I LOVE pouring concrete… Such a dramatic change in so little time. Plus you can shape it, tilt it and it is weather proof. I would love to have a concrete house!!! Concrete and brick are sooooo cool to work with. When the house gets done, all the trim that I have newly installed will be Hardy Plank (concrete board). No rot ever.

To finish off the 1/2 wall I started by forming up the center 1/3 of the wall and pouring it. This way I had something I could use to clamp the forms on for the succeeding pours. My pipe clamps were somewhat limited and I had to make concessions to use them.

The second pour was so quick. Just slide the form down, paint it will some more used cooking oil (release agent) and pour. Took an hour or less.

I finally figured out how to keep the concrete from oozing down onto the brick. I cut a 1/8”x 1/2” slot along the inside edge of the form and then stuffed the little slot with some 1/2” round foam I picked up from Home Depot for filling gaps for caulking walls. It formed a seal to keep the concrete contained and off the bricks. Much easier than the first attempt using cheap walk calk to fill the gaps.
cast in about a 1/4” tilt to the top of the wall so that any water that hits the flat part will be directed away from house. I wanted to keep the top flat so I could put flower planters on it, but didn’t want rain water to run onto the main part of the porch.

Main brick work and walls are finished. I really like the look. Putting up the column caps and trim will be easy and quick and will really change the look of the project.

But.. The completion of the front porch will have to wait for a bit. I have decided to attack the back of the house again to finish off the painting and roof above the pool BECAUSE I need to get the construction scaffolding out of my yard and back to the owner. It will be much easier working with his scaffold than with my ladder…

I am really glad I ended up pouring the concrete caps in place instead of trying to precast them and place them on brick. Each column had different heights, twist and tilts. By casting them in place I could adjust the form for a perfect look with just the right slope for drainage and adjust for different heights of the bricks.

I needed a center core of wood to attach blocks to so I cast them in place with some nails protruding to capture the wood in the concrete.

It took just one day to pour all three after the forms were set in place…. love the look!

I also took time to pour a step on the side to make it easier to get on the slab from this direction.

Next it is pouring the concrete cap on the 1/2 wall.

Work was started on the 1/2 wall after the column, bases were brought up to the slab level.

The half wall was started

Finally the column were brought up slightly above the wall. Next I need to bring up the two 3/4 column on each corner of the slab. test

Finishing off the side columns.

Finally, DONE… next it will be time to start pouring concrete caps and steps.

Todays job was to dig footers for the brick columns and pour concrete in them.

the trailer is ready to go with about 1/2 cube (220 ea) of bricks.

I had to cut a LOT of bricks to go around the slab so it would look like the slab was poured AFTER the columns were set in place.  A diamond blade from $30 Harbor Freight cut them as easily as a piece of wood.

This morning I started on my my last two roofs.  I am really excited as I should be done with the shingling today!

I wanted to get  the dumpster removed today as tomorrow is new years eve and a lot of businesses will be closed.  I didnt want to have to deal with the yard mess over the weekend.

Fortunately, the weight of the dumpster did not damage my sidewalk.  Careful preparation with lots of wood seemed to prevent any cracking.  The truck tore up the yard again, but whats new.  I would rather fill the ruts with top soil than to have cracked concrete.

WoHo! the yard is starting to look normal again!

The shed roofs are done.   The last of the shingle work!

Tomorrow I’ll start work on reinstalling the vinyl siding.  By this weekend, I’ll be raking the yard and early next week cleaning the shop to get back to work on the plane.  Cant wait.

I sent all day Monday working on the two light tubes in the kitchen.   They were a major PITA to install mainly because of the double roof rafters in the attic (from repitching the roof).    Unfortunately, the rafters were not lined up so I had to work in between them.   

After finishing up the wiring the fluorescent lights in sola tube, it is on to the porch roof.

I was able to strip it down and start clean up the mess by COB. 

It is day 22 now and I can see the end in sight.  It was not all that cold temp wise today (52f) but the wind was howling so the wind chill was probably in the low 40’s.    I find it interesting that this December has entered the Charleston record books as the coldest EVER recorded since record keeping began (in the 1800’s). 

Yesterday, I completed the upper front and side roofs.  This side roof was the most dangerous part of the project.  It is 2.5 stories up and the with a 6 pitch (30 deg).    I purchased and wore a safety harness the whole time I worked in this area and carried my cell phone just in case so I could call 911.  Talk about slow going as the safety line and air hoses were constantly getting tangled up.  Back when I built the house (1993-1994)  I just worked close to the edge and never thought much about it.  I must have been total crazy to take such chances back then. 

Today I completed the most complex area of the house..  The upper chimney side if the roof.

