After a truly spectacular summer of day after day sunshine we are now paying the price. For the month of October it has rained in torrents for many days, drizzled or snowed for a few and just as the sun emerges and you think you are going to get a break, the clouds roll in and the wind picks up.
Our goal for the house was to be all closed in by now..... but you know how that goes. The windows should be here soon but with gaping holes still in the roof structure they are not going to help. For a while, energetic vacuuming was taking place daily to remove standing water and leaves from the main level. That turned out to be a futile exercise.
These beautiful, reflective pools in the living room make Frits' blood boil as he struggles to figure out the various angles of a very complicated roof. He works well into the fading light of evening, long after Ernie and the boys have left, to be ready for their 7:00 am arrival.
The straight section of roof over the garage and mud room end is now watertight. Once the plywood was on we had to wait for a dry day to cover it with a membrane that will protect it until the standing seam roof can be installed.
I wish I had been able to take photos 2 days ago when Frits was attempting to secure a very large tarp over the cupola and the remaining open rafters. After a couple of exceptional, dry days the floors had dried out but the forecast was for showers beginning in the morning. The tarp had not yet arrived but the skies were looking ominous. By 8:00, light rain had begun and, just in time, the tarp also arrived. It was a mad scramble by the four workers to hold down a billowing piece of material the size of a soccer field at the same time securing it with ropes. By the time they were done, rain was coming down in sheets and the wind had picked up. The floors were wet again but nothing like before.
As the day went on, the force of the wind was too much for some of the grommets holding the ropes. Several ripped out sending one corner flapping, putting even more strain on the others. By nightfall and all alone, Frits was many feet in the air trying to wrestle this spinnaker-like sail back to earth. The house was afloat again so the battle was lost and now saving the tarp from departing altogether was the goal. Single-handedly he overpowered the writhing blue monster and packaged it for another day.
The next couple of days look to be dry so with any luck the rest of the roof will be sealed in the very near future. My husband will be much relieved and may even catch an extra hour of sleep on a Sunday morning.
Each day I walk through the house checking the views from every window and gauging how the light will change from hour to hour. So far, I'm loving it all. Most of the leaves have now fallen exposing even wider vistas. This is the view from our bedroom window but only to dream about, since we are rarely in bed after the sun rises or before it sets. Maybe that is for our old age!
