Holy Sheet!

Today was a very exciting day in the world of cabin construction. The night before last, I finally broke down... and posted an ad on craigslist looking for help on my cabin before it gets all snowy on me. I went looking for someone willing to hold the other end of my tape measure and what I got instead was a highly skilled carpenter. Ryan was the first to respond to my ad, and each others' circumstances seem to suit us both perfectly. Today was his first day on the job at my cabin, and I was very much reminded of when I had Burns Brothers Masonry building my basement and I got to be the boss who looked much more like an assistant. He took charge of the tasks at hand and does excellent work so far. I also was reminded of the strangely wonderful phenomenon in carpentry whereby two individuals can accomplish somewhere around four times what I can do alone in a day.


Here you can see Ryan at work nailing the first sheet on the roof. While he is now head carpenter, I retain my title of Chief Photographer. This photo calmly and subtly portrays a whirlwind of morning progress. Tony Pemberton lent me the A frame scaffolding pictured here which saved me the cost of renting a lift for $360 per day. First thing in the morning, Ryan and I modified the scaffold to make it taller and then attached it to the wall. Then we installed the barge rafter (last rafter to the right in this pic), trimmed the rafter tails into alignment, installed the fascia board (horizontal board at the edge of my roof), and THEN began sheeting the roof. We got about 8 sheets into it by the end of the day.

I said, "I take a lot of pictures. I'm documenting everything." Then I snapped this pic as Ryan turned around wondering what I was jabbering on about.

As we added sheets to the rafters, we nailed these boards across to give us something to stand on. I always wear my safety harness and rope anyway while I'm up there, but Ryan prefers to cheat death.

Here's what our progress looked like at the end of the day. Ryan is just finishing the nailing here. The big gaping hole in the middle of all the sheeting is where my dormer will go. Sheeting around the dormer will make framing it easier when we get to that step.

Today Ryan brought along some very nice carpentry tools, and at the end of the day, we made a list of other things (nails, levels, etc.) he will bring along to help out. We also made a list of materials for me to purchase. Before I headed off to Home Depot, I was treated to another wondrous sunset as I cleaned up our work for the day. Again, looking out the bedroom window of my future.