New roof is nearly finished, skylight going in today

As I write this, the sound of sawzalls and hammers and circular saws are filling the house — as is reams of plaster, fiberglass and wood dust, unfortunately. The new skylight is going in as we speak!

The roofers essentially finished the bulk of the new roof on Monday and Tuesday, and a repair crew is back today to finish the gutters, put coping on and flash the raised brick seams at the top of the party walls, and install the new skylight. Meanwhile, one of our old contractor’s guys is here doing all the interior carpentry work. As of now, they’ve got the hole cut in the stairway/hallway ceiling and the corresponding hole for the skylight on the roof. I think Melvin is working on sistering up the ceiling and roof joists that are being cut away for the hole. It sounds like it anyway.

I can’t tell you how excited we are about the skylight. Normally, this would be an extravagance that we just can’t afford, but by doing it at the same time that we’re doing the roof, it’s not as expensive. And when spending several grand on one project, what’s a thousand more for a skylight anyway?

We ended up using Springfield Roofing for the work and a TPO membrane for the roof itself. I’ll write a post about them and the work once it’s all done. So far, so good.

When Rachel gets home today, she should be walking into a light-filled entry way and stairway with a finished skylight. We’re due to get some rain this weekend, so they’re going to install it, make sure it doesn’t leak this weekend, and then button it all up on the inside with the drywall and edges once they’re sure everything isn’t leaking and it’s in place.

I’ll have tons of pictures later today or this weekend, but you can check the flickr set for the roof to see ’em as they go up. There are a few cellphone pics up there now.