This past weekend was utterly exhausting – we did, however, get the house enclosed. Sorta. See we managed to get all the sheathing up, but the cordless nailer I bought got part way through the day then decided it was time for a nice rest.
I’ve given it a “clean” (which involves cleaning the barrel) and will run it back tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes.
But the nailer deciding to have a rest meant that the sheathing is attached with fewer nails that would be ideal – most of which have been hand driven. So we’ll see what happens with that.
Anyhow, so… Taking a step back. Kathryn, Liz and I managed to get all of the asphalt shingles off (and into the dumpster); along with all of the black paper. Our amazing builders managed to get the old trusses off (mainly intact – we need to come up with some way of protecting them), and managed to get the new trusses on*. The new sheathing went on (except for the bit around the weatherhead), and lo, they came to dry in the building.
The one spectacularly large fly in the ointment was that the siding couldn’t just be stuck on because the new trusses are stepped in by between 0″ and 5/8″ depending on where on the wall they’re sitting. Because we own a trapezoid, not a rectangle.
So Kathryn and I spent the entirety of the weekend making little furring strips (or shims, as I’d call them), to space each section of siding out so it would align with the siding below. Which was clearly cut by someone who didn’t give a rats ass – because it’s all at different levels and the word straight cannot be applied to it. So each piece of siding had to be cut – and then often slightly trimmed – to get a fairly close fit.
Then we could nail them up.
Only part way through the nailer packed up.
But since the house is now sort of enclosed, we could at least take a breather…only not, because we were expecting the roof to go on this Wednesday. Only today I found out that it may not happen Wednesday, because clearly there was some question I needed to ask that I didn’t. See, the electricians came today to install the new panel and weatherhead. It’s huuge. And clean. And doesn’t look like a pile of electrocution waiting to happen.
Anyhow.
There he is, installing the panel, and he cheerfully explains he’ll be back after PSE have moved the power across. Which is happening “this week”.
I’m confused, and after some discussion I grok that the panel installation is separate from the PSE visit – and the twain shall never meet. Now, the problem is the old weatherhead is in the way of the roof. So I call our roofers and go “uh, the weatherhead is still in the way” and have yet to hear an answer on what’s happening there.
Also, today we tried to let in all the vents – and failed. So we’ll have to carry on doing that tomorrow.
I shall be glad when we’re off everyone else’s schedules, and back to “this is what we want to accomplish” and the only people who gets pissy about it not happening is us.
* after an utterly panic inducing period in which a failure in communication between the old contractor, the truss company, me and the new contractor meant that we had noooo idea that the trusses were not meant to be a perfect fit. Indeed, they’re a fairly poor fit. But that’s the way they engineered it.
