Tar paper

The roofing paper is going up! This is the first step of stuccoing.

Note that the saggy front deck has been ripped out & replaced with a temporary set of steps that were borrowed from a neighbor. Mike has promised to rebuild the deck properly, with a railing & nice steps & everything.

Insulation

No pictures to show, mostly because Mike keeps forgetting to take the camera out there, but three of the first floor dormers now have their insulation and/or interior plywood what-do-you-call-it, the inside of the wall. Facing? I have no idea what it is properly called. Anyway, Mike & Ali have been working as a team; Ali goes first, cutting & fitting the insulation, then Mike comes along behind her, closing it up with the plywood. They make a pretty good duo... Ali has inherited her dad's skill with working with his hands, it seems.

We're into the early-summer rains, which means that exterior work is very weather-dependent. Nothing done on the outside for the last few days due to the recent heavy downpours. Mike will need to wait for a clear spell to test out his new scaffolding.

Entry Framing

A picture of the plywood on the interior of the entry way, which has been reinforced & insulated. Note the sawhorse table in the foreground -- Mike was appalled at how much a sawhorse cost at Lowe's, so he built a few. A leftover piece of plywood makes a nice work table.

Progress report

Work continues at a slow pace, but progress is being made. Unfortunately, I have no pictures at the moment; I'll see if I can't get some soon.

Last week Mike finished squaring & shimming all the exterior doors, installing said doors' hardware, and removing the slapdash front deck that was so poorly constructed that it was already beginning to sag. (Yet another thing we need to redo.)

This week he plans to apply to all of the first-floor dormers the felt-paper stuff that is the first layer of masonry; also, he will reinforce and insulate the high-profile front-entry dormer opening, which will otherwise turn into a major heat-loss area.

One of the things we have learned about dome construction is this: it is not for people who don't enjoy finding solutions to oddball problems. The non-right-angle geometry means that, at every step, you wind up saying to yourself, "Well, in an ordinary house I would do thusly, but that won't work here, so..." and then you have to puzzle out what is likely to work best. Some people enjoy such a challenge; some folks would be driven batty by it. Fortunately, Mike is about 75% in the former category.

Work Resumes

After a winter hiatus & far too much legal drama with our ex-contractor, work has finally resumed on the dome, with Mike at the helm. Today's project was to redo the half-assed installation of the front door, square it up, and install the permanent hardware (locks and handles.) Here, Mike shims the door frame, something the contractor didn't bother to do. I am just so happy to see something happening with the dome... we've both been quite bummed over the winter months that we didn't get anywhere near done last year. Now, with Mike doing the bulk of the remaining work, it will go slowly; but at least we can be sure of where the money's going.