Raising the roof! Literally. And shares will help it along.

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

I cannot believe that we made every match offered to raise the funds for the roofing materials.

I cannot believe they started the roof today.

But both of these things happened.

We began this day with pure magic: the sort of sunrise that you can't really quite believe you're seeing, but there it is, and it shifts every second until you're dizzy with the psychedelia of it all.

We had a wonderful visit from Camille and Lorenzo (Wings's niece and her husband, both of them our friends).

And a sale, on top of everything else.

My birthday week is off to an amazing start.

Of course, there's a lot yet to be done. I have no illusions about being in the house before winter; there's too much work remaining. But if we can get it closed in before winter, I'll be delighted — and today was the first step toward making that happen. What you see up there is today's progress on the framing, about a third of the way across the house. I had said 24-footers, because that's what I'd been told, but in actuality, they're 23-footers; they're notched separately at the the back for proper water drainage and runoff. They made real progress today, and it will look very different again very soon.

But even after the roof is on, there's still the plastering, and the windows, and the doors, and that's just to close it in completely for the weather. Then there's all the interior framing and finish work, and the fixtures, and the water heater, and all the thousand and one other things yet to do. Like the septic system. We're both just sick about that; it was one of the BIG things that we already had covered, or so we thought (septic, propane, main wiring, well). Except not, and after seventeen years, there's no recovering any damages from the bad install. So, we have to redo it.

All of which means, of course, that we need shares of the link to our YouCaring page via the widgets provided, especially via the widget code from the lower right, which produces this running tally:

Our beloved kishik also has a diary up for us at the GOS — mostly informational, and by way of a thank-you, but it can still use tips and recs and shares. And, of course, we need shares of the link to Wings's site (and if you're planning on commissioning holiday gifts, now is the time to contact me to get your orders in the queue).

Many thanks to everyone for all your help in getting us to this final compound stage of work. I never genuinely believed, I don't think, that I'd be seeing a roof go on. On our house! I'm almost speechless. [Almost.] I'm also almost buried under my to-do list, but I'm trying to dig my way out slowly. It's one day at a time. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.