I finally bought a house in Cave Country! W00T!!!

[The Chairman]

Putting on a roof is all about decisions. Tile, copper, asphalt or steel. Insulated, underlayment or not and the list goes on. I've decided to remove two vents, one for the foyer (gas dryer?) and one for the attic. I've been given a lot of advice and some of it was great although it conflicted. So, I decided to go with a stiff foam underlayment on top of all new sheathing.

Foamed and about to be taped...

Halway there...
I laid out the holes and predrilled the steel before we put them up.
This planning helped everything go smoothly and it lined up perfectly.

This is a temp patch for the cieling that caved in. Wow, it really helped to keep the heat out.

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[The Chairman]

All the panels are on, so the ridge cap is being laid on.

My nephew and his boy worked into the evening.

I made a custom frame for these automatic louvers for my gable fan...

If you don't understand why I love this place, this is an early fall morning shot of Ichetucknee Springs.
Credit for this goes to @Moose. This is God's Country, and we have caves to boot! ​

 

[WarrenZ]

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All the panels are on, so the ridge cap is being laid on.

View attachment 617665

My nephew and his boy worked into the evening.

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I made a custom frame for these automatic louvers for my gable fan...

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If you don't understand why I love this place, this is an early fall morning shot of Ichetucknee Springs.
Credit for this goes to @Moose. This is God's Country, and we have caves to boot! ​

That does look like a great swimming and diving hole.

 

[The Chairman]

That does look like a great swimming and diving hole.

You can't dive in this one... it's my workout pool. I try to swim 500- 1,000 yds/day, time permitting. Usually, that's a mixture of fins and no fins. It really helps my back. However, a half-mile jaunt down another path brings you to Jug Hole, which is a sidemount only cave, but they do allow OW diving there. Little River is about 10 minutes to the west and Peacock is about 25 or so. Ginnie is also 25 minute, but to the east and I do love Troy Springs, which is about 15 minutes west. Cave diving season is ramping up and I hope to get some diving in this week now that this is all over.

 

[ajtoady]

Always pre drill panels!! Saves on the wrists and skidding screws!! Looking good!

 

[The Chairman]

Today will be a clean up day. Next step is to pressure wash the exterior to get ready to paint. I'm going with a very light mist green and dark hunter green high lights. Also, matching red paint is coming for the three vents through the roof. I have a 4" draft breaker coming for the microwave. That will keep bugs out as well, and I would like something to go into those 1 1/2" bathroom vents as well like this.

But I can't seem to find them online. I guess I might just print one in ABS.

 

[The Chairman]

So, the roof is done over the main part of the house. Clean up is in earnest. There was one oopsie, where the hole drilled for one of the vents didn't line up just right. My nephew wanted to fille it with putty, but large amounts of putty will crack over the years, leaving you with a leak. So, I cut a square and had him slide it down to the vent and mark the center on the edge. Then I drilled a 4" hole, rather than the 6" they suggested. Wow. I might do this on the other one as well. The rubber gasket really fills that hole nicely. He used a line of caulk all around the perimeter and strips of butyl tape on the ridges as well as a number of screws to hold it all down.

 

[BenjaminF]

@The Chairman are you going to open a construction school soon?

One of the amazing things about Scuba Board is that I'm constantly learning new things every time I read a new or updated thread.

 

[The Chairman]

@The Chairman are you going to open a construction school soon?

I used to work for the UF College of Agriculture and School of Building Construction for 2 years. I ran the Stress Lab, machine shop, welding shop and soil lab.

But yes, ScubaBoard is an amazing community with a diverse cast of characters. From Submariners to aviators, general contractors, machinists, biologists, physicists, historians, and this list goes on and one. We have sections on DIY repairs, building and even 3D printing. I am fortunate that I own a fullish wood shop, welders, 3D printers, a full set of automotive tools and so forth. I also belong to the Gainesville Hackerspace, so have access to a full machine shop, some CNC routers, laser cutter/engravers and so forth.

This past year has been a real adjustment to me because I've had to pace myself. The broken leg still has issues from the plates they used, and it seems I've developed back problems. I can no longer work a full day and sometimes it can be only an hour or less. I'm trying to get my walking and swimming in on a daily basis, but being consistent can be brutally hard. The backlog of things that need to be built, modified or fixed just seems to grow regardless of my ability to rise to the occasion. A few weeks before Sally hit, we had noticed that the flooring between the foyer and kitchen was getting soft and puffy. Traced it to a leaky water heater and we had to pull everything out of the closet and rebuild all the drywall and flooring in that area. I had not finished with that when the stand-alone microwave died and I cut out some cabinet space and installed one above the range. I've got boxes of stuff that should be in the water heater closet or in a cabinet sitting around in the way. THEN the roof caved in. When it rains... well, you get the picture. So now, with the house all roofed (they sent the wrong stuff for the porch), I'm getting back to building the shelves and rebuilding the closet so I can get back to a bit of order.

Update on the roof. A couple of nights ago we had our first BIG rain since the roof had been finished. When I finally realized how hard it was raining, I ran out to the porch and called in my nephew and sister. It was pretty quiet. Far quieter than the shingle roof had been. I guess the rigid foam under the tin insulates us from the noise as well as the heat. Something about it though, just felt 'right'. For a 42 year old house, this one is doing OK.

 

[The Chairman]

A couple of months back, I replaced a leaking water heater. The closet that it sat in was soaked and my nephew redid all the drywall. He's a whiz at that. I still had to mount the door so that it looks good with none of the wobble it had before. There were two shelves up high, but I certainly need more with the recent loss of cabinet space over the oven. I also use it for storing the vacuum cleaner, so I can't make the shelves too deep. Most of the wood I'm using is scrap. Also, there is nothing square in this closet so everything will be fitted carefully by hand. I have located studs at all four corners and will be using half laps to capitalize on that strength.

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I cut the rear rails a bit long on the right so I could tie into the stud that was an inch or so outside of the shelf.​

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Yes, there are finish screws holding this 'in', but the weight is distributed through the wood through the half laps. Much sturdier this way and it allows me to hide most of the screws as well! ​

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The side rail uses the back rail for support. It is tied into studs at either end.​

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The gap from top to bottom varied by over 3/8'. I mounted the 2x4 to the rails, then the door jamb. It was too thick for the door to close, so I used a 3/4" spacer against the door, to draw a line on the 2x4. I took it all apart, cut the line with my band saw and then smoothed it all down with a hand plane. This inspired a meme from a picture I took...​

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The door looks great and is so solid now.​

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Four shelves added, one a super shelf, and everything painted waiting for it to dry. I'll be using the rails to hang things like mops and such as well.​

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Detail inside. Three boards make up the super shelf just over the water heater. Getting everything to fit just right required use of the hand plane again. I'm really liking the results and the ribbons of finely shaved wood are pretty satisfying. Everything on the water heater is easily accessible. Only 18 screws need to be removed for the shelves to come out, should I ever need to replace it again.​