Dormers For The Old Girl Part 5

Dormers Part 5
If you missed  Dormers For The Old Girl Part 4 click here.

 A picture at the start of the day.

Shingles are installed as far up as we can go.  

The rest of the roof is stripped and so begins work on dormer #2. The roof is pretty steep (8 in 12 pitch) which makes for a good leg workout.

 A large spruce tree was cut down to make way for construction.  It was planted too close to the house and had caused some roof damage which became more apparent when the roof was stripped.

 

What a mess.

 Hole and rafters cutout.  I will leave out all the "behind the scene" work that we had to do.  Sweaty and tedious....but necessary.

Tarped up for the night.  Another long day for us.  Stay tuned for the walls.
Click here for part 6. 

CHEERS!

Dormers For The Old Girl Part 4

Hi there. Wow, what a journey.  We are officially halfway there.  Well, almost.  If you missed Dormers For The Old Girl Part 3 CLICK HERE.

 Nothing says it better than pictures.

 Finished building the jack rafters and starting with the sheathing.

I can't believe how un-steep that roof looks in this picture.  My legs would sure beg to differ.

I feel like a peeping Tom.
Things are getting closed up now.

 Sheathing completed.  Outside truss (ladder truss) and fascia board done.

 A few shingles up.

Another view.

Dormer One is complete to the stage of shingles.   It's already starting to look like a new roof.   These twelve hour days are tough on my body, so my hat goes off to the real framers who do this day in and day out.
 Now to start dormer number two!

Click here for part 5.
CHEERS!

Dormers For The Old Girl Part 3

If you missed Dormers For The Old Girl Part 2, click here.
Things are moving along. We are so lucky the weather is in our favor.

 

 Side walls which were built in workshop are hauled over on our lawn garden cart and pulled up the roof by a rope.

Another view.

 Our home built trusses go on.  We used a 30 tonne press for the job.  Worked out great but very time consuming.  Took us one-----whole-----long-----day to build.

  All the full sized trusses are installed.  If you look to the peak of the house, the rest of this half of the roof has been stripped of shingles.  Also the side walls are complete.

End of part 3.  Stay tuned for part 4....coming soon.

Click here for part 4
CHEERS!

Dormers For The Old Girl Part 2

If you missed Dormers For The Old Girl Part 1 click here

We continue on our renovation journey.  Today we  built our floor.  We needed to beef up our dormer floor as the old joists were not strong enough to have a living space on them.  We used 2x10s which worked out really well.  These were anchored to the beam using joist hangers as seen in picture and sistered to the 2x6 joists that were already there.  On the side not visible, we seated  the 2x10s on top of the sill plate.  These babies are strong.

The sub floor goes on.  We used tongue and groove 3/4" OSB.

We prefabbed the front wall in the garage and hauled it over on a wagon pulled by our  lawn mower.  Unfortunately I didn't take pics.  I hope I will remember to take them on dormer 2.  Hubby went to the peak of the roof with a rope tied around the front wall and pulled it up while I lifted it over any obstacles.  He lowered it to the subfloor of the dormer and we put it in place.  We braced it up for the night as this was the end of the day, and a long day it was.

Starting to look like something.  I can sure appreciate the view as I helped create it!
Click here to see part 3. 

CHEERS!

Yummy Toffee....So Good But So Bad

I must tell you the story about my favorite candy ever.  Every Halloween, my parents neighbors, would make this wonderful toffee.  They would break it into pieces and distribute it evenly into plastic bags.  I schemed about wearing different costumes to their house  to get as many bags of the rich wonderful toffee.  So home I would run, quick costume change, back to the neighbors.....over and over again until all the candy was mine....muhahahahaha.
Unfortunately that never happened.  The downfall of living in a rural area and relying on your mom for a ride.  When I was too old to go out anymore probably twenty,  maybe older,  I asked Mrs. Hall for her recipe.  She wrote it out on a piece of paper that I still have to this day...bless her.  I loved the old days when you could trust your neighbors not to add razor blades for extra flavor.

Rich Toffee Recipe

A Long Cooking Time

3 Cups Brown Sugar Packed

1 Cup Butter (do not substitute)

1 Can Sweetened Condensed Milk

1 Cup Corn Syrup

Put all ingredients  in a large heavy saucepan.  Bring to a boil over moderate heat and cook to 290 degrees (hard crack stage).  Stir constantly.  This will take a long time, probably about 45 minutes.  Candy will burn very easily so you must stir constantly.  Pour into large buttered pan in a thin layer and cool and break into pieces.  Note:  If you prefer your toffee chewy rather than brittle, cook to 245 degrees.  Toffee may be flavored with rum extract and poured over nuts if desired.

 Cook and stir.

 Keep stirring.

 Stir some more.

 Keep stirring.

 Ahhhh It's almost there.  Expect a tired arm.

Yummy Yummy.

CHEERS!

Dormers for the Old Girl Part 1

  We added on to our house a few years back and had lost two windows from one of the bedrooms upstairs.  As a result, it was no longer a bedroom, it was an abyss of blah.

Our north slope roof still needed to be shingled so it was decided that we would build twin dormers, creating floor space as well as a window for the bedroom. We set up scaffold and started the gruelling task of stripping shingles.

Safety boards were put on the roof so we could continue stripping

The big step was cutting into the roof....YIKES.....What the BLEEP are we doing. 

 Not so bad.  Now to cut out the rafters.  

That's a wrap.....literally!

Hope you join me for part 2......coming soon!
Click here for part 2. 

Installing Air Conditioning in our Bigfoot

Yes, we are Canadian and we have a Bigfoot......No not The Bigfoot......a Bigfoot.  lol    My husband bought a portable air conditioner for our trailer.    Air conditioning units from an RV store are upwards of $1000.00  which is too much of money.  I wouldn't suggest this for a family of four in such a small trailer, as it does eat up valuable floor space, but it works for us. Also we have the option of using our air conditioner else where. Step one was to figure out where to put it.  We decided in keeping with the idea of a totally sealed unit, we wouldn't compromise any possible air leaks.  Bigfoot trailers are famous for being a totally sealed unit,  and as far as I have seen, I would agree.  We are completely mouse proof.  We removed the screen and of course put it in storage in case we decide to sell our Bigfoot.

 

  First step was to mark out the pattern of the screen onto an old cupboard door.

  

We cut it out with the table saw and band saw and then set up the table saw for a dado blade.

The sides were rabbeted in order for it to fit the same way the screen fit in the window track. 

The old door was sanded, a hole was cut into it for the vent and we traced a picture of Bigfoot on the outside and painted it on.

  We clear coated  the new window vent cover and screwed the plastic vent fitting onto the wood. 

Voila. It turned out great and very user friendly.

 We can close the window to seal the trailer up from rain and for storage, and when its hot outside, we can turn on the airconditioning for a great sleep. 

We store the unit under the table as most dining takes place outside.  We can still have coffee and dine at the table as there is just the two of us.  Guess who gets the vent side?  lol.   If it's raining out, we can pull the vent off and slide it completely under the table out of the way.

CHEERS!