It's DONE!
Sean is now the proud owner of a brand new roof over his family's head. This weekend wasn't quite as fun as the first one, but it's over, and that's all that matters.
We only had a maximum of 4 people on Saturday and Sunday each, but only for part of each day at that. Sean and I finished putting the felt paper down Saturday night around 10pm with his wife holding a flashlight so that we could actually see what we were doing -- roofing at night without lights is probably as difficult as you would think it is.
Sunday, I felt bad that I had to leave early for my family to come up and visit for my B-Day (it was my brother's B-Day celebration too). But one of his other friends was able to stay into the evening to help finish the shingling job.
The Josh comment of the day on Saturday came as we were removing the old nails from the roof that held the old shingles/felt paper on. To make sure the new felt paper goes down without getting any tears in it, or experiencing other problems, you either need to remove or hammer flat any nails that didn't come out when you tore the old stuff off.
As we were pulling nails out, Josh said "Man, they put these nails in here good." Yes, Josh, that's kinda the point with nails; put them in tight.
Say what you want about Josh, but he was there.
I had two boneheaded things I did -- both occurred Sunday morning. However, since this is my BLOG, I can set the stage before I tell them.
1) I'm an insomniac
2) Saturday was a very draining/tiring day -- arrived at 8am, and left at 10:30pm, 14.5 hours
3) to make sure I slept Saturday night, I took some medicine that knocks me out, and makes me VERY groggy the next day.
Bonehead thing #1 - while getting ready Sunday morning (at 7am), I attempted to put the deodorant stick to my ear... As soon as the stick got close to my ear (it didn't touch it), I realized that "this doesn't belong there."
bonehead thing #2 - while moving the 2800+ lbs. of shingles from the ground to the roof, Sean noticed the neighbor's dog across the street was standing in another neighbor's driveway. Sean remarked that they never leave the dog out by itself, unless it's in the fenced in back yard. While I stared at the dog, I asked "It's not in the fenced in back yard?" Sean's reply was "No, Rich the neighbor's driveway is NOT in the neighbor's backyard.
I realized what I said the moment I said it, but it was too late, AND again, that medicine is powerful. It's designed to completely shut you down for 8~10 hours. I was only asleep for about 7 hours.
I, however, must give HUGE props to Sean for his ingenious idea for moving the shingles to the roof. Saturday night he had built a ramp out of the wooden ladder and plywood. After some experimenting with different sleds to use on the ramp, and some overall techniques, we developed a quite effective technique to move the shingles.
Once Josh arrived Sunday morning, the moving of the shingles went smoothly -- with 3 people nobody had to race up the ladder once the sled was loaded. (photos to follow shortly.)
