Quick roof update

We've finished the slate on the hip roof section of the house and the last dormer. I broke down and put felt paper on the rest of the roof, so that we have _some_ form of roof (80% permanent, 20% temporary) on all of the house at this point. Every window is installed (even the basement windows!), and we've tarped all of the door openings, so that we can actually try to heat the inside of the house. Until I can decide on which brand of outside wood furnace to buy, we're using a barrel stove (inside the house) that I bought at a scrap yard for salvage metal prices.

When we get a spell of good weather, I'll climb back out on the roof (through the upper left most tower window in this picture) and start fabricating the flashing that forms the cricket and valleys where the tower roof intersects the main roof. Not a job I look forward to, but it must be done. Although I don't think it looks as nice, I plan to make this valley an "open valley" as opposed to a "closed valley." This will allow us to walk on the valley without breaking slates, and more importantly, it will allow us to slate the main roof and the tower roof independently of each other.

For two years, my wife has kept a signed contract on the fridge in which I pledged that "Thanksgiving 2006 will be in our new house." Well, Thanksgiving morning came, and I wasn't even close to fulfilling the contract so I gave my concession speech and pleaded for an extension, duly noting that several changes and expansions of scope had crept into the work order. (we were originally going to outsource the foundation and slate roof) In all honesty, I'd say I'm about 1 year behind scedule, but it could be longer. In any case, it feels really good to not have water pouring through the structure anymore. :)