Roof part deux

The first roof iteration was good. But unfortunately it was not good enough. Rosie and I had had a mega roof day which I had naively hoped would knock it on the head. However, on inspection, it was not strong enough... Much to my nautical chagrin it required subsequent work.

This work ended up taking two days. There were obstacles all over the gaff. The most frustrating obstacle was a live jazz act playing on the book barge next door. The music played and the revellers bathed in the waves of fluid jazz wafting through the Indian summer air so I decided it was only fair to call a ceasefire with the deafening power tools. I was pacing up and down like a caged animal waiting for the music to stop so I could continue with my extraordinarily noisy work. I even fought off an offer of champagne (Amanda) so that I could preserve my sobriety for up the ladder work later once the jazz had stopped.

Finally, the music did stop and I could get back to work. Much to my constructional chagrin, it started up again for a SECOND SET?! Right, where's that champagne? Bollocks to this. I sat down with Amanda and her dogs and gradually the frustration died down and I managed to take a well deserved rest. I think that must have been Thursday?! I don't know anymore. All the days are blurring into one. Maybe it was Friday. In fact I think it was because I told Amanda about the BBQ we had planned for the Roof Party on Saturday. Work stopped on that day and we had a fun evening, not ending super late...

Helen painting the outer wall of the gallery (Friday)

Saturday:

The next day, Rosie came back for another solid day at the crease. We had a bit of a deadline: You can't have a roof party without a roof! I'm not some sort of degenerate. We worked on the wood frame, taking down each rafter and custom cutting it to perfectly fit butted up against the ridge (long middle bit like a spine). I had spent a large part of the two/three days splicing the remaining pieces of wood together to create a continuous ridge out of one piece of wood. This meant more scarf joints! (These were a big point of interest for me in the decking phase of the project (in case you missed that)). The house box is 3.63m long and I wanted an overhang on each end to keep rain off my doors, my doors, my beautiful doors. The polycarbonate (big plastic sheet of roofing material) is 4.5m long so I gave priority to the front doors, giving a 45cm overhang and the remainder going to the back.

The ridge had previously had a dip in it. No more!

Obviously, Peter Sagan turned up.

Chief roofing staff with the pirates in the background.

In the above photo, you can see the double ridge and the first piece of polycarbonate that Rosie kindly donated to the boat. It is some of the only first hand material on the boat and since I've completely run out of cash, she kindly donated it.

The roof party was absolutely banging. We really tested the durability of the floor with a lot of wild dancing. Floor passed the test.

I got so battered on Saturday it forced me to take a day off.

Monday (still hungover) I got back to the roof and added eaves to the front door overhang.

I sobered up around midday, I'd say. I had been feeling wonky until then. The roof at this point is not yet secured down as the second piece of polycarbonate is impossible to access without getting on the roof. And my chief roof urchins are too scared to go up there in case they fall through. A solution is a brewing, worry ye not... (watch this space!)

Trimming the eaves. I left space for a fascia board to be attached down the line (more scarf joints required!). I think I'm going to paint the name of the boat along that board and my OFFICIAL index number.

Monday I sold this painting. There wasn't a whole load of interest that day as there were tube strikes and there weren't many people around. I had had a long stretch without much going on. This struck out of nowhere and really cheered me up.

20 minutes later, this one sold!

There continues to be desperation and there is also hope...