The Roof is 110% Done!

August 28, 2010

Although this final picture doesn't show it, today, Doug finished roofing the cabin, 110% done, as he puts it! We've tried to tell him there's nothing greater than 100%, but he continues to fall back on his Dougism. In this case, he can call it whatever he likes! To accomplish that feat was enormous!

Doug had some great help from Chris on the roof window and the road-side as well as the roof over the porch. Other than that, he did it all on his own. I never even stepped foot on the roof.

With its 10/12 pitch, it was a dangerous task. The deal we agreed on was that he would not work on the roof without being tied in. One slight slip of the foot and he could plummet to his death. Chris loaned us his rock climbing equipment, and I believe it could have saved Doug's life. So, praise God, we have a beautiful roof overhead and haven't felt a single drip inside!

August has been a strange month. We spent so much time working on the cabin that we were rarely home with access to our computer. Because of that, the blogging has been rare and sporadic. I fear that we have lost much of what has been accomplished. Well, I guess more time and effort was spent on actually doing the work than recording it.

We spent a lot of time finishing up boulder or block retaining walls to try to keep the soil in place.I can't even count how many wheel barrow's full of stones I hauled. They had to be placed on the landscaping fabric on the side of the hill to keep it from eroding. And incidentally, rocks are beautiful AND we had 11 tons to use.

With our yard a little more finalized, we invited our parents for a visit and enjoyed time with each of them. They both honored us with their enthusiasm and brought yummy food to fuel our engines.

Freda and Arlan Dahl cozied up on the front porch to watch Sandy as she built one of the boulder walls. Doug and Chris were busy on the roof and much harder to watch.

Doug's parents took Chris and Doug and I out to Doolittle's in Alexandria to celebrate Doug's 52nd birthday. After months of camping type meals, a fun dinner out was a real treat.

Here's the cute birthday boy and his dog actually sitting and enjoying the perfect day.

We are grateful to have at least a little bit of our beach left. With all of the torrential rain, almost half of it has washed into the lake. We've had some interesting changes on a daily basis to the shoreline. You never know what the wind will blow across the lake.

If you are a fisherman, the plumpification of the worms is a blessing! I've never seen such large fellows. These two were found nestled under one of the tarps we had spread across the front yard where we were trying to protect our newly planted grass seed.

On Saturday, August 21, Lauren and Adam came up to help us out. We were excited to have gotten our siding delivery and were eager to break it open and get going. With the two of them, we formed a great crew! We've been deliberating about the color for months. Our favorite color is a darker sage green called Moonlit Moss by Sovereign. It is a heavier vinyl that has just the right look we've wanted, but it costs about $700 more. So, we had convinced ourselves that a lighter green would suffice. Then unexpectedly, we received a check from Sandy's last job in payment for her accrued vacation. It was for $715! We went nuts! We decided to use it to upgrade to the siding we really wanted and boy are we glad we did. It is perfect!

With Doug's exact measurements and Adam's precision cutting...

And Lauren's detailed installation and Maddie's...comforting presence, we did great!

Lauren and Adam and baby girl Niederloh! We're glad they're on our "SIDE"! Ha, ha!

Then on Sunday, the 22nd, Chris and Kelly came so that we could all celebrate Doug's birthday. Everyone was eager to see the change that siding makes, so we spent a few hours doing it together. We got the whole porch done and went further up on the east side.

Kya was a good pup and offered her comforting presence too.

The cutting station got moved inside and Adam retained his job!

And although it appears as though Sandy never does any work, this is simply not the case. She plays the vital role of photojournalist and rarely makes it into pictures herself, which incidentally doesn't bother her. But one of the other responsibilities she takes on is anger management! Yes, there are many "angry" boards, as Chris calls them, in a building process. Note the example above with the nail  poking dangerously out of this angry board. These boards are frequently thrown to the ground after they have served their tour of duty and left where they wait anxiously for an unsuspecting passerby to step innocently onto one of the protruding nails. It is Sandy's responsibility to deal harshly with this anger and bring the board and the community to a state of peace and safety. Note the change in attitude of the board below.

Sandy feels very good about her ability to impact this hazard in such a neighborhood-friendly manner!

Before all of the interior walls go in, we had to bring in the bathtub. It fit perfectly into its little spot on the main floor.






But it needed a little persuasion by Chris's legs!

After some great teamwork, the team relaxed and shared in some birthday revelry! Here he is modeling one of his birthday gifts, a nail pouch filled with surprises.

Here are some final pics from all sides of the house... 

As the summer winds down, we are thrilled to see that the grass is growing. The cabin is looking more like home and we are wrapping up for cooler weather. It's been a fast and furious summer. But it has also been one full of wonderful memories and a great feeling of accomplishment!

Did someone say, "Football"?