My new reality

Last week, the third week of construction on our son’s and daughter-in-law’s house, ended well despite my momentary panic attack.  Thanks to all of you, my blog readers (now totalling in the double digits!!!) for your positivity and support and cheering.  Seeing our progress from other’s perspectives helped a lot to pull me out out of my funk. The anxiety does return occasionally but I try to see how far we’ve come and not how far there is to go.

By the end of the third week we had the flooring sheathed on the third floor/attic space in preparation for the roof construction. The stairwell opening was closed over to allow for a safer workspace; all this time we used a ladder to reach the second floor and then another ladder or scaffolding to reach the third floor. The folding ladder to reach the third floor is a bit short for me, so some hoisting is required to go up or down. Needless to say, I don’t do either too often-it’s not a very ‘ladylike’ approach (it’s kinda like trying to get out of my kayak onto the dock). Once up, I stay up leaving it to someone else with longer legs to run the errands. Which are many, to wit: “where is the handsaw/sawzall/zip tape/utility knife/drill bit/recharged battery for drill/drill” etc.? Or, “restart the generator/compressor/move the Lull (formerly known as “mull” or “forklift” or “Skytrak”, now heretofor affectionately called “the machine”). So much up and down meaning lots of exercise in the oppressive heat which has been never-ending.

Sunday morning arrived and so did my brothers Ed and Dave and my sister’s boyfriend Jim, all from Buffalo. Have I said how amazing our family has been? We didn’t even ask and they offered to take vacation days, drive 6 hours, and spend over 3 days working with us before driving back. So this Banker, Engineer, and Welder go up on the third floor with Greg and Dan and start building the roof. They got quite a bit done despite some short stints of rain from Hurricane Henri; luckily the weather turned out better than predicted (still hot though). Unfortunately, my idea of driving “the machine” through the fields resulted in some down time as we all tried to figure out how to extract it from the mud it had sunk axel-deep (apparently there was enough rain for that to happen). With lots of brain power, talking, digging, and moving gravel and plywood under the wheels, “the machine” was thankfully extracted after about 45 minutes worth of additional worry (on my part, of course). Roof construction recommenced with raising the ridge beam, cutting and placing rafters, and applying plywood sheathing which moved along well. The main roof on the front of the house was 50% complete as well as having the rafters installed on the the majority of the rear of the house by the time the guys left. I couldn’t be prouder of them.

The next day, Wednesday, after squeezing another hour or two of work out of my brothers before they headed home, Greg and I worked to continue sheathing, using the “the machine” to move material up and around. The pressure was on to get as much done at elevation as possible while we still had access to “the machine” as the rental ended on the upcoming Monday. Greg called in a bit more help for Thursday from another sister’s significant other, Shawn, and his son Noah. These two volunteers drove up from Maryland to spend the day building a rake end wall with us on the far side of the house. This is the wall that sits below the roof to the top of the floor, basically the triangle part under the roof to the box of the house. Again, the heat was oppressive but we got the job done, again, with many thanks to our family. Dan and Anna, unable to take time off this week, came over after work and put in a few hours each evening to complete other tasks which Greg and I were too exhausted to consider, like Zip taping and finishing up plywood sheathing on the walls. Friday, Greg and I installed some more roof rafters that will end up intersecting with other, lower roofs. This work required some thinking and figuring on Greg’s part so it was just as well that it was just the two of us working on it. Later on Friday Greg’s brother Bob returned to help with the big weekend push. That evening we put up the other side rake end wall. Our plans for the rest of our 3 days with “the machine”: get plywood on whatever rafters are unsheathed and work on front roof dormer construction.

Saturday morning’s very heavy downpours resulted in some local flash flooding as well as a very wet workspace so we took the morning off to regroup and relax and write. This is the most rain delay we’ve encountered the whole month! Of course, that just means less time and more pressure to get the heavy ‘aerial’ work done before Monday. Luckily, Dan and Anna will be working with Greg on the roof, all using safety harnesses, with Bob below to help supply plywood, fulfilling my promise to Tina that Bob not be on the roof. And the weather has cooled. Keep swimming!

Good News! The machine can stay until Wednesday and so will we. Despite that, when “the machine” goes back, so do Greg and I return home for a few days to rest and recover. These ‘machines’ have not had a break since the beginning of August and can really use a few days off. We began working until dusk everyday to utilize the daylight/machine/energy we had left. Over the weekend, Greg had a severe overnight bout of some stomach bug or food poisoning. The next day, however, he was up and at it. Christina arrived late Saturday (Trenton Train station-not awful) and spent Sunday helping Anna and me do more taping and wall sheathing. If that PhD thing doesn’t work out for her, she has great experience as a heavy machine operator to fall back on. We finished the valleys in the back roof and moved onto the front dormers.

Monday and Tuesday Greg and I continued working on the dormers up front and Dan and Anna came after work to sheathe them; we also got some of the PVC trim on the fascia which will allow the roofers to start whenever they become available. We finished our work again, at dusk, with some offloading of lumber into the attic before “the machine” departs (less to lift manually later). With one dormer left to complete the roof, we covered that opening with a tarp before Hurricane Ida moseyed through and went home to the apartment and the next day, home to the Adirondacks. I felt successful and confident that now, project by project, we will get this done. Someday…