The roof work continues, it took a few days to get the scaffolding up and they started removing the original slate and flashing on Thursday, replacing it with new copper. By friday they had the copper all the way around and had starting welding the seams and putting the slate back up. We climbed up on Saturday to get some pictures of the progress.
The copper goes all around the cupola now.
Nice job bending around the edge.
Started welding and putting slate back up.
So far we’re really happy with the work. I can’t wait to see it finished completely.
On Saturday we had quite a busy day. We had some visitors as well as my sister and her husband who came up for the night.
We worked a bit on the deck and used up the rest of the decking, we didn’t quite close up the gap but it’s down to about 12 inches.
Some new supports to help get rid of the sag.New decking down!stained
We had our night visitor again so we have little critter foot prints across the wet stain AGAIN. Next time I’m putting up barbed wire for the night!
Aimee and I spent the evening up in the sewing room after dinner working on halloween costumes. I got Georgia’s Gypsy costume finished up with Aimee’s help on the belt. I was quite happy with this one, it was fun. The only problem was that the belt is made of a plastic-y material that can’t be ironed which was a pain. It looks like fake leather though so it’s a nice affect.
Gypsy costume finished.
Sunday was the girls’ birthday party so after breakfast we headed over to Uncle Pete’s house for lunch, presents and cake. Georgia got her costume – the other two will get theirs on Friday…
Georgia the Gypsy for 2010
I’ll post pictures of Maia and Chloe when they try their costumes on later in the week.
When we got home I started right back on the costumes. Chloe’s black cat is just about finished after some planned hand sewing. I wanted to get it ready to bring with me to Becca’s house tomorrow night (I’m staying the night) so I can finish it there.
Black Cat costume - ears and collar left to finish by hand.
Then I started on Maia’s dress. I decided to just cut and sew the bodice, leaving the skirt for Tuesday and Wednesday night.
Pink princess dress top done
So the costumes are on track to be finished by friday at least. It’s a little late this year but they’ll get to do trick-or-treating friday and sunday in them. Then the real question is if I’ll get to working on my costume at all 🙂
Well time to call it a night, I have to get in to work at a decent time since I’m leaving early to watch the nieces – I can’t wait!
Last night I decided to get a start on the Gypsy costume for Georgia. I would really like to have both Georgia and Chloe’s costumes done for their party on Sunday. Knowing the Black Cat costume is pretty easy (just a shirt/ears/tail left) I decided to see how hard the Gypsy costume would be.
I cut out the pattern, then cut out the fabric and got the dress all sewn together. The only part of the dress left is to sew the ribbon details on the bottom. Then I have to make the scarf and belt which are both pretty easy (the scarf is already cut out, just needs fringe added to it.
The dress - this thing could fit me except for the arm holes! It's like a mumu.
This dummy is larger than me so it’s also not formed exactly how it will look on an 11 year old – it should drape more on her. Then I decided to cut out the scarf (it’s just a square) and use the material that will be a fitted belt to get a closer look at how the costume will look when finished. So here it is with a little more shape. The scarf will have red fringe at the bottom and the belt will have gromets and be tied in the front with yellow ribbon – this will be quite fun to make!
A better idea of what it will actually look like.
That was it for my night! The roofers showed up nice and early this morning. We got to talk to them about the extra hole we saw up there and they’re going to fix that hopefully. I also wanted to verify they would be putting ice shield under the copper now that we could see it’s just bare wood up there. I can’t wait to see what kind of progress they make today!
Well today was full of putting up scaffolding – it goes pretty darn high. We climbed up there tonight so i could take some pictures of our roof leak and it’s pretty obvious why it’s leaking…
120 years later and the copper has rusted away leaving just the bare wood
I assume that’s copper anyway.
The temporary fix last year was some shingles that mostly blew off. Rusted all the way around.
So that is why we’re paying for this copper installation. Hopefully it will last our lifetime at least.
