit closer look at this photo, shall we? This image pretty much sets the scene for the rest of the week.
The dirty duo: Matt and me at the end of day one.
This is the “I’m trying to smile, but every single muscle hurts right now and I’m too tired to make the proper facial expression” look. Oh, and the reason the upper half of my face is the only part of me that is clean is that I was wearing a hat and sunglasses all day. I’m sure if I hadn’t the dirt would have been up to and into my hair.
The toad that showed up on the roof two mornings in a row. If he’d brought his tool belt, we might have let him stay up there. And can I just ask, what is it with us and amphibians?
The sun rises on the second day of shingling: On day one–also known as the 15-hour day–about two-thirds of the roof was shingled and the remaining old shingles were stripped.
The end of shingling day two: As the sun sets, Matt gives his best Scott McGillivray pose on the finished roof
A few minutes later: Matt’s muscles give out and he collapses from exhaustion–nail gun in hand still wearing his hammer, tool belt and knee pads.
I’m wishing everyone a good weekend. I sincerely hope that Matt and I will be doing nothing.
Continuing with this week’s theme of manpower, Matt would like for me to formally retract the statement I made last week that trenching the satellite line was “no sweat.”
As the person who spent six hours burying the wire, Matt would like it made known that this job was no small task.
The distance from the satellite dish to the house was about 150 feet. Given that length, it didn’t matter that the trench was only six inches deep; this was a tough job.
The satellite wire is to the left of the trench
In addition to the length of the trench, the other challenge was the trench’s position through and alongside a stand of trees. Matt had to contend with a lot of roots while he was digging.
A particularly large root that Matt encountered on his excavation
Once he had the trench done, it was a simple matter (hope I don’t get in trouble for downplaying this part of the job) of laying the wire in the bottom.
The wire in the trench
As I mentioned last week, the wire runs under our patio for a short distance. While we’d already worked together to trench this section, once the wire was in place Matt had to backfill, level and reset the patio slabs.
Patio slabs back in place
He also had to cut an extra few inches of plastic conduit and slit it to go around the wire. This protects the wire where it comes out of the ground so that it doesn’t get pinched or cut.
He used just a basic plastic pipe for the conduit and slit it to go around the wire
When Matt was digging, he kept sod on one side of the trench and top soil on the other, so that everything could be neatly put back in place. This made for a very tidy lawn at the end of the day.
You can’t even tell Matt was there
And what does manpower look like after six hours of sweaty work? Matt documented that for me as well:
Note the staging with the feet on the table, the shovel in the shot and the satellite in the distance. Note as well the angle of the setting sun showing how long Matt was working at this job.
There you go, Matt. I hope that this post makes up for any downplaying of your efforts and skills. Thank you for all of your work on this job and all of the others you take on to make our home all that we want it to be.
The theme of this week is manpower–as in Matt-power.
Matt is the type of person who when there’s a big job to be done or extreme physical effort required, he will just gut it out. It causes me concern frequently because he pushes himself so hard, but I also have confidence that when it comes to big jobs–such as reshingling the roof–he’ll get it done.
Last week, in preparation for the arrival of the garbage box that we ordered to handle the old roof shingles, Matt cleaned out the basement of the barn. By himself.
The inventory by the time I came home from work on Friday evening included everything and the kitchen sink.
Can you spot the sink?
The centrepiece of the garbage pile is a leather couch whose disposal has been very high on my list since the very first time we saw the farm. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize it was a sleeper couch–complete with a very heavy metal frame inside–until Matt began to move it out of the barn. By himself.
Can you spot the couch?
Our expectation that it was a popular mouse house was borne out. Who puts a couch in a barn? Fortunately, Matt did not have to handle the task of the extermination by himself. While Easter didn’t know what to do with the one she caught and did end up needing Matt’s help, Ralph dealt with the rest of them in one bite apiece.
The front door of casa de mouse
The edible portion of the clean out was limited to cat treats. The rest was sorted into garbage, recycling (including Habitat donations, beer store returns and scrap metal), burn and potentially useable items, which does in fact include the sink. Unfortunately, the useable items pile was by far the smallest.
The broom might be useful in the rest of the cleanout if we can find a handle
In the category of unuseable items, here are some of the highlights:
We ordered a 40 yard box–the biggest we could get–and it arrived on Saturday morning.
Our new lawn ornament–that’s almost as big as the house
Sunday afternoon, we combined Matt’s manpower with my woman power and started loading up the box. In addition to the basement of the barn, we cleaned out the loft in the driveshed, a long row of junk along the tree line in the field behind the driveshed and multiple junk piles we’d set aside in the upper level of the barn.
As happy as I am to finally clean up the property, by the end of the day I was just irritated. I know large properties and outbuildings can entice people to keep things just in case they might need them someday. However, this just seemed like littering.
Matt’s comment at one point summed up our attitudes: “I’m taking apart my jacuzzi, so I’ll just dump the pieces here in this field. No need to actually get rid of them properly.” In case you can’t hear it, the tone was very sarcastic.
So, in addition to strength, endurance and extreme stubbornness, my manpower comes with a biting sense of humour. It makes the tough jobs a little more palatable.
Anyone out there have their own manpower or womanpower partner? What do you do when they push themselves too hard?
Friday’s mystery image was a preview of this week’s to-do list. There is only one item on the list. And it’s a doozy. It makes me say, “Oof!”
As many of you guessed last week, the picture was of shingles. The project for this week is the roof. Oof.
You’ve seen the detail shot. Let me zoom out a little bit and show you the scope of our issues.
Shingles are not supposed to look like this
Our shingles have gone beyond curling and are officiallyfried. They have to be replaced.
At this angle, I’m looking above the broken shingles on the house and gazing longingly at the steel roof of the barn
Somehow, our attic is still dry inside, but I’m a little anxious about what the plywood under the shingles is going to look like.
The front half of the roof is as bad as the back
Normally, roofing a whole house is not a job I’d choose to DIY. However, given the long list of must-do fixes we’ve done so far (new geothermal system, upgrading insulation in the attic and the basement, redoing the well and water system, rewiring the basement) the budget is reaching its limits, and so we chose free labour (us) over professional help.
Matt will be the lead on this, as he’s able to be home while I have to keep up with my day job. However, I will be working in the evenings and he’ll have some help from his dad and one of his friends.
The roof is just under 3,400 square feet. That works out to 110 bundles of shingles. Oof.
In addition to new shingles, we’ll be looking to make a few other changes to the roof.
Areas of concern from our roof
Clockwise from top left:
The other necessary upgrade is to improve the ventilation. Currently, there is not a single vent anywhere on the roof. Hence the reason why our shingles look the way they do–they cooked. No vents is not only unhealthy for our house; it’s also against the building code.
We’re crossing our fingers that we haven’t taken on more than we’re capable of with this project.
If anyone has any pointers or words of encouragement, they would be most welcome.
Home on 129 Acres 