what next?

Roofers.

Our garage roof has been leaking badly for years.  Now, with Rowan done her exams and Teagan arrived to spend a week with his sister AND three days of predicted sun, seemed the ideal time.  What did the two cherubs think?  SURE!  Before they could think better of it, Doco had gone to Coe Lumber for five bundles of grade-4 cedar shingles.  Then, yesterday, while Rowan was off at field hockey and I was at UBC too, Doco and Teagan set to.  When we returned, Teagan had the north side roofless.

Rowan joined in.  Why not do both sides at once?  It's not going to rain.  So the duo got well down the south side.  The three little boys next door - Issac, Orin and Theo - appeared with their dad, Kevin, and had a fine time helping "Mr. Harris" put old shingle bits in the bin.  Music and merriment from the roof.  Fine neighbourhood entertainment.

 Resuming this morning - one foot on the neighbour's roof - the pair finished baring the south side ...

… took an ice-cream-snack break ...

… then tackled replacing the rotted pieces of furring strips (strapping) along the bottoms and the top.  Doco wasn't actually on the roof, but directed from the yard or the ladder, and wrestled the stubborn furring strip off the north-side bottom.  An impressive crew!

Off for a sushi lunch and back for a lesson in how to put on shingles - starting at the bottom, shingles a bit apart, the first row two-layers thick, the second layer overlapping the spaces between shingles in the first.  The second row 5 inches up from the first row, with a furring strip, tacked down temporarily, used as a guide.  Doco did the first shingle, and the roofers were off.  The trick seems to be to make sure each shingle covers the gap between the two shingles in the row below.

I was dispatched for another five bundles.  By the time I returned, the roofers had done five rows - eight by suppertime, when they quit for today.  Tomorrow they think they will go hiking!

P.S.  I remember my delight, the summer I was eight, in "helping" my dad put a new shingle roof on my grandmother's little house in New Denver - actually up on the roof (a bit - I think my main job was to hand shingles up to my dad).  Some jobs are FUN (but there's still a fair chunk of roof left to cover!  and when does Teagan need to go home?)