roof – Rõika 15

Finishing the roof

In April winter came back from time to time, so there where no weekends to take on another part of the roof. We did some pruning of the apple trees, but nothing major. On April 24th we had a surprise 10 cm of snow, but on May 1st, it was as if a switch was flicked and it seemed like summer.

In shorts and t-shirt Anton, Glenn and me took on the first part of the main roof. Here I had to replace the feather board as well. With the new feather board on it showed that roof had sagged a bit over the past 70 years. Since the construction is otherwise fine, I left it like that and will see if or what I will do about it. At the end of the weekend the first part was done.
This screams even more then before for a fresh coat of paint to compliment the new roof.

The next weekend I spend on some details. Skirting around the chimneys and the finishing strip between the small roof and the house. I always enjoy these type of puzzles and the results are also rewarding. I also added the roof ladder to reach the chimney sweep platform.

The weather was very stable, so another weekend, some more roof work. The last part of the roof around the dormer was more puzzling. It also was a good moment to insulate and finish the dormer with the same wood profile the main house has. Labor intensive so after the weekend it was not done yet and it took a few nights after work to finish the last part of the roof. But when that was done… It looks like a brand new house, well, almost.
We still need to paint. Let’s see when we get to that.

On of the last days of the month I rented a machine to turn all the pruned branches into mulch. A nice day of working on a tan while cleaning up the garden.

First roof piece at the front

The winter moved out slowly, so time to restart the roofing project. First part the smaller roof that is over the bathroom and sauna. A relative easy roof, mostly straight forward and just a chimney to work around.

So Mattias, Marc and me dressed up in white, took off the eternit, then the asphalt and around 20:00 after the sun had set the damp barrier was on, so the roof would be waterproof enough for dew or a light rain shower.

The next day the wooden frame was build and we could place the metal roof. Marc had invited his Turkish coworker Megmet, who was pretty handy and had good spirit.
Just around sunset the roof was on. And again, it looked amazing. I guess the big change is what makes this so much fun after the work is done.

Work at home and a long trip

The roof ladder and platform where ready to be picked up, so I put them in place. It seems very convenient to sweep the chimney now. So I did it while I was up there.
I had ordered a shelf for my 19″ rack in the meter closet and the NAS and ProxMox server fit nice on it. It really is one of those finishing touches.

Then we had a trip to Scotland and after that I found out my dad had a 50 year work anniversary. I wanted to go there, but tickets where very unfriendly priced. While talking to Jan I found out he had the same problem. So we made a plan to combine four trips in one. The Volvo of Toon that was still stored in my back yard, had been sold to the Netherlands and had to be transported there. I still had my RX-7 in the Netherlands, so we decided to drive there with the Volvo to drop it off, pick up the RX-7 and drive back.
It was a great surprise for my dad and I am glad I got there. Minor detail I had an RX-7 in Estonia a bit ahead of plan. Luckily Mo’s mother has a garage where it could be stored for the winter.

Roof and network upgrade

August started wet when one of the boys went to the toilet and while opening the faucet broke it. They went to look for the main valve, while I put in local valves with every faucet, which now payed of, as we could close them and keep using water in the rest of the house.
Next was putting a roof on the porch and next replace the roof of the bathroom part of the house and the veranda. Here was a new challenge, as I had gotten a Velux window for some extra air and light in my future office. This was a fun project, but it was very warm during the building, with the last part Mattias got the IR thermometer and measured temperatures over 70* C on the black roof.
The end result was amazing! Some time in the future a roof stairs and a chimney sweep platform need to be installed, but for now it already looked very finished!
I finished the wood around the veranda. Nice to see how the wood I put in a month before already yellowed a lot.
With the electricity done, I decided to upgrade my internet router as well. It should be able to be connected to the optical cable directly, but after trying that I found out the would need some adjustment on the side of Telia and the first support agent I called had no clue what I was talking about and did not want to put me through to someone who would understand. So for now, I run it over copper.
The meter closet looks very organized now with the router, the home assistant blue, a Pine64 and a Raspberry Pi.

Lots of stuff done

The weather is still good, and I want to have to solar panels on the roof before winter. Partly because this part of the roof still has some leakage at odd times. Besides it would be nice to have them online before January, so I will have a good start of the annual data.
We first took off half of the roof, the part that bordered the neighbors. Here would be normal roofing.
Dressed up in overalls, PF3 masks and gloves we took of the asbestos roof plates. The nails that where used came out surprisingly easy and there where no breakages. This went quicker then expected.
Under the asbestos there was asphalt. To take that off took way more time then anticipated. It seemed nail where free in the Soviet times, they used so many!
When the roof was clean, we placed the vapor barrier and the distance holders. On top of that the horizontal planks and after two days of work this part was ready for the new roof. Another two days later the roof was on and if looked fantastic! The neighbor was also very enthusiastic.

