A barefoot building brewing buddy of mine once said something along the lines of "You guys should start with a shed". Others- "This will be the hardest thing you will ever do as a couple."
As we lived aboard the ship the last few years, listening to the rain drip drop on the subfloor above us, (struggling to outsource family showers and keep dishes washed via water boiled on the wood stove, mice and one resident ermine living in the fabric covered walls, eating dinner in the pantry, dessert in the fruit bowl) we began cutting shingles out of rolled roofing, stocking up on pond liner and planning our attack. .
A surrounding issue of much antagony- the many temporary installations of walls, doors, hay bales, fabric and vapor barrier on said walls, windows, insulation (a full compressed truckload+), kitchen sink/counter/shelving, bunk beds built over the (beautiful cannery wood) spiral staircase that my dad and uncle built for future use, that list goes on and on.. It all has to come out eventually(some has already been disassembled)
Kelly worked as an electrician most of the hours that a day contains for several months this past spring, then I went fishing with my dad for the summer. He was pleased to get to do the majority of the electrical work on an awesome new restaurant in town and I got some much needed father-daughter time, as well as time for myself in beautiful Prince William Sound over the summer. Kelly hitchhiking from our broken down Volvo in Cooper Landing to make a Whittier-Cordova ferry for the Salmon Jam, then coming along on the trip back up to Valdez, was a highlight, as were the evenings spent rocking out upon a flotilla of seine boats and skiffs, taking a borrowed truck road trip halfway to the Bridge To Nowhere, and many quiet nights in many quiet bays.
Yesterday we put the last shingle on the roof. - October
Such a small sentence. Such a big job.
The fascia is metal lathe (hanging out past the edge of the roof) rolled up into a nearly uniform surface situated vertically under the the roof edge, then coated with hessian.
All of the fascia as well as the bottom of the valleys is coated with 2+ coats of Gaco roof Silicone. In the walkways we have sprinkled sand for traction. The shed roof over the entryway as well as parts of the top of the roof have pond liner covering. Everywhere else is shingles. The shingles are shaped like a U in 5 different colors. The parts of the roof with pond liner will be covered in various plant
life. The installed roofing seems to be setting up to function as a roof should; i.e. not let water in....
Fast forward again, sometimes life seems like a techno thriller about time travel. Blink and 4 months have come and gone. Blink again and your kids are teenagers. The last 5 years seem like both the blink of an eye and Roland Deschaine's eternal journey(the Dark Tower, Stephen King).
After realizing that we were not going to be able to live with no running water (while keeping up with cultural expectations and public school attendance) and remain a couple, we moved to town. For the now, it is convenient and fabulous to loll about in the bath any old time I feel like it or walk to the washing machine and toss in a load. We live in an apartment on a quiet cul de sac. The last year has been a rough one. Suffice it to say- we haven't been focused on the house so much as just getting by. Our (pre- finished product/all systems go) Earthship living situation was not keeping us afloat. We have agreed not to reside in it again until we have certain(running water, composting toilets) systems in place.
These last two blog posts have been disjointed as I tried to share the main points of interest and not write long winded inapplicable memoirs(which I may or may not have succeeded in doing:) Thanks for bearing with me.
After realizing that we were not going to be able to live with no running water (while keeping up with cultural expectations and public school attendance) and remain a couple, we moved to town. For the now, it is convenient and fabulous to loll about in the bath any old time I feel like it or walk to the washing machine and toss in a load. We live in an apartment on a quiet cul de sac. The last year has been a rough one. Suffice it to say- we haven't been focused on the house so much as just getting by. Our (pre- finished product/all systems go) Earthship living situation was not keeping us afloat. We have agreed not to reside in it again until we have certain(running water, composting toilets) systems in place.
These last two blog posts have been disjointed as I tried to share the main points of interest and not write long winded inapplicable memoirs(which I may or may not have succeeded in doing:) Thanks for bearing with me.
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