Saturday, November 15, 2008

Vinyl Joy

After several months of neglect, my treehouse has finally received some much-needed attention. For those of you who have (quite rightfully) forgotten about my treehouse-in-progress, Phase I was finished last spring, and I had begun Phase II.

All right, Phase I was almost finished. I debated for quite a while the idea of putting a roof on Phase I; however, the daunting task of putting heavy sheets of wood high up above my head while on a ladder, combined with the disastrous implications of snow falling on those same sheets kept me from committing. However, a friend recently donated some old vinyl siding that, it turns out, works quite well for my purposes. So, with reclaimed vinyl siding/roofing in hand, we mounted the ladder to Phase I yet again to begin putting on a roof.

Here's the view from the house, across the creek, with one-quarter of the roof on:

It's much more visible now through the trees with bright white vinyl showing from the top half. A shout-out of thanks to Larry, who gives generously from his store of vinyl siding!

I try not to do dangerous projects without help. This has two ends in mind. If I fall while doing the more dangerous tasks and get injured, I can send the other to get help. Or, I can offer the opportunity for my assistant to do the more dangerous part of the job and thereby avoid getting hurt myself in the first place. I leave it up to those helping me which I'm doing at any given time.

For Roof Work Day Number 1 (Tuesday, 11 Nov), I had the glad and capable help of Patrick, one of the young men of the congregation. He's getting training in construction and carpentry in the local school system--so this part of my treehouse is actually a community service project. (I can sell it that way, can't I?)

Here's Patrick proving that the work we did wasn't so dangerous:

And here am I, bundled up for the 40 degrees it was that day:

After a few hours doing construction in cold weather, the fitting end is a cup of hot chocolate in the house. Kudos to Sara for making a mean cup of hot chocolate to warm up two treehouse-building souls.

~emrys

p.s. I want you all to notice how I have learned the hyperlink function of blog entries. You can now get back to Phase I and Phase II Treehouse History by clicking on the links in this entry. Thanks, Sara Jane!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I have to say that your young helper looks cute, well ok he is mine. The tree house is looking great.