The next weekend I worked on some electrical things for the home automation without very much success and I finally placed the kitchen light in the final position.
Mo found a place that was willing to make a custom extractor hood chimney. In Tartu of all places.

The weather forecast was good again, so we decided to replace the next part of the roof that would hold the solar panels. It was easier because we did not have to work around the dormer, but connecting the panels and routing the wires took more time, so all in all it took another 4 days get the solar panels up. The roof looks absolutely amazing!

Before the winter would come in, I also upgraded the chicken coop with a door to make it easier to get in and out.

Floor in the hallway and roof ahead

Now that all the dust in the studio is settles it is more then time to put the linoleum in the hallway. When the floor was in, it was time to build the cabinet we got at Ikea and once that was in we toasted with a glass of chartreuse to the good use of our chartreuse coloured floor.

One of the last upcoming projects will be to finish the utility room. There I have to replace part of a beam. After some measuring I looked through the old wood and found some pieces that could be glued together to create the required beam.

Meanwhile exciting times ahead. The new roof and solar panels have been ordered. It is always good to check prices. The wood Roofit had put on their estimate was much more expensive then i could get it ar Puu Market.
When they asked where I would order the rest of the roof and my reply was at the place that offers the best price, that part was also taken of their estimate.
So I ordered the wood at puu market and the roof at Ruukki. I picked up the wood with the help of Martijn en Ruukki came to deliver the roof.
Exciting times!

A new roof

With all the effort, including a fall from the roof, it was still leaking, so I was done with it. I decided to completely replace the roof of the dormer. Some OSB, some nail coat and some bitumen should do the trick.

It was beautiful weather in between the showers. But I got the OSB on there before the first shower hit and got the nail coat on when the real rain started. The next day I finished by burning on the bitumen layers and finishing off the connection with the main roof.

Another rain shower showed one minor error in the connection with the roof and then finally, the roof was waterproof! At last! Time for a bit of vacation, so the next few weeks there will be little or no work done on the house. Because of the pandemic we will explore Estonia.

Shelves and a drop

So, the doors are in, the space under the roof now is a cabinet, time to get this space organized. I already bought some Ivar shelves from Ikea, but not everything was available, so I had to do another run. Since the longest parts where only 179 cm, I figured it would ‘easily’ fit in Anna’s Toyota IQ and I even had 1 cm left. My plan to cut the long part sides in pieces for a second layer of shelves worked nicely, so 3 long sides turned into 6 made to fit short sides.

With the finishing touch between the old and new wood from last week as an example I also made a filler piece for the sliding doors. After I had made a new sill for one of the windows on the south side I now could use my new learned skill to renovate the windows on the north side.

And than when the first real room was about finished it started raining again and the roof leaked like it had never been fixed. So back on the roof to see what I could do to fix it. I now noticed the dormer did not have barge boards and since it was very windy I figured that might just be the missing link on why it is dripping again.
So from the wood I had laying around I made a barge board and put it on the right side of the dormer. It was not perfect, but it would do for the time being, as a completely new roof is planned for next year anyway, so on to the left side. I moved the scaffolding and started on the left side. The preparation went well, but when I went up with the actual board, something started moving and before I fully realized what happened the scaffolding was sliding away from the wall and turned away from the house, while I was going after it. A second later I fell in the grass, which gave a pretty good impact, but I instantly jumped up and shouted I was OK. Further inspection showed a few scratches, so I guess I have been very lucky. A cool thing to notice was that during the fall my body was moving towards a better position for falling. Got to love the muscle memory from years of judo!

During the weekend we found a nice lamp for in our toilet, it is an elephant with a small night light in its belly and a main light in its trunk. Also I found some time to create a replacement construction for a small greenhouse for Mo’s mother.

The last mile is the longest

It is nice to have an idea, but it has to be realistic. With all the (little) things that needed to be done to finish the bedroom, it was clear 7.7 would not work, but close to it would still be something to go for. So here is what we did this week.
With the long Estonian days curtains are pretty essential, so we went to look for something and as it has been so far, it was pretty easy to find something we both liked, it took about 5 minutes in the fabric store. Entering the curtain section I noticed something which looked very similar to my grandfathers curtains back in Leeuwarden, Mo saw the same fabric and it was done.
Back home I made and fitted the feather boards around the doors, while Mo started scraping of the old paint from the drawers.
Then she cleaned the old wood we kept in sight while I build the last walls in the toilet and we sanded and painted the windows.
I also had to get back on the roof, as during the rain, when the wind was coming from the east to southeast we had a bit of leaking again. I found the most possible suspect and covered it completely, so fingers crossed this will the last one until we will replace the roof.