Karren on the Rampage!

Since we have a new stainless chimney for our wood stove we decided to remove the old cinderblock chimney in the back of the house. This old one was cracked and some of the mortar joints were displaced/shifted. We also wanted to open the basement window view that the chimney blocked. I had broken the block above the roof line and thrown it down, piece by piece earlier in the day. When Karren got home she was eager to participate in the destruction.

Here she is in action taking out her work frustrations on a poor, unsuspecting cinder block. BTW, the fire brick inside was fine except for one burn penetration above the roof line.

After spending a while with mini-Thor she switched to a baseball swing with the splitting maul. WHAM! Instant gratification.

On Sunday (we are sinners) we finished the stripping of the second of three sections of roof shingles. Yesterday I put down underlayment and installed a new roof vent and boot for plumbing vent. Karren arrived just in time to participate in scraping and priming the section of short wall above the roof line that didn't get painted last month. We will continue to finish the painting and will fix the flashing around the high windows before the shingle work begins. There will need to be some caulk work and some custom flashing before I'm happy with the ability of the windows to stay leak free.

The way roof flashing works is really gravity based. Simply imagine you are a rain drop and you want to find your way home to the ground. Gravity is the main mechanism but is sometimes altered by wind or capillary action. As long as you can prevent these actions from moving the water into the structure, or have a path for it to follow, you have solved the problem.

I ran out of nails. I was pretty sure that I would based on the knowledge that I would be nailing twice the density in order to prevent high winds from lifting materials, but was assured by the Lowe's staff that one bucket was enough. It is easy enough to pick up more on one of our many runs back into town. I am also running out of underlayment. That was unexpected. Either my roof dimensions and calculations are wrong or the Lowe's computer lied. No biggie! The extra roll was ordered yesterday.

The next installment will feature a blurb about the nascent flooring project, which is also tied to the interior painting. So get ready for "Nasty Carpet Removal" or "Paint Until Your Arms Fall Off!" See you then!