There is a lot of flashing to be done around the chimeny to prevent leaks which I am totally obsessive about.  One item about the chimney I didnt like was the HDTV antenna wires (which was originally  for two satellite dishes).  Tony even commented on how bad the wires looked running under the sofits.   

I decided to weld a custom flashing  out of aluminum for the wires to travel through. 

I also removed the orginal flat flashing on the inside face I installed years ago to properly flash the chimney with a cricket.  I think the only reason it didnt leak years ago is that I double flashed it.    Heck I didnt know any better back then.

The cricket is like a mini hip ridge which directs the water around the chimney instead letting the water slam into a flat surface and then having to find a way aroiund it.

The chimney roof was completed today.  Tomorrow I’ll finish off the remaining upper roof and install the ridge vent and the ridge caps.  At that point I’ll be totally weathered in and should be leak free. Just in time as on Saturday (Christmas Day) I am taking off and there is a prediction of 40-70% rain with the possibility of snow.  

Hell, I might even treat myself to an entire 2 days off in a row!

Twas the week before Christmas and all over the house,
The blue tarps were flapping, the soffits in place.
Up on the rooftop, could be heard a click, click, click. 
Could it be Santa reindeer or homebuilder St. Nick?

The pitches had been changed, the rafters redone
all without help of warm Charleston sun.

Late one night, the rain, the wind made such a clatter
With a start,  he sprang from his bed to see what was the matter.

The drips and the drops, they damaged the ceilings
soon the project became much less appealing

Through cold and rain, and frozen toes
the project’s challenges seemed to grow and grow!

Finally when the shingling could begin,
St Nick’s face turned from a grimace to a grin.

Air gun in hand, he stopped for the night
from the high on the roof everyone heard him exclaim a hearty Ho Ho Ho
Merry Christmas to all and let the roof be tight.

It is now in December 20th, and I am in the 19th day of the roofing  job from hell.  This whole project has turned out to be a lot more than I expected, but it was something which absolutely needed me to do it.  I probably saved $10-20,000 by doing it myself, but it has it has taken a toll on me.   Unexpected freezing weather from an arctic front has frozen the east coast and I have been freezing my ass off.    The average temp in December here in Charleston is normally 65F.  Most morning is it has been in the 20’s with highs in the low 40’s if we are lucky.  We are having historic temperatures here with record breaking cold weather everywhere.   This has been a really crazy month weather wise. 

I’ll tell you what though, there is no greater motivator to getting up early in the morning no matter how you feel or how cold it is and work your ass off than having a completely naked roof and the threat of rain.  Speaking of which an unexpected rain came through (the weatherman prediction cant be trusted) and I now have rain damage in the ceilings in every room in the house (except for my study).  I had buckets everywhere to catch the drips.    After I cleaned up the mess I just thought, I built the house so there is NOTHING mother nature can throw my way that I can’t repair as good as (or better) than when I built it the first time.

Needless to say, after getting up at 6 am, starting work by 7:30 and busting butt until the sun goes down, then hitting Lowes or Home Depot to get more stuff for the next day, I have been totally exhausted every night and had no energy to write in the blog.  I didnt clean house for 2 1/2 weeks, piled washed clothes in the corner, and left piles of dirty clothes wherever I took them off.   I was just too tired to even care how I looked, if I ate, or how the house looked.  With my camera crunched up I have rely on my cell phone camera so I havent been able to document the work.   BTW, I just ordered a new 12 mp Casio camera from  from Amazon and cant wait to get it. 

I feel like I am now on the closing end of this project, things are looking up, and have the energy to write in my blog.  I’ll try do do a quick recap to catch you up.

 Day 6

After completing the stripping of the shingles and re-pitching the back roof of the house, it was on to the front side.  I found massive wood rot on the front porch.  I ended up just replacing the header beam of the porch and a number of roof boards.  Tony stopped by for a few hours to help me replace the beam.  He left to go home to bed as he was really sick.

 Day 7

Work was started on the re-pitching of the front roof.  I wanted to bring the top of the porch roof to the same height as the peak of the front bedroom.  It has always looked out of balance to me the way it was originally built.

The roof  rafters are going up.

Day 8

I removed part of the siding of the house to build a sofit on to the new addition.  The rafters are set in place and it is time to start sheeting the roof. 

Day 11

 This was a really bad day for me.  The rains came a day early than I planned for and there was nothing I could do about the fact that 1/2 of my roof had no protection on it at all.    Early that morning I bought some traps to cover the remaining roof up but it was too late for my ceilings.

 The house looks like a smurf house now.

The re-pitching on the back of the house so I can extend the structure of the the screened in porch over my exercise pool.  I’ll have to raise the brickwork to the new sofit in a few weeks.

Water coming out the ceiling vents, lights, smoke detectors.  What a mess.

