My kingdom for a roof jack!

The shingles are going on! Well, not this morning, since it's Sunday, but they started to go up on Friday! By the time I got up to The Lake to take some pix, The Husband had discovered that they were short of roof jacks. (Yeah - I didn't know what they were either... apparently they attach to the roof and a board is placed across them so you can walk on the board and not the roof itself. Who knew?) Bob and coworker Chris went up The Lake to fetch a pail of ... no, wait. To fetch some more roof jacks from another building site. But, they weren't there. So, frustratingly, Bob sent the work crew home and resolved to clothe the roof another time.

In the meanwhile, I did snap some pictures, just to prove to myself that work is, indeed, going forward on the house.

Yup, that's The Husband.

And the winner is....

Um.... so.... hi. About that roof poll. Well....

Don't hate me -- the overwhelming opinion from comments on the blog, in person, and via email was for dark green -- but I'm contrary and I picked brown. No, not red metal. Not forest canopy blending green. Sorry.

I should have warned you that I was contrary beforehand, eh? Well, now you know.

Shingles have been ordered. The should be in next week. Naked roof no more!

Back up a tad

Okay Okay Okay! I have learned my lesson! Don't skip over the deliberation of a decision when constructing a narrative. Several lovely bloggy commenters have urged a metal roof, rather than the shingle roof we're planning on. So.... I will back on up and relate our thinking on shingle vs. metal.

When The Husband first started conceiving this crazy craziness, he would often shoot out questions at me seemingly at random. For example:

"Hey, Bob -- doesn't Little G. look cute half way up that gigantic
tree? Oh! How adorable -- he appears to be stuck."
"Hmmm? Yeah - so what kind of stain do you want to put on the
logs? Or do you just want to do a clear coat?"
"What logs are you talking about?"
"Oh - didn't I mention it? I'm building us a log house."

So when he came to the topic of a roof, I assumed shingles and he assumed metal. I tried to get support for shingles everywhere, including ChildhoodBestFriend AmandaTheArchitect. No dice. Metal, metal, everywhere. So, I caved. And then, a miracle occurred. I warmed to the idea of metal. Yeah, metal. Sure, why not? Drumming rain gently carrying me off to sleep.... one roof in my lifetime.... goes on quicker than shingles.... I'm in.

And then The Husband asks me what color shingles I want. EH? Squeeze Me? Turns out, he had started thinking about the issue some more and not just assuming that metal was the better option for us. So. Here are

Bob the Log Builder's Reasons for Choosing Shingles in this one instance:

1. The log house will still settle a bit and a metal roof won't take that well at all.
2. Metal is much more expensive as an up-front investment, and - contrary to what you may have assumed about our choice to build our own log house - we have ZERO disposable income. This is the North Country, after all.
3. Ice build-up on a steep-pitched metal roof is no joke when it comes zooming down at four gazillion miles per hour, right on your head or your car. Until we have lived in the home and can work out where we'll be leaving our cars in the winter, and how to avoid our children being sliced in half by a sheet of ice, it's shingles for us.
4. We may still decide to put in skylights at some point, which is much easier to do in a shingled roof. We'll have to see how dungeon-like the house is first.
5. He always gives his wife her way, because she is a lovely princess and deserves all the happiness in the world. You're still reading? Wow. Just kidding. It don't go down like that 'round here.

So. Shingles it is. Er... the roofing material, not the illness. Just in case you were looking for some public health advice. Or something.

Roofing poll

The Husband and his father were deep in discussion this evening over apple crisp and coffee. The scratch paper was out and pencils were a-flyin' as they worked out the details of our roof. As you know -- or not--- the roof sheathing is on the log house, but there's no roofing materials on top of that yet. Poor, naked roof. We've been debating whether to do a metal roof or shingles. Shingles have carried the day, but now we've come to the issue of color. It had not occurred to me that I would have to choose a roof color. In fact, I don't know that I'd ever even noticed the panoply of shingle colors available. Holy smokes! Drive around your neck of the woods and take a gander at your neighbors' roofs. Unless you live in a trailer park or McMansion development, chances are you're living near an architectural rainbow. Who knew?

So we've come to this: what color shingles? Black? Gray? Mixed Brown? Green? Blue? (Blue?!) The list goes on, but I will not. Help! What say you, blogosphere?

I was too full of hearty homemade beef barley soup, oatmeal muffins and Mother's Day good cheer to cough up an opinion tonight, but perhaps with your generous insight I might just give The Husband my answer before he gets impatient and picks at random.

Thanks bloggyfolks!

Running in place

The Husband is still milling logs. Which is great -- especially since the more he mills, the fewer boards we have to buy. BUT -- and I have a huge but(t) -- I'm starting to get itchy, squirmy, EAGER (not anxious) to have some more house progress. (Says she who doesn't actually do any work on the house).

Contributing to my eagerness is the fact that I'm beginning to plan in my head for summer parties -- maybe around the Fourth of July when the cousins are up from Dee-Cee -- complete with funky themes and accessories. Friend Craig has already nixed a pirate theme, but there are oh-so-many-more scrumptious choices.... BUT(T) - I'm so not having a party with no potty. And open stairwells for guests to fall to their deaths. Because I'm a considerate hostess like that. And don't have enough friends to lose a couple in a drunken stairwell accident.

Pictures like this of The Lake (courtesy of Uncle Ron) help me calm down from my itchy, squirmy, eagerness:

Ahhhhh ........

I'm a-gonna live there! Eeeek!