A long hot winter means a roof soon

With temperatures in the 50's and 60's during the week (and 70 astounding degrees on Saturday), we have had the good fortune to accelerate roofing! We'd been working under "Plan B," which was to put some temporary roofing on for the Winter, and then the proper rolled rubber roof in the Spring, since the rubber roof needs warmer temperatures at installation. After a rainy New Years' weekend, and the consequent squeegeeing of the roof, upper floor, and lower level, we all jumped at the chance. So, on Friday, there reportedly were about 4 guys on the roof, putting on the layers that sit below the rubber. While they were working, maybe 4 others were staining the window frames inside and out. If all works out, come Monday the final roofing layers may be put on the main roof, so that the interior is more weather-safe.

While the exterior doesn't look much different from a week ago (particularly with the tarp on the roof), progress has continued. The grading around the house has been improved, and the footings put in to support the deck. We can start to see where the excess rocks and boulders may go to form a retaining wall; this should help with finish grading and water runoff without causing any disruption to the wetlands that are beyond the property border.

A few decisions and adjustments have been made. First, we're good to go with opening up the "view" by replacing the wall with a cable rail on the other transit area upstairs. Also, some adjustments were made to the decks - they were designed to be the same height as the interior, but now they'll drop down a few inches so that there's no issue with backup of water or ice. There were also some technical matters that should make the deck above the kitchen work better, and I hear a solution is near for how to house the big screen that will work like a window shade - need to keep bees and wasps from nesting in the housing and also provide access to the mechanicals, since mechanicals will need servicing at some point (hopefully not before many years of use).

This weekend we "walked" the rooms to make sure we are happy with where the walls are. We decided to enlarge the sauna on the first floor by eliminating the shower we had put in that same bathroom. We'll be able to reduce the overall size of that bathroom, which will allow a larger coat closet (for visitors!) and push back the entrance to the half-bath so that it's not all jammed in with the closet and the base of the staircase. With this, I think the interior framing will go up this week!

We also have some good design ideas back from the cabinet guy, and are looking forward to getting together with him on fleshing these out further.

Found a few interesting links - www.cleverhomes.net has some interesting designs and ideas. Also, I read a short but interesting bit in the NY Times about Freecycle, which strikes me as a generally good idea - a way to move things you no longer need to people who want them. The bit in the Times referenced an example of someone who had an entire shed they wanted to find a new home for - someone came, dismantled it, and put it up elsewhere. This is the kind of thing we would have liked to know about before teardown. Of course, the posts I saw for one community were mostly kids toys, but there's possibility here, especially with the Times article.