My huge construction dumpster is nearly filled.  I am saving some room for the last and final roof the screened in room which I will strip and re-shingle last.

I have put all the extra wood trash on my trailer.  I plan to have a “burning up the house” part when this project is done.  I’ll invite my friends, get some beer and pizza and make a big bonfire in my back yard.  I plan to dig a big hole with the dozer, burn the wood and leaves in it and cover up the leftovers (nails) with dirt as I level out the land.

Day 12

Tony is back on the job feeling a bit better.  Now that that front roof has been re-pitched, we will be working on the sofits and fasha boards.

Day 13

The front front sofits are done.  This looks much better than what I had before.

Day 18

We FINALLY started shingling yesterday.  What a pleasure it was to be out of the really hard back breaking work and seeing something really getting done.   I think the sofits came our really nice and the shingles (called Hickory Red) gives a really nice look to the house.   Sort of a wood shake sort of look which really complements the brick.

Day 17  (Saturday)

It rained all day so I took a much needed day off.  I actually felt almost human again.    We had over 1/2″ rain, which allowed me to discover new leaks in my temporary roof covering visa-be my ceilings.  This time it was in my upstairs bedroom.  I covered the area with more tar paper and put out the buckets, drilled more holes in the ceiling to catch the liquid gold dripping down.    I cant wait for this shit to be over.

Day 18 Yesterday (Sunday)

I started work on the back of the house.  Putting down straight runs of shingles is very quick, but cutting around roof opening takes a bunch of time.  I am glad Tony took Sunday off to get ready for his trip to Los Angles, as he would have been frustrated about the time it took me to carefully cut the shingles and seal the various roof flashing’s.

Day 19 (Today)

Tony and I finished off the back of the house.  Moved the shingles off the peak and staged them for the replacement of the screened in porch. It look terrific now.  I also installed the flashing for my solar light tubes (two of them) which run down into the kitchen.  I cant wait to see how well they work.

We also completed the back side (1 of 4) of the upper roof. 

Well this catches you up to the present stage I am at.  Whats left? 

The remaining 3 sides of the upper roof
Build a cricket for the chimney
Installing the ridge vents and caps
Shingling the two storage building
Removing the shingles and shingling the screened in porch
Reinstall the vinyl siding.

I hope to have everything done by this weekend (4 days).    This is the LAST freaking time I will ever shingle a roof again.  Kind of a shame as I did a lot of research to do the best job possible and know a lot about shingling now.  With 30-35 year shingles I figure the next time this roof will to be done, I will be in a nursing home wearing a diaper and drooling on myself.    I would only help Tony if he asked, but for anyone else, you couldnt pay me enough money in the world to do this again.  Go higher a contractor.

Off to bed.  I have a 6 am wake up call for work.  It is going to be 31f tomorrow morning.  It will be so nice to not have to dress up with 2 socks, 3 layers on my legs, 5-6 layers on my upper body, gloves, hat, ear muffs just to go to work outside.    What fun…..

Today is supposed to be the coldest of the week with a high of about 45 f.  Tomorrow will be a bit warmer with a high of 47 f.  Actually, it wasn’t too bad to work in.  When I asked Tony what he thought of the weather, he just said, “In England it would be just this cold and rainy too.  You just work between the rain showers”.  I guess we are lucky because it is sunny here.

The back is coming along nicely.  All the rafter are up.  The walls are up and tomorrow it will have the roof decked.   Then we can move onto the side and front of the house.

Tony is doing the final stripping on the front side.

The shingles were delivered today.  The truck drove up the front yard because the driver was concerned he would crack my driveway.  I didn’t realize it but the truck alone weighs in at 40,000 lbs. It left 3″ deep tracks in the front yard.  I built the drive way extra strong to prevent cracking, but I dont think it would have stood up to this bruiser.

As soon as he pulled in the front yard, my water line sprung a leak.   Apparently the freaking waterline is buried 6″ deep where his tires rolled across and part of the line was on a root.  The weight of the truck caused the tube to crack right at the root (sheared it off).  It took about an hour to repair mainly because I couldnt get the water properly stopped.

The picture above was the last one my camera will ever take.  It was REALLY hectic with the shingle going on top of the house and my ruptured water line an apparently I set the camera on back of the truck.  I knew the camera was missing and searched everywhere for it couldn’t find it.   I eventually gave up, knowing it would eventually turn up somewhere.

I drove off to Home Depot for repair parts and 20 minutes later was in the front yard working on the leak an heard a crunch as a car drove by.    Hum, I wonder what he hit?   Walked over to check it out and there in the street was the remain of my beloved camera.   Surprisingly, the memory card was ok.

Another causualty of the roof job (along with the top of my attic fan and a broken broom.    I wanted to eventually replace it with a ultra compact camera.   I guess now is the time…..