Here’s my hard worker again! Between Christmas 2007 and New Year’s Day 2008, just a few days after finishing the block walls, Sam was already thinking about the roof. We were still in Dennis & Joni’s trailer at the ranch, and Sam spent some time figuring the best way to build the roof and rafters. We have a couple of books on building: “Independent Builder: Designing & Building A House Your Way”, by Sam Clark, part of The Real Goods solar living books. And “Housebuilding: A Do-It-Yourself Guide” by R.J. Cristoforo, a Popular Science book.
We read the chapters on roofs and roofing and the concepts began to come together in our heads (especially Sam’s). He did some rough sketches, then gave me the dimensions and I did a slightly-less-rough sketch on graph paper. I have learned a bit about drawing plans from my dad, the engineer, who has designed and built quite a few houses and buildings in his life. Actually, he loves to draw plans even more than he likes to build, and often comes up with interesting designs.
Our friend Wayne came out one day (I was at work, and we don’t have photos) and they began cutting wood. They put up the end supports and ridge beam, then started on the rafters, but every one that they cut was wrong. Several frustrating hours later, Sam realized that his ridge beam was 2 x 6”, but the sketch showed a 2 x 8”. The missing 2” brought the pitch of the roof down, so the angle cuts were all off.
He solved the problem by drawing a template on a big piece of particle board and cutting each rafter the same. We ended up with something less than a 4:12 pitch, but it worked great. For many of the rafters, he used reclaimed boards we bought from our friend Dave’s step-dad. They were 2 x 8”, so he ripped (cut off) 2” to make them 2 x 6”. The rafters were attached to the ridge beam and the top plate (on the walls) with metal joist hangers. Sorry, no good pictures of that, either.
On New Year’s Day, I was off work and of course I wanted to help out. Sam gave me the job of mixing up more grout . . .
And pouring it down into the holes that had rebar coming up through the blocks. By the way, you can see the aforementioned ridge beam behind me.
By January 2nd, we had 28 rafters up, 14 on each side, and Sam had rough-framed the door opening.
A few days later, Sam got me started on nailing the particle board to the rafters to make the roof sheathing. It was windy that day, but fortunately, the impending storm never materialized.
Meanwhile, Sam marked and cut the ends of the rafters all the same length.
Now it looks like a real building! The back of the roof (on the right) has a 9” overhang, but we built a 27” overhang on the front, to act as a small porch or protection from raindrops as you open the door. The rafters on the sides hang over about a foot.
On January 12th, our friend Paul came over to help Sam frame the door and balance and hang it. Paul’s an awesome carpenter, and the two guys got that door to where it swings shut with the tip of a finger. Paul and his wife Vicki spend the winters in an RV park in Benson, just 7 or 8 miles from the PPR, but you may also remember them from our photos of South Dakota last summer. They were our tour guides for a day, and we also borrowed Vicki’s motorcycle and sidecar another day. Thanks, guys!
Neither Sam nor I like heights real well, but when you have a roof to build, you just deal with it! The next step was nailing down the tarpaper, which helps make the roof waterproof. Then we nailed a thin metal dripedge around the edges, over the tarpaper. Sam went looking for roofing materials at Benson Lumber, a great small-town hardware and lumber store. We really like metal roofs, so he asked for prices on a metal roof and shingles. A metal roof was $2,000, shingles were $300. Sam knows me well, so he said to the guy, “I’ll talk to my bride, and be back tomorrow to get the shingles!”
We did a lot of measuring to get the rows straight. We used marking string, stretched from one end to the other, which you pop against the tarpaper. The string is covered with red chalky dust and leaves a red line that’s easy to follow. Before we started, Sam shuffled the packs of shingles, so the brown to beige shading was randomly scattered across the roof. I think it turned out real pretty.
Asphalt shingles are nailed down and they also have a strip of tar adhesive across the top that softens in warm weather and adheres to the shingle above. But this was January and months away from warm weather, so Sam’s motto of “be prepared” kicked in. He asked the guys at Benson Lumber for advice, and they recommended painting an extra strip of roofing cement under the edge of each shingle. That’s what I’m doing in the photo above.
Then I handed the shingles to Sam, who nailed them down straight, with the proper spacing and overlap. I can’t remember the exact system, but we also had to cut the shingles to the correct half- or third- sizes when we got to the edges of the roof.
At some point between installation of the particle board and tarpaper, Sam must have nailed the fascia boards in place against the edges of the rafters, because there they are. Along the ridge of the roof, we cut the shingles into thirds and folded them over the ridge and overlapped them, making what’s called a Boston ridge. Believe me, I don’t remember all this stuff – I’m looking it up in the homebuilding books! Later Sam cut plywood to fit on the gable ends and nailed it up, which finished the ends of the building nicely.
Here we are on January 27th, only a month from when we started, and the roof is waterproof and complete. And we’re happy to report that despite 2 years of frequent strong winds and thunderous rain storms, that beautiful little roof has not budged an inch!
As I mentioned earlier, Sam was building the block walls in December, 2007. He mixed the mortar by shoveling sand and cement into the wheelbarrow and adding water. One afternoon, a shovel-full of sand landed in the wheelbarrow and continued to wriggle.
This big boy had been hibernating in the sandpile and was sleepy enough that he hung around awhile. Sam later discovered that he’s called a Clark’s Spiny Lizard.
Before returning him to his winter burrow or sand cave, Sam officially and properly recorded his length as 8 or 9 inches.
Off and on during the next year, we would see him (or a relative) roaming the well house walls or scurrying through the weeds.
In August, 2008, Sam renewed his friendship with Mr. Spiny and a distant smaller cousin. Sam swears the big lizard recognized him as a friend!
