Working on the shed roof

Here's a picture of Michelle posing on the partially-finished roof.



I worked from 10AM until 10PM finishing the sheathing, putting up drip edge on three sides, rolling on tar paper, then shingling. All day, which was nice and sunny, I listened to reports of wind and rain starting overnight. This provided me with the motivation to finish in one day. :-)

Sure enough, I woke in the night to hear rain pounding the windows. I went out to check on things this morning and found that the roof is still there and everything in the shed is dry. Success!

I still need to cut off the shingles on the leading edge of the roof (it's a single pitch) and install the drip edge there. That will have to wait until Monday.

Time to get at it

It's Saturday morning, the sun is shining and there's a full day of work ahead of me. The kids are fed and dressed; Mich will be leaving for skating in 25 minutes. Then, Matt and I will go out to work on the shed.

I have to add 1 small piece to finish off the roof sheathing, then it's time to put on the drip edge and tar paper (a.k.a. roofing felt). Everything is covered in frost this morning, so I'm hoping that roof isn't too slippery. It wouldn't do to fall, even if the roof is only 10' high. :-)

I'll take a picture of my progress later.

Roofing Shingles

I just got back from town with the shingles for the shed roof. If the weather holds tomorrow, I'll start to install some of the 14 bundles of shingles I bought.

Fourteen bundles doesn't sound like much until you realize that each one is 70 lbs and I'm hauling them in my utility trailer behind the car. That's almost 1,000 lbs of materials. I think it's about the most I want to put in the trailer, although I did once go to the landfill site with the trailer full of approx. 700 kg (1,500 lbs) of old plaster and drywall. I knew it was heavy, but had no idea until weighed in on the way out of the site. Ouch! Since then, I'd limited my capacity to a more reasonable level. >:)

The Shed

I wanted a new shed to cover our seasonal 5 cords of firewood as well as my tractor and other items. The existing shed must be 50 years old and is made from a patchwork of what look like scrounged materials. It is also long and narrow and not really suited to the things I wanted to store.

A new shed was the answer. I decided on a simple shed with a single slope roof and an open front so that firewood would dry better. I would divide it into two compartments, one for wood and the other for the tractor. But it had to be relatively cheap to construct, which meant there wouldn't be a fancy poured concrete floor and footing. I decided instead on a sill of pressure treated wood sitting on a bed of gravel. I've seen many other utility buildings done this way which have lasted many years.

Here's how it progressed:


September 7 -- Sills laid


September 7 -- Frame started


October 2 -- More framing


October 8 -- Getting some sheathing installed


October 17 -- Harry is waiting patiently


October 24 -- A good coat of marine paint

I know I made a number of "mistakes" but I'm not a professional carpenter, so ignorance is bliss. I'm reasonably assured that it won't fall down, though! :-)

The Tractor

OK, so here's the Tractor:

1950 Harry Ferguson TEA-20.


Why do I have this tractor? It's not like I need one for the 1.25 acres we own. I bought it for nostalgic reasons, having grown up on a farm in a farming community and now displaced to a fishing community, surrounded by woods rather than fields. I missed having a tractor around; you might not understand unless you've come from a farming background. :-)

This "Ferguson" was of particular interest as my grandfather bought one as his first tractor, having come from Holland after WWII and having used only horses. My dad, a semi-retired dairy farmer, learned his tractor skills as a kid on that Ferguson and actually owns a 1952 example himself.

Is blogging for me?

I was encouraged to start a blog and since everyone seems to be doing it these days, here's mine.

If you can suffer through it, I'll be mostly talking about farm tractors, home renovations and cars.

Enjoy. :-)

-mike