A Roof Over Their Heads

We completed the roof structure last night!!

The main part of this build started on Saturday. The finished product of that step looked like this:

Yes. It's just that flat piece of plywood across the top. It was already cut, and it hadn't warped. This seemed like the easiest thing we were going to do to this point. And, somehow, it wasn't! Part of the issue was ensuring that the cut-outs for the walk-out space on the gable and the dormer window opening were completely aligned and level, too, because other pieces have to fit just right around them. And, figuring all of that out is a little tricky when the walls are still just a little warped, so everything has to adjust in order for it all to end up level.

Additionally, there is a strip of roofing that goes along the top on the back of the house that ends up looking like this:

That piece arrived warped. As in, I took it out of the box and said to myself, "Huh. That's warped." I'm saying I didn't do this one !! And, I figured we'd figure it out. We certainly figured it out, but it did require a whole strategy just for gluing and taping it in the right place.

AND, you'll notice there's a little jut up from the front of the roof over the back strip thing. That's supposed to be flush, but, the way we had to shift pieces to omit wonky-ness, this is the way it wound up. I'm absolutely confident the shingle situation will take good care of that!

So, we secured these two pieces after over-practicing and literally sweating on Saturday. I wasn't sad to just walk away for a day after that!

Last night, we put the fancier pieces of the build on:

These were a lot trickier, but we figured it all out better. We did diverge a little from the way the instructions outlined assembly because we figured out how to make everything level and look great with our own shifting and jimmying of pieces. So, the assembly was really a hybrid of methods, but it turned out superb!!

You'll note in the picture above that Aaron's there reading directions again. Because, I'm not. He was really reviewing the fact that we are almost *out* of shell-of-the-house directions because the rest of it is going to be up to personal taste! It's kind of hard to believe this part is almost finished on its basic level!

Next up?! Well, I'm not entirely sure as I didn't read the directions, but I believe we are headed toward the foundation pieces. Stay tuned ...