I ushered Donna-ski into 2010 with her first trip back to LNP. It's been 3 weeks off for her; last trip just before Christmas. Her excitement was...well...containable. Working outide in the middle of winter in the midwest didn't help. At least I picked out a weekend with temps in the 30's. That, and the new Sorels Santa brought, punched my winter ticket to ride with my helper. We went there with the plan to get back up on the roof to finish the trim and ridge cap. The weird weather had a different plan. The melting snow combined with the above freezing temps created fog and saturated atmosphere that kept the roof wet (and slippery) for most of the time. Scratch that idea; I now know better. We weren't wanting for other things to do, and I knew there was one other project that I have not been looking forward to. The very tops of the gable walls needed to be sheathed and house-wrapped. So, we knocked it out. It was very slow going, up the ladder, down the ladder, repeat. We basically ran out of ladder height (24 footers) as I moved across the gable wall and got to the center. These center zones required standing on the rung just short of the top and laying face flat against the wall to keep from falling backwards. Yeah, more precarious work demanding concentration and good balance, complicated by heavy insulated boots, snow and ice. I moved slowly and took my time. Only one boo-boo. At the very top of the ladder, I dropped one section of sheathing. It went straight down and stuck into the semi-frozen ground, like a chip into dip, and just stood there like some kooky OSB sculpture. It just missed shearing off the electric meter. I climbed down, pulled it out, and it was unscathed....so up it went again, but this time to be permanently glued and nailed. - Any way, this little bit of work at the gables was a small amount of real estate, but a big milestone. We are now 100% dried in.
- - Filling in these peaks creates a different feeling when we go inside and upstairs to the living area. For those of you that have been to this point, you know the feeling I speak of. You stand there and look around at this new empty shell and even though the walls are bare naked 2-by stock and the ceiling is nothing but roof trusses right up the roof sheathing, your mind sees much, much more. It reminds me of my first treehouse...just a bit bigger. It's all about having a cool fort. It's a guy thing.
