No rake, old boards under roof deck, window installed temporarily
With my last update, I had gotten as far as one side of the “rake” on the front gable, the frame under the edge of the roof that sticks out from the front of the house. Because I have 10′ boards, the one side wasn’t the whole length of the roof line, since the whole thing is close to 15′. Because of this, I hadn’t gotten the attic window installed, since it needs to have the exterior rigid foam around it first, and I needed the rake to be able to measure and cut the foam properly.
For the second stage of the process I needed to handle the ladder, since the bay is under the one side of the roof, and we’ve recently put a peaked roof on it. It probably would have been smarter to do the rake before the bay roof, but that didn’t happen. Oh well; I never pretended my planning was perfect. I rigged up the ladder at a shallow angle so that it matched the roof line of the bay, screwing boards both behind the edges, over the top of the feet, and as bracing on the bay roof itself so it couldn’t slide off. Finally, I stuck a board under the ladder to account for the top ladder section being a few inches up from the bottom.
I pre-assembled the rakes inside. With that done I cut back the original boards that run perpendicular to the rafters. These needed to be cut back flush to the front wall so that I could fit the rakes tight against the house. I mostly did this with a reciprocating saw, but in a couple of spots I used the oscillating tool. I attached some scrap wood to each rake as a hanger, so that I could get it into position and screw it in without having to hold it up at the same time, especially because they’re heavy, I was standing on a ladder, and I only have two arms.
I measured and cut the angled pieces for the ends out of 2×8, since my intention was for the rake to end at the eave with a point with no corner structure. Dean pointed out after the fact that I needed to account for the rigid foam that will go on the sides of the house, which I didn’t do. I’m wondering, since I need to extend the eave structure out two inches as well, if I can’t just transition that. We’ll see; worst case I redo the ends. With the rakes done I cut the foam for the gable peak and around the attic window. Then normal window installation commenced with flashing tape, drain pan, and a ton of frustration getting the installation brackets onto the window, which is also normal.
My next project was the front window of the second story bay. I’d saved it for last since that’s how we’d been getting onto the ceiling of the porch. I yanked out the giant existing window, re-framed, re-sheathed, house wrapped, took a break from window to remove much of the porch ceiling decking and railing we’d put up for the other projects. Bringing 4×8 sheets of plywood in through the window opening is much easier than lowering it down a ladder.
As with the attic, normal window installation took place, with one exception: when it came time to install the window, I installed more scrap wood on the outside of the opening to allow the window to slide beyond the edge of the opening but not fall out. This allowed me to attach the brackets without so much difficulty. It wasn’t crucial to the front window, where I can stand on the porch roof right in front of it, but this technique will help me on the remaining windows, particularly along the side of the house where there isn’t much room to work and I’ll be up a ladder. This way I can put the window in from the inside, then attach the brackets from the outside.
I’ll take down the rest of the railings and ceiling decking soon, when I go to tackle the porch roof itself. For now, I have all the materials I need to install windows, so I’m going to work on that. I’ll need some more lumber for the porch roof, even though I already bought everything a while back. That’s kind of how it goes when you cannibalize your own lumber.
May 15, 2018 at 1:08 pm
Dear young people, please take a leaf from someone who has been through all that and lived to regret it.
I had a two-story frame house my mother helped me buy, 2BR bath-an-a-half, small unfinished basement, before I met the man (who wanted to marry me), or his 3 kids (who loathed me). He was trying to get custody and did. During the process I had a “great” idea: “Let’s get my house expanded so they’ll each have their own bedroom, us too!” He agreed, though I would not realize til much later how VERY reluctantly. He knew how to do almost everything, taught himself electrical work from a book. You canNOT have small kids, set a time frame, and hope it will work out, not unless you don’t watch TV, and/or have a crew of people to do carpentry, and/or apprentice to someone in the trades. Even then!
Through the ensuing twenty-five years, the upper kitchen cabinets have never had doors, the ceiling paint is peeling, and we still have the same ceiling gaps at the outer edges of the room( because we planned to install ductwork – only now that we’ve bought a summer home with large on-wall electric heaters did it occur to us we could have those in the Chicago home too – d’oh!)
