Ibuprofen Helps Install the Roof

58 degrees with a chance of darkness falling a little earlier.

After buying an "old man" style sleeping bag I was kind of getting excited about the camping trip this weekend.  When I was very little my parents had a canvas tent that was larger than some of the hotel rooms that I now stay in when traveling for work and we also had a very comfortable set of green cotton sleeping bags.  Since I started Scouting around the age of nine I was convinced that mummy bags were the bag to have, which is correct if you plan to carry the darn thing way up a mountain.  However, the camping that Devon is doing through the school appears to be very comfortable and since my tent was just going to be a trip and a stumble away from the car I decided to go for an old style bag that is also a bit heavy.  As soon as I inflated my air mattress and rolled out my bag on the living room floor the girls each tried it out and were convinced that once again Daddy knew what he was doing because he is so old.

But on Wednesday Devon came home from school and said that I may not be needed during the camping trip because a few kids dropped out and there are now seven adults.  Oh well - I rolled my bag up and put it in the corner for next time.  Now I can get a little more work done on the Pointed Playhouse during the Veteran's Day three day weekend.

On Friday I did much preparation work by measuring the lengths of tar paper that I will need on the back side of the small house - sixteen feet and six inches.  I cut several lengths and got up on the roof with Royden's ladder and used the staple hammer like a mad man.  The paper kept rolling down at the far end that was not yet stapled because I'm doing this alone and it was a windy day.  Once the first couple courses of paper were up I cut tabs off several tiles for the first layer that will be later covered by the first real course of asphalt tiles.  I soon found out that these large sheets of asphalt tiles are a bit like working with very coarse sandpaper.  The ends of my gloves were shredded but this was good because I needed to feel the edges of the tiles as I laid them down to get the alignment just right.

On the public radio station that I was listening to they announced that in a few minutes the date would be 11-11-11 and the time will be 11:11:11.  I wanted to call my brother because it was his birthday and because I'm pretty sure that we talked about this moment when we were little kids.  I was up on the ladder and tied into the harness and the seriousness of putting on the roof got in the way of calling my brother.  Too bad - happy birthday anyway Peter.

After the first few courses of tiles were nailed into place with zinc coated aluminum nails I installed four adjustable braces and twelve foot by ten inch boards to support me while working on the rest of the roof.  These boards hung out over the ends of the roof but I knew not to step into this area but used the space to stage the tiles that were to go up and sometimes my roofing tar that was loaded into the caulking gun.  Here is what it looked like from the sides and back on Friday afternoon.

Nice to have the braces and long boards up there to walk on.  This is really a steep roof.

Boards hung out well beyond the ends of the roof.

I really wanted a slate look on the playhouse and while I was at the home center I decided to go with an architectural tile that had an aged look.  You really need to see the finished roof to appreciate the look over a large surface.  I'm sure some folks will not but I like it and I know that I cannot afford real slate.

Holes in the fingers of my gloves.

Setup area where I cut the ends of the tiles.

I worked my way up the roof and cut the tiles just like the directions on the side of the carton say to do.  Just like microwaving soup.  Every once in a while I snapped an even line across the roof to keep the rows strait.  When cutting the first tile is full length, then six inches cut from the next, then eleven and finally seventeen inches.  All of this cutting ensured that the edges of the tiles did not overlap with the one below.  I then put tape on my square to make it easy for me to quickly cut the tiles.

It is higher than it looks.  I did not look down and concentrated on keeping my lines even.

This side is done - now I need to finish the other side and paint the house and then apply the faux half timbers.

Tomorrow is Sunday and I will be back up there working on the other side that has the dormer window.  It will be fun and I now have a plan to use the harness and braces to hold me up while putting on the roof.  I'm now listening to the Cowboy Junkies on Spotify and I'm getting hungry.  I'll write a little more tomorrow evening.

Pointed Playhouse building fact - it takes three Ibuprofen each day to put on a roof.  My left elbow and the carpal tendons on my right arm are really bothering me.  I never had this problem before and look forward to reading about it in AARP magazine in about five years.