After a week away from the job, Bob and Rod were back the week after Thanksgiving.  I had high hopes that, with decent weather, they would make great progress on the roofing--the next critical stage in the process.

I couldn't make it up to visit until Thursday, and was surprised--and disappointed--to see that NO roofing had been done.  There was a green tarp over the back section of the building, and the shingles were waiting on pallets, but for several reasons, no roofing was yet done.

Chief amongst these reasons was the fact that Bob's newly acquired hydraulic man-lift had failed, and was undergoing repairs.  He had been counting on this to help lift the shingles to the roof, and that was fine.  There had also been some heavy rain on one of the days.  Still, I was anxious to see some roofing!

They had, however, accomplished a bit of framing elsewhere.  The dividing wall between the office and the shop was built, which also defined the doorways for the future bathroom and utility room.  Bob had run into a problem with this wall's placement, which was in large part dictated by the plumbing rough-ins in the slab.  We had carefully measured for the rough-ins at an early stage, but something had gone wrong.  As it turned out, it was my basic shop drawings that were to blame, though I didn't figure this out till later on.  The end result, in any event, was that the wall needed to be moved a foot or two further out into the shop to allow for enough room in the bath to install a toilet.  Certainly there would be no moving the plumbing stacks!

Every job site needs a big summer sausage hanging from a nearby stud, ready for one to hack off a hunk if they become a bit peckish.  I had to chuckle when I saw this as I passed through the shop!

Work continued inside and out.  One day I arrived to find that the crew had installed sheets of a waterproof roofing underlayment over the entire roof, making the building essentially watertight.  While I hoped for actual roofing to be done soon, the new underlayment meant that I could begin my electrical rough-in, which I had been impatiently anticipating as the weather began to slide inexorably into the realm of downright cold.

The same day, Bob and Rod finished off the garage door openings in the front, installing headers and side framing.  The openings were ready for doors once they were complete.

The underlayment was just in time, too, as within a week we had our first real snowfall of the season, coupled with temperatures that chose to stubbornly remain below freezing--well below, on many days--for a couple weeks straight.  Fortunately, the crew took advantage of one nice day and finished off the actual roofing on the office hip roof, allowing more substantial work to continue inside.

I moved forward with the electrical installation.  Click here for more.

Over the next several days, while I was onsite daily working on the wiring rough-in, Bob, Rod, and a third crew--Tom--finished off a number of projects, all important and all leading up to the beginning of roofing.  They straightened the gables and installed the subfloor in the attic area, tying the whole structure together significantly.  With that done, they installed strapping on all the ceilings, built and installed several interior walls, and moved on to exterior trim, vinyl soffits, and roofing drip edge.  The pictures below tell the story, at least for now.  More detail on some of the areas will be forthcoming.

After weeks of delay, the crew finally completed the roof on Wednesday, December 21, after a very efficient 2-day process.  Bob called in lots of help--up to 5 guys--to get this job over and done with.  Since I had completed the wiring on Sunday, I didn't return to visit the new shop until Wednesday, partly to check on the progress and partly to deliver some materials to the site.  I was pleasantly surprised upon arrival to see one whole side of the roof complete, and the other side 2/3 finished!  Excellent.  I was very pleased to finally have this out of the way, since it was nearly January.  For weeks, I had been worried about the weather, and the possibility that a stretch of bad or very cold weather might prevent the roof from being done until late winter.

I suspect Bob was equally pleased to have the job off his back; even though he didn't actually do any of the roofing himself, there's no doubt the absence of a real roof was weighing heavily upon him.

The roof is shingled with Iko asphalt/fiberglass shingles, with the so-called "architectural" design, which not only provides a more interesting textured look, they also are thicker and last longer than regular 3-tab shingles.  I chose basic black, the color that goes with everything.  The roofing crew did a great job.  Watching their practiced motions, with nary a wasted move, was fascinating.

Nearly a year ago, I was given a beautiful copper weathervane and cupola, which were intended for the "old" shop in North Yarmouth.  When, in February, we decided to relocate, I postponed installation of these decorative elements, choosing instead to save them for the new facility.  Now the time had come to install them!  Bob wanted to have the cupola on hand, so I made a second trip home and back to pick it up and bring it up, so that it would be ready to go.  I used a compass to align the directional tabs on the weathervane with the top of the cupola, with the cupola lined up with the axis of the building.  Then, I installed the base for the weathervane, a frustrating process since I had failed to bring my entire workshop of tools and supplies with me in the truck; ah, the frustrations of working far from home base.  With some cobbed-together materials and purloined tools from the jobsite, I managed to get the base installed. 

In this photo, the large base is not shown; the cupola will stand taller on the roof.  This is a 42" cupola.

Once installed, the cupola and weathervane looked perfect:  the focus was clearly on the beautiful weathervane, which seemed ideally proportioned for the size of the building, and the cupola, while not overly small, was not so large as to dominate the building.  I was thrilled with how it looked, and how its installation immediately created a more finished, classy look to the building.

Click here to continue...