In the 1st floor bathroom, when I moved in there were 4″ plastic tiles all over the walls and ceiling. ON the ceiling was a 12″… FLOOR tile, then the light fixture. When we took all that down my husband discovered about three feet of BARE ELECTRICAL WIRE wrapped around three NAILS. We took all that out, but now – the downstairs bathroom developed a leak several years ago through the wall, so its sink, toilet, and surrounding walls are still torn out. Bathtub can’t be used because, it turns out, a previous person used KITCHEN grout and not the requisite sturdy waterproof bathroom grout, so chunks of it and wallboard – NOT concrete board – were falling unseen onto the furnace directly below in the basement, which gave up the ghost this past New Years Eve… when it was below zero days in a row… we had to buy (for a few hundred dollars) several electric space heaters, which we don’t need anymore, so the pipes wouldn’t freeze, and it was still only 45 degrees inside until the furnace guys came! The second floor bathroom hasn’t a bathtub, at least the toilet, sink and shower work. Shower drips constantly, hubby can’t fix it til he has cataract surgery and a growth on his wrist removed…
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In the dining room when he was up on a ladder years ago changing out the ceiling light fixture which was sparking, he shocked himself and was falling, his head heading toward the mahogany bureau corner, but his weightlifter brother CAUGHT him. He put in the big dining room bay window by himself!
We needed a new roof and gutters. The garage needed new everything exterior, we JUST avoided needing a whole new garage by the skin of our teeth. We hate rats, mice and possums! We had mice and even rats in the HOUSE – cats will only be mousers if they feel like it, but lots of dogs will hunt ’em down, we’ve had several of those, bless their hearts.
Most of the 2nd floor floors are still ragged from where the carpenters who put the addition on all those years ago moved the walls. We think the smallest room has asbestos in the linoleum floors, we know we’ll have to change it for parquet but we don’t use that room right now.
The basement flooded – I mean the sewer backed up – on an annoying then frighteningly frequent basis. We finally used a tax refund to hire guys to install a sewer backup protection system, which I assure you is worth not only every penny but its weight in gold. The walls still seep when it pours but compared to the sewer backup at least it’s just a litttle.
My mom had left my brothers and me in her will each some money – some went to wood parquet flooring, which our teen will help do if pressed, preferring painting but NOT sanding (I say “NObody LIKES to sand drywall paste,”) and some of which is still to do.Some money went to 4 huge new double-doublehung windows. This we hired out thanks to Lowe’s. The wood front door has a long crack down the middle, through which daylight shows. The new one will finally be professionally installed come Friday, with a new storm door – yay! The cramped lower hallway after 35 years will be warm and bright, whew.
He had an attic fan installed through the roof and wall, but I don’t think it makes a whole lot of difference.
The basement is still unfinished. We’re on our third or fourth washer and dryer, 2nd dishwasher. The old door to the basement’s still there by the grace of – hubby, who had to buy new glass and putty when I pushed too hard with the laundry basket and it shattered.
It’s about time to REpaint the interior back stair area, and maybe THIS is the year we’ll get carpeting on those stairs. Meanwhile the front interior stairway hasn’t been painted in 20+ years, the spindles are all about to fall off, the paint on the stairs is all chipped
I’m sure I’ve missed things. See, things start breaking down/wearing out before you’ve gotten everything finished, before you’re ready, unless you have help. It gets hard on a marriage, and (we and) the kids get tired of roughing it. Come see how we live if you’d like a dose of reality and me to elaborate. We’re in Avondale.
August 17, 2018 at 1:33 pm
One of my faves by Henry David Thoreau
“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” My 100+ year home is still not complete but we have completed an “amazing family”. Since 1989 we still dream while both working several jobs towards our goals of creating a flawless home for our clan of 5. I am inspired by your site,knowledge and youth. God Bless Your Home and Family. Thank you for sharing your goals.
August 27, 2018 at 9:20 am
Yesterday I put up and painted the roof rake on my garage project. I put mine together in about the same way as you did. Finished up about 10 PM on a Sunday night. Man, it was a pain, but it looks good. Hope you are making lots of progress this summer and taking time to vacation with you family.
September 4, 2018 at 8:06 pm
What’s going on with the house? Inquiring minds of internet strangers want to know. 🙂