While we were up there I took more photos of the roof, found another possible leak we should probably fix up.
little hole
And here’s the scaffolding we climbed up to the top of tonight…
We signed a waiver of liability so the roofer is going to leave the scaffolding up over the weekend for us – we plan to try to get the aluminum siding off the cupola to see what’s underneath. It’s also hard to do from a ladder so we figured we’d take advantage of the scaffolding we just paid to have put up.
It sure is nice to be able to pay someone else to work on the house and see progress happen when we’re not here! Of course we can’t afford to do it often so we only do it for projects we’re not comfortable doing ourselves – for example – putting in flashing around the top of the cupola where it leaks and fixing another leak on the backside of the cupola.
So yesterday the roofer came and started setting up the scaffolding – supposed to come back today so i’m working from home today.
After some shopping on Saturday we packed up and headed back to NY to see family. There were birthdays to celebrate, good food to eat and lots of catching up to do! We had the official birthday party today and little miss Emily got the quilt that I finished on the drive home.
Emily gets her quilt
I finished attaching the binding on the drive home and put it through the washer/dryer Saturday night at my mom’s house before clipping on the bobbin threads from the back this morning and packing up it. It was as big a hit as a quilt can be for a 4 year old’s birthday present 🙂
Now we’re home and I’m ready for bed I’m so tired, maybe a little reading. I can’t wait to see my nieces again tomorrow (I’m watching them for a few hours in the afternoon). Then I’ll be in the crazy rush to sew halloween costumes in the evenings this week! Be prepared for sewing pictures – if things are going well anyway!
October is a month of sewing! I have to finish up Emily’s birthday quilt before this weekend when we see her and then I have to get 3 halloween costumes done for my cousins as well as maybe one for myself this year?!
So Tuesday night I squared up the quilt and made the binding. Last night I attached the binding (still have to do all the hand sewing).
Binding attached ... ready to finish up!
Then I started on costumes, opting to start with Chloe’s costume first. Chloe is going to be a Black Cat which is the simplest of all the costumes (hence the reason I’m starting it first) – it’s all one fabric plus some embellishments. I don’t have an actual pattern so I am just winging it. I started with a pair of pants – going with the pirate pattern I’ve used for 2 costumes already as a base. Since pirate pants are short I had to adjust them but I got the basic line from the pattern. I whipped up the pants in an hour. Next up is the top and some ears and a tale!
Black cat pants all done
I will probably do Georgia’s costume next – a Gypsie – which has a pattern so should be easy and she picked some really fun fabrics and embellishments. Then I’ll do the princess dress for Maia, again, following a pattern and it’s lots of pink fabrics!
I got the second coat of paint on the trim around the 2 tvroom windows. By then it was 6 and I knew I had less than an hour before it got too dark so I switched to the other side of the house and got the second coat of paint on the new section of siding. This is all done now and I can call the electric company to re-attach the meter. It was dark when I finished so I’ll have to get pictures tomorrow although pictures of a second coat of paint never show that much.
I got the first coat of paint on the new section of siding and finished the first coat on the trim on the other side of the house. I’m off to visit with some friends while the paint dries and we’ll see if I can get the second coat on before dark!
First coat on the trim all done!First coat on the new siding all finished
After we finished up the last piece of siding, I got the siding caulked, sanded and then primed. Hopefully tomorrow I can get both coats of paint on it.
Siding primed
While I primed, Ryan worked on the window panels, putting the MDO panels into the completed panels and then caulking around them. We’re not sure when we’ll get to putting the moldings in so we want to make sure it’s water proof.
First window - panels almost done
Later Ryan had to work so I switched to the other side of the house and started painting the trim. I didn’t quite get it all done before it got dark, got 3 windows done and the soffit though. Tomorrow I hope to finish the first coat and later put on the second coat.
Trim painted on 3 windowsHalf finished window
So tomorrow will be lots of painting. Ryan probably has to work again so it might just be a painting day. I couldn’t get pictures before it got dark so I’ll take some in the morning for tomorrow’s post.
