Are you handy?

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Sandbags need to be accessorized with... oh, an M60 or an M1921 .30 cal, an M2 .50 cal looking suspiciously like overkill in the direction of world domination or something.

Honestly, I'd put myself about a 1.9 to a rusty 2.2 tops, after doing some framing construction and drywall once upon a time. I do the monkey jobs under the car hood -- hose out, hose in, change and gap plugs -- that level.

For baseboard molding, get yourself a miter saw and its proper box. This special tool is designed to give accurate bevel cuts to fit molding into corners in a craftsmanlike way. It is very easy to use.

[Griff]

Good luck V. I'm of the do the roof once school. Steel is real and not that hard to work with.

[smurfalicious]

I'm fairly handy for a chick. I can change my oil and brakes. I installed a hitch on my truck. I love power tools. All I want for Christmas is a tool belt.

[Shawnee123]

I was thinking that, too. smurf. I'm very mechanically inclined. I wish I had an avenue for that.

When I was in Junior High we had to take Home-ec. Cooking I was Ok. Sewing...I hated it. Got my first D in my life. We took shop for 9 weeks and I got an A+.

I love fixing things, putting things together, taking things apart. But I know nothing about cars, sadly.

[smurfalicious]

Shawnee - It took me getting ripped of one time by Pep Boys for me to get pissed enough that I started asking every mechanically inclined male I knew to teach me about cars and maintenance. I really don't know that much, but I know enough that I can pretty much diagnose what the problem is, and if I have to take it to get fixed, I know which items on the estimate are bullshit when the mechanic comes back with a list of 18 things wrong with my truck.

And I love to cook. I'm much better at that than the mechanics.

[jester]

The thing that works out for us is we "trade" stuff out kind of like bartering I guess. Also, any piping/plumbing work or heat/air work - I get the guys at work to do it. They come in handy Basic stuff is not totally beyond my comprehension, but if it's more than I can handle, I'm not shy about asking for help.

[Shawnee123]

I suck at asking for help. Even something as simple as changing the water cooler. They'll go "get one of the guys to do that" and I go "I can do it myself." It can be a good or bad thing, depending on the situation. Not just guy/girl things, either. If I ran out of gas I'd walk to the gas station before I'd ask a coworker to take me.

Well, except my dad helps me with a lot! I learn from him too. I've worked with him in his shop and it's tons of fun.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Lower necklines and shorter hem lines would put you in a position where you wouldn't have to ask, just choose which volunteer.

When I could do the work I was a 5.
I miss working more than you can imagine.
When we have people doing stuff I can't watch. I used to build rooms onto our home, plumbing and wiring, etc.
Did steel work, boat docks, sea-walls, and other jobs. Ranch work gives one a lot of experience.
I wanted the new synth roof that looks like sheet steel. Lasts a long time and I like the look.
That or ceramic tile.

[BigV]

Ok, some pictures. Once again, I finished in the rain last night, and it has been raining all day. And rain in the forecast for the weekend.

Starting on the ground:

Pic 01, stairway to heaven.

Pic 02, the belt to keep me from winding up there (or the other place).

[BigV]

The roof was in bad shape when the windstorm finished it off. Here's a small section of what is now under all that roofing paper. As you can see, the previously exposed section of the three tab shingles is gone. Don't you just love the cute little staples holding down the back part of the shingle?

Pic 01: A few remaining old crappy shingles.

Pic 02: Wider view of papered roof, southern exposure, looking west.

[BigV]

The procedure for this kind of roofing is to cut several sections, nine inches wide, and nail them to the edge of the roof, in the area that will be covered by the roll roofing. These small sections are very securely nailed to the roof. The instructions call for two rows of nails, one inch in from the edges, spaced four inches apart. I generously overlapped these edge strips. This is the surface that will receive the asphalt roofing cement.

Pic 01: East rake, looking north.

Pic 02: Detail of edge strip, along ridge. Plenty of nails. Hand nailed nails.

[BigV]

As I'm making my way around the edge of the roof, in addition to not falling off, I have to make sure I've covered all the territory. The long straight edges of the ridge and the drip edge and the rake were pretty easy, but the section around the chimney required some fiddling. Also complicating this section was a small valley.

Pic 01: East rake and chimney section, before valley reinforcement.

Pic 02: Same view after valley reinforcement.

[BigV]

The valley needs more reinforcement because it will carry much more water in a given area.

Pic 01: Detail of valley reinforcement.

[BigV]

On Sunday, I cleaned the roof thoroughly, and we got the paper nailed down. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday after work, say, 6 pm to 9 pm each night, was spent cutting and nailing the edge strips. Thursday night, I got to actually cover some roof with the roll material. I measured it out so that it started on the west eave and extended across the valley to the east. This was about 26 feet. I unrolled a new roll on the grass, measured it and cut it. I rerolled it and carried it to the roof. After a false start as to which way to position the roll (it does have an up and down edge in addition to the obvious top and bottom surface), I decided to save myself the trouble of throwing it down, climbing down, reversing the roll direction, and carrying it back up again just so I could start at the eave edge. So, I took a guess, and started the roll at the valley and unrolled toward the western eave.

My guess was pretty good. I was short by two inches. Good guess, but that meant that I now had a fifty pound 3x26 foot sheet of flexible material I needed to push/pull two inches to the west. And ZERO inches to the south--DOWNHILL. After some fiddlefartin around, I got it in place. The upper selvage edge is now secure, but the lower edge is free floating. I haven't applied the cement yet. I am thinking about waiting to have all the strips in place before I apply any cement.

I will also measure more carefully for the next rolls as I move uphill. It's 14 feet from the top edge of that bottom roll to the ridge. I think I'll make that seven two foot exposures, with a generous one foot overlap. That means I need to go get two more rolls from the store though.

Forecast for the weekend: Rain.

Pic 01: Starting from the valley, guessing how far the roll will extend.

Pic 02: Pretty good guess, within 2". In this picture, it's all nailed down after being adjusted westward. I didn't take any pictures of the adjustment work. I'm just thankful to be alive. It was a handful.