After the scaffolding was up I could approach the fascia boards. I had to get used to being up on the scaffolding and moving around with the safety gear, between parts of the scaffolding and the mulberry tree branches (I trimmed some that were too much in the way and felt unsafe to me … but tried to keep trimming to a minimum).
With Iulia injured I had to come up with a way to hold in place and screw in the fascia boards. It was time for a jig, and it was named Iulia2. It held up one end of the board while I tended to the other end:
The fascia board was made up of three parts (two shorter pieces in the end and a longer one in the middle). After the fascia board I went to the side with extended (high) scaffolding and started putting on decking … I could not get very far because of limited reach:
So I stacked up some boards at the high scaffolding end … where I had more reach:
I tested and found I was “comfortable” sitting on the roof where there were three boards … so I laid out more boards ahead of me … and gradually moved along, dragging my seated ass along the roof screwing down the decking.
Iulia was still trying and able to provide “ground service” by cutting boards to length and handing them over for me to install.
… and eventually a decked roof started to appear:
… at this moment I realized I was watching the sunset standing taller than the ridge beam that, not long ago, seemed high up:
Around this time Iulia went to a doctor and found out her elbow was fractured … so she was out of the game. I, slowly, continued on … measuring up on the roof, going down to cut, raising boards, going up, installing them, measuring again … and found a good rhythm
At this point, I was getting on and off the roof with increasing frequency and even at the highest point of scaffolding getting on required too big a step (a small climb).
I also anticipated that soon, when it came time to put in the rain gutter, I would not be able to “climb” and that I would need to be able to step on the roof. So it was jig time again:
… and Napolean was born … an improvised two step stool that gave me another 60-70cm of height. It turned out heavier than I expected … and I had to figure out a way to get it up to the highest scaffolding. I carried up to the 2nd level … from there I placed a board across to the scaffolding next to the high scaffolding … and pushed it across … this felt simultaneously ingenious and ridiculous:
The name Napoleon came intuitively … but when I stepped on it and from it onto the roof for the first time I understood why. I imagined that the little guy needed something like this to get on his horse. My horse was a roof 🙂
Then I crossed over to the scaffolding, pulled it across, lifted it up to its final destination, screwed it down … and … stepped onto the roof:
… and got back to work:
Doing this work I came to appreciate tool belts … but didn’t have one yet (though did end up getting one in the coming weeks). Instead, I created this small holder-jig that I moved around with me:
… and, sooner then I thought, the last board was sticking out waiting to be installed:
… and the first half of decking was done:
Then installing the rain gutter … finding a level reference line:
… and then tilting in the direction I wanted the water to flow … installing hanger along the tilted line:
… putting in the first gutter segment … and pouring in some water that flowed nicely out:
Despite my best efforts, when the gutter was installed completely there was still a small pooling area that held about a liter of water … but overall it turned out OK.
The last step was to install the water-proofing layer:
Then it was time to move to the other side … where another adventure was to be met before the other half of the roof could be installed.