The roof is on! Well. the first layer, anyway.

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

This is what the house looks like right at this moment. Well, at the moment, it's a little harder to see, since it's almost full dark already, but you get the idea.

What you see from the midpoint to the upper right is the framing of the parapet. You've seen Pueblo Revival buildings n places like Santa Fe with the stair-stepped rooflines? Those are the parapets. Not all that impressive, maybe, by medieval European standards, but around here, they're pretty cool. Also pretty useful. They help with weatherproofing, and we get serious weather here, both summer and winter. 

At the moment, in addition to getting the west-side parapet framed, the got all of the remaining cross-beams notched and installed today:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

You can see them here, just behind the tops of the baby aspens.

The other thing they got done today is the installation of the waferboard atop the cross-beams:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

You can get a general feel for how it looks in the photo above.

You can see a close-up here:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

It's beautiful work. Wings and I stood outside in front of it tonight, looking up at it in wonder. He said, "Aji, that's our house."

I still can't quite believe it.

They've got a lot to do over the next two days. They'll be framing the parapet on the east side, as well as one squarely in the center front. Then, as I understand it, they've got more work to do inside, including insulation. In the meantime, Buffy's supposed to be getting us numbers for the torchdown, which, if possible, he'll be ordering tomorrow or Thursday for delivery by the end of the week. He's also supposed to be getting us the revised window and door schedule, so that we can start pricing actual windows, rather than hypothetical ones. On Monday, if all goes as currently planned, they commence with the torchdown installation.

We're good on the roofing materials, thanks entirely to so many generous, big-hearted folks who have contributed over the last week or so. Of course, there are huge expenses looming just beyond: mudding in and plastering, windows and doors, interior work and fixtures, that nightmare of a septic system . . . .

So we still need consistent daily share of the link to our YouCaring page via the widgets on it. Especially helpful is posting the widget code from the box at lower right, which gives you this image:

We also still need continual shares of Wings's Web site, which funds work on the house in addition to paying ordinary (and not so ordinary) expenses. For folks contemplating holiday commissions, it's already time to contact me; he'll need time for design, execution, and, of course, shipping. 

Many thanks from both of us to everyone who has made this possible up to this point. We have a long way to go (and I have a long way to go to get caught up), but we're going to keep doing it, one step 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.