Las Luces

Yesterday was a short work day, because I had apheresis at the Red Cross in the afternoon, and as much as I wanted to work on the cricket, it would have taken me too long to uncover then re-cover in the time I had. So I worked on the sheathing a bit.

Kat worked on some things, and when I got home I continued to direct her even if I couldn't do much (no heavy lifting after aphersis). She installed the rest of the subfloor for the loft, and some blocking underneath. To her surprise, she enjoyed herself. I don't know if it's because it's a mellower pace than Habitat, or if it's because she's working on our house, or what, but she enjoyed herself enough to ask for stuff to work on today, too. But it was a little weird for me to not be able to work because of apheresis, just some saw cuts and instruction.

Today I got a reasonably early start, and went to work on the cricket. I got it sheathed, some self-adhesive flashing added as a backup to everything else, and covered it in tar paper. I still need to add some valley flashing to the new valley (and figure out how to get it under the existing shingles without totally trashing them), and of course put shingles on the new roof, but at the moment it's pretty much weather tight.

Which is a good thing...as the afternoon progressed, it got cloudy, the wind picked up, and Kat saw rain on the local doppler radar. Ruh-oh, Shaggy! It only rained a few drops here, but I saw lightning off in the distance, so it was a relief to have the cricket in place, because there will be more rain, and sooner rather than later.

Given the end of daylight savings time and the winter angle of the sun, the worksite gets dark pretty early these days. So I put a work light in the addition, so I can work past 4:30pm without having to guess about pencil marks when cutting. I still work a relatively short day most days (doubtless to my neighbors' relief), but I'm satisified with my progress.

But the big news is that I got the roof trusses ordered! After not getting emails or phone calls returned from Bay Truss I gave up on them. But Anderson Truss (and what a great name) came through with a good bid, and in a reasonable time frame. And even though they're based in the Central Valley (Dixon near Sacramento, and Lathrop, near Manteca), the sales guy I talked with lives in Alameda, so he was able to stop by, look over the worksite, have me look over the drawings, and get a check to get things rolling. That's almost as big a relief as getting the cricket weather tight.

And no, I haven't forgotten about posting some pictures from up the hill, but I haven't had time to go up and take them. When it's light (and I have platelets), I'm working on the house!