Old Stone House

Between this blog, my house, and work, my life centers on ‘updating’. Every time I finish updating the house, I try to update my blog. In truth, the updating of the house has stolen a bit of my vigor for updating the blog.

However, all is not lost! I managed to spend the better part of this week making slow but steady progress on the back of the house. I replaced all of the soffits around the bathroom, as well as bang out all the kinks in the gutters and down pipes. I finally found the hole that the squirrel had been using to live in the soffits, as well as his 35lb nest. Sadly, I also discovered that parts of the roof are ‘weak’, and some genius sealed up the air passage between the soffits and the roof rafters.

While a good renovator would be fixing the roof, I will be leaving it for another season. The roof will need to be replaced in the next year or so, and when that time comes I will fix the outstanding issues. My thinking: the house has lasted this long, it will last one more year…

All of the board and baton that ‘could’ be installed is in place. Each board needed 6 pilot-holes drilled for the cement screws and a good coat of adhesive before being screwed to the cinder block wall. I’ve left a number of board-widths around the windows unsheathed so that when it comes time, it should be a snap to add the remaining sheeting.

I also managed to fabricate a number of bits of flashing for around the large windows as well as the roof, which surprise surprise, had NO flashing – but a generous, aging, coat of tar.

In the midst of all of this we have had some very cruel weather. This past summer it rained 4 times. This past week it rained 4 times. Screw you mother nature you vindictive cow. Nothing beats standing on a 6/12 pitch roof in smooth-soled work boots in a torrential downpour while holding a 12’ length of aluminum down pipe.

~sigh~