Winter weather continues to threaten, but so far we’ve been able to avoid the worst and continue to make progress on a couple of exterior priorities…including the roof. Just before Thanksgiving, the roofing crew was back to finish all but one last panel on the house’s south side. It required a lot of detail-work to position the steel roofing under the eaves next to each side of the second floor dormer. The final panel (under the ladder on the left) should be installed first thing Monday before the crew moves on this week to the west wing of the house and the garage.

Above, Nancy is taking in the view—the roof, the canopy, the new windows—on this rather mild first day of December. With virtually no wind and lots of sunshine, it felt more like a spring day than December (but by week’s end the forecast is back into the single digits). So today made for a perfect day of cleaning up around the site and preparing for the week to come, which will include adding backfill around the foundation and gravel substrate for the breezeway pavers, installation of the final few solar panels, more roofing, and completion of the entry porch.

Black locust decking, milled locally by Root River Hardwoods in Preston, was added to the porch floor framing this past week; John (above) is holding up the protective OSB so that Nancy can get a closer look…and it looks wonderful! The posts, rafters and support-framing were also cut and finished last week, so the porch is now ready to be raised over the next few days.

All in all, we find ourselves thankful for the work everyone is putting into bringing this project to life—an appropriate way to bring this Thanksgiving weekend to a close!