 This has been a week of great progress on the house. By the end of next week, we expect to have the stucco done on the second floor and the zinc panels on the roof.
We are building the roof with an eight foot peak. A steeper peak helps the rain to drain off faster and makes it less susceptible to high winds. We are also having to fashion straps to tie the cross beams down to the walls, a sort of hurricane tie, so to speak.
Within the roof structure, we are also building an open area for storage. This will give us an area that is 32 ft by 16 feet by 6 feet  high. We don't have a lot of storage in this building so this attic storage will be helpful.
The guys are also building the front balcony and working on finishing the bathroom.
It was quite an adventure getting the wood for the roof. We had been waiting for over a month for a guy who was supposed to bring us the wood for framing the roof. He had brought the first thousand feet, then we waited and waited.  Finally on Monday, we got another 229 feet of the worst looking wood we had ever seen, so we cancelled that order and went looking for other wood.
We found a different type of hardwood that was significantly cheaper than we had been paying. We got all the 2 by 4's, but when we went back for the 1 by 6's, the guy tried to substitute a cheaper wood for the same price, so we had to go to another supplier and they did the same thing. Eventually, we got the right wood for the deck on the roof.
 We also started the front balcony. The house originally was designed to face to the side and we felt it needed to have a nice friendly face to the street.
The balcony will be off of the second floor cafe area. We can also use it as another classroom if needed. It also will help to keep the rain from blowing into the cafe area because the wind tends to come in from that side, since it faces the bay.
 We are holding the Bible study at the house now because Tim needs to be there with Ralston watching the place. Tim stays until 9 pm and then goes home and Ralston watches the place at night.
The roof contractor tells me that he will start putting the metal on the roof on Thursday. This means that we need to start painting the roof panels on Monday. Because of the salt from the ocean, metal tends to rust very badly here, so we are precoating all the roof panels on both sides with an industri al anti-corrosive paint. Good thing we bought that paint sprayer ten years ago that we never used.
As soon as we get the roof on we will move ourselves over to this house, ready or not. It will be a little rough at first, but we will be able to keep working late into the night to get the place done.
The Lord has given us good weather and the hurricanes have stayed far away to this point. We are tired, but it will be worth it because our goal is to establish a leadership training facility that will serve the Lord and the church in this area for decades to come.
God bless you,
Tim and Kim |
