Never Ending Rain

It's been raining, a lot, and tarps are expensive ($160 each for 30'x50') and for the last few months we've been covering the construction, then uncovering it, then recovering it almost on a weekly basis. We have to have the tarps off to get some work done but every time we uncover the forecast calls for rain within a few days. The neighbors have started making a joke that every time they see us up working on the house they know it will be raining within a day or two. Back to my point, the tarps have started to wear thin, and leak (more like seep), to cover the whole project we need three 30x50 foot tarps but I don't want to waste $500 bucks on tarps when we are so close to getting ready to paper and shingle the roof. Plus, good weather can't be that far away can it? It's spring in Southern California for crying out loud! Hopefully we can "weather the storm(s)" and get rid of the tarps for good within the next month or so.

Since the last house post we were able to finish the roof rafters and continue to sheet the roof across them. Only one more, but major, section of roof to complete. Here is a picture of it all under wraps (as usual).

We had a break in the rain Tuesday so my Father and I took the day off from work so we could cut back the front of the house and frame/tie in the small front addition to the kitchen and dinning room. This addition needed to be framed before we remove the rest of the roof and get the beams up because they span from the last beams all the way to the new front wall (approx 20 feet). You can see our new front windows will be very different then the originals. My Fathers friend gave us four 6 foot double hung windows he removed from a construction job he was working on and I've been storing them in the garage for almost two years. I also found a really nice 4 foot wide Milgard kitchen window on clearance for $75 from $300 at our local lumbar yard when we were picking up supplies about a month ago, we totally scored. The other two 6 foot windows we have will replace the two front windows on the porch (see photo at end of post).

These are the two windows that will be replaced to match the other two 6 footers in the new addition. The window on the side of the house is going to be replaced with a fire place; another one of my Fathers friends/co-workers gave us one and I've been storing it in the garage too. Thank goodness for helpful & generous family and friends!