Trim completed, we started shingling the back half of the roof….. and if you know anything about the baby barn?
You know it wasn’t going to cooperate.
Oh, the first row was perfectly level.
Unfortunately…. it was also 5/8ths of an inch short.
If you’ve ever done roofing, you know what a nightmare this is. Tiny little strips of shingles had to be cut for every row and you can’t put them at the end. No, that would be too easy. They had to be tucked somewhere in the middle so it didn’t screw up the pattern… which meant cutting one other shingle on every row as well.
Time consuming? You could say that.
It literally took us all friggin’ day to do the back half of this little roof.
Okay, so the fact that the husband bought the wrong size flashing at Home Depot the night before (because he went without me and therefore to the wrong store) and then had to go back to Home Depot to return it the next day and get the right size flashing (again without telling me and therefore to the wrong store ) and because Home Depot doesn’t sell the right size flashing ( we’d bought the right size flashing across town at Lowes a month ago ) he also had to take a trip to Lowes.
The moral of that lengthy run on sentence? Tell your wife before you go somewhere so she can tell you you’re wrong. It will save you time and aggravation….. and she’ll thoroughly enjoy it.
No, that ridiculous waste of time didn’t help.
Of course, yours truly telling the husband he should have checked with me first didn’t help either…. but you know I had to.
Needless to say I put some physical distance between us after that comment.
I’m not sure the big barn porch was far enough, but at least it was out of hammer strike range.
So progress was slow, but it was progress.
And here’s a picture of a spider carrying off a dead fly….
Just for variety’s sake.
And then finally it was done.
But I didn’t get a picture because I was inside cooking dinner.
Hey, you’ve seen one crooked baby barn roof, you’ve seen them all.
Done with the Indian village, we walked through an exhibition hall full of 17th century replica pottery.
It was a bit odd. But there was a still…
And an 8 handed mug…
So that probably explains it. That, and the fact water was often polluted so they drank mostly beer and/or alcohol.
Onward to the colonist’s settlement….
First, the fort which commanded the high ground.
With it’s wonderful old cannons.
Then down into the settlement.
It was explained to us that all the employees would be playing the parts of characters based on the original inhabitants, wearing authentic clothing and speaking in the language of the period. We were encouraged to interact with them as such.
Before visiting here I was under the impression that the Pilgrims came to the new world to escape religious persecution. And while that’s true to an extent, it’s not the whole story. They actually fled to the Netherlands first, which explains all the windmills you see in this part of the country.
The settlers in Plymouth were actually sponsored by England to colonize America. They were given ship’s passage and supplies and were expected to send back goods (mostly furs and pelts) to repay the investment. After 7 years of this, they were granted land… something working class people had no hope of obtaining back home.
Of course nothing went as planned. They were supposed to land in New York, but they landed in Massachusetts. They were supposed to land in September, but they landed in December.
They were supposed to fish for food, but there were no fisherman. They were supposed to build a town, but there were no trained carpenters.
Piss poor planning if you ask me.
Hell, a large percentage of them didn’t even live through the first winter.
But they’d brought some livestock…
And as we know, managed to survive if not yet thrive.
This fellow was trying to frame a window.
On the exterior of this house.
And if you think the Indians had it bad, imagine 15 people living and sleeping in here at a time.
Check out the slight list of the house on the far right. If I didn’t know better, I’d say the husband had a hand in it’s construction.
Personally, I loved the roofs…
Fashioned from rolled reeds, they begged to be petted.
In the next house we found this fellow, and the husband initiated a conversation.
I’m guessing the man had stage experience, because he was seriously deep in character.
As opposed to the numerous sets of temporary walls we’ve installed, uninstalled and installed again.
And it’s finally starting to take enough shape for the husband to hang up a few tools.
Of course…. a chain, a pick ax and a shovel might not bode well for me and my oh so helpful ideas.
The floor is still 2 different levels of dirt thanks to the woodchucks and chipmunks….
But we haven’t had time to deal with it between rain storms.
The husband has also discovered that when I’m busy taking pictures… he can use his head for a brace. It works quite well.
So, walls and roof section on…
The tape was applied.
If you’ve never used the Zip wall and roofing system? Let me tell you… this stuff is golden. I don’t know what the hell they treat it with but once you tape up the seams it stays waterproof for a long time. I think they say 3 months open to the weather, but on our big barn we left it for over a year… through a Maine winter.. and it was fine.
You’re only supposed to use the tape with the Zip pieces, but baby barn has so many gaps and holes we taped everything we could find in preparation for a big upcoming storm.
Did the husband get a little happy with the tar paper caps? Probably, but we get some hellacious wind blowing across the fields.
So, three and half sides are done and it’s battened down for rain and wind.
Maybe it’s just me, but I swear it’s big brother is looking down in disgust.
Sadly, we may not have time or appropriate weather to finish it this year. I seriously wanted shingles on before the snow flies but my husband says the siding and trim have to go on first… something to do with flashing.
Although what that has to do with anything….
I’m sure I don’t know.
So, fingers crossed we can at least remove that last rotted section soon.
This week the baby barn saga is a two-fer…. lucky you! I spent far too much time on the husband’s rusty crap stuff yesterday, so today?
Deconstruction.
Old shingles had to come off first and that was a nightmare. They’re over 40 years old and brittle as hell. Pieces and parts at best, and it seemed like every nail he tried to pull was bent.
*inserts required ‘porn for women’ shot here*
Sweep, baby… sweep!
Walls were coming off left and right….
And we seemed to be making progress.
How’s that for an action shot?
Mid air plywood!
More sweeping…
A little rotted wood.
(It was only holding up the roof, and my husband… no worries.)
And a room with a view later…
The rain that wasn’t supposed to start until after midnight was threatening and we had to scramble to waterproof.
This meant a patchwork of zip siding with a corner that wasn’t exactly … how shall we say?
Squared.
Followed by my favorite part.
Rolling out and tacking down tar paper in 30 mph wind.
Please note I’m risking life and limb giving you roof top photos.
You can call me crazy, but you can’t say I don’t go the extra mile for my readers.
So this is where we left it… weird, but water tight.
One dry days work, and a full half a day covering it up for the next rain storm. Had we started this stupid project in September…. when we were begging for moisture, instead of October… where it rains very other day, I dare say we’d be further along by now.
Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
River's world..... 