shakes continued.

So last night as planned J mowed the lawn and I prepared to hang the 30# roofing felt over the plywood nailed up the day before. Thankfully cutting and hanging this was much quicker and easier than cutting and hanging the plywood. Just took some measuring to figure out where to cut and using a piece of scrap plywood with the roof angle cut in it as a guide.

One of the odds-n-ends I had picked up at the Depot Saturday included plunking down twenty bones for a hammer tacker -

Holy cow I cannot imagine trying to hang felt with a lousy staple gun and all the force at a weird position that requires. I am pretty convinced I would have fallen off the ladder at some point during that process. And I imagine getting some mileage out of this bad boy. But anyway bam! bam! bam! and the felt was up pretty quick -


And while doing that my neighbor Matt ran across the street again to ask me if I needed a staple nailer (er, actually he handed me one as he was asking). Uhh ... considering I had been researching them online earlier that day I was like 'well yes!' So today I ran to the Depot to get a 50' hose and some connectors to hook it up to my trusty but small 2-gallon 100psi compressor I picked up for like twenty bucks or something at a yard sale shortly after buying my house. But that little guy has enough juice to power the 18-gauge narrow crown Senco stapler Matt let me borrow -

Took some adjusting (and a 5/64 hex wrench from good ol' Trevor cos the two dozen different wrenches I had did not include that gem of a size) to get the pressure right and not drive the staple a quarter-inch into the plywood but then all was good -

Perfection. Had to plunk down eighty bones for a box of 5000 stainless narrow crown staples. Ugh. I could find them online a little cheaper but then have to pay and wait for shipping so I just grabbed the ones I found at a random mom n' pop shop near work that apparently only carries staples (and probably other fasteners and the air tools in which to use them). But the much cheaper galvanized option will end up bleeding black on the shakes after they get wet. Uh, yeah ... no.

Then I installed some flashing to protect the bit of water table-esque molding above the porch and keep this job running up to spec -

Draped the felt back over it. And now am ready to rock and roll on the shakes. I'll pull my chop saw out on the porch or somewhere close and convenient, setup Matt's scaffolding rig and effing get to work. I'm excited.

Oh, and a quick stop at Mclendon's on the way home from work tonight to pick up the semi-solid stain I'll be using on the shakes. I think it's going to look good and pretty close to that picture I mocked up months ago -

And another little bit of fun - when I was up in the attic Sunday pounding out the siding with my 8-pound sledgehammer guess what I found quite a bit of ... ?

Yep, that's right - cedar shakes. Haha - just another mystery about this old craftsman ... as in, where were they installed? The siding is original so hmm ... ? Were they up before the siding at some point? No idea - but another reason I love old houses. And I guess in all the work I am putting into this little house I am just trying to restore some of the originality and beauty to it after years of aesthetic neglect (the house had and has good bones and was structurally kept up - that's why I bought it).

Anyway then I finished up and headed in to make myself some flippin' coffee -

I am excited to hang and stain the shakes. The forecast is looking somewhat dismal though so we'll see - as soon as I can they are going up effortlessly thanks to a Senco nailer from a generous neighbor ...