Maintenance

It may seem odd to maintain an unfinished house, but neglecting it would cause the deterioration to accelerate. And since the roof was damaged by one of four nor'easters, I had a very compelling reason to get to work.

The fix, completed on 23 April 2018, was temporary—the damaged plywood still needs to be replaced—but at least it was watertight for the time being. I also found a number of other small leaks developing elsewhere, so I got busy with a tube of roof sealant to try and prevent any potential permanent damage.

After cleaning out the leaves and dirt and organizing my tools, I started sorting through the remaining building materials. It would seem I might have enough plywood on hand to finish sheathing the eaves on the lower level, so that may become a future project to tackle—although given the condition of my knee, I don't know how much of that work I could do.

In the meantime, I completed one of the changes I'd been contemplating the last several months: revising the office ceiling. The first step was to completely remove all of the existing framing (below left), then construct the new ceiling bump-out (below right). Fortunately it didn't require purchasing any new materials—in fact, I had some left over. And it only took half a day to finish, which was a lot less time than I'd expected.

It felt really good to exercise my power tools—and my body—once again. Unfortunately, the weather quickly became unbearably hot. Not to mention that ticks were out with a vengeance, and since I've got Lyme Disease (and my skin is allergic to bug repellant), I needed to be extra careful.

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