One (new) Garage Roof... done...

Where was it on my list of to-do's for next year?  5th?  Well, the boyf decided that a pre-winter repair was in order.  Actually, it started off as a pre-winter replacement, followed by a pre-winter get someone to replace it for us, before working its way back to a pre-winter repair, we'll decide what to do with it next year.  All it needed was some new seals on the bolts and a bit of swapping of panels around, as the ones where it leaked were warped.

It started off well enough, I snuck off to the hairdressers whilst the boyf got started and removed the old bolts.  The old panels were 3m long concrete material and heavy and he needed a hand so I came home early (no fabric shopping though as we all know, that worked out nicely!) and found this...

He's pretty nimble at heights!  Doing so well in fact that I went to walk the dogs before we went out to get some lunch prior to finishing everything that afternoon.  I came back to this...

He fell through the roof!  And not once, but twice!  I've always believed that the world has a way of making you do the right thing and our little house definately doesn't like half measures... whatever we did this weekend, we were meant to replace the roof, properly.  The old roof came off...

And we drove to the builders merchants for a replacement roof.  It was pretty stressful now suddenly having to replace the roof but the drive home was the funniest moment I've had in ages.  I laughed so hard I had tears rolling down my cheeks. 

The photo doesn't do it justice, but to get the roof sheets in we had to pull the car seats as far forward as we could.  I was concertinaed in the passenger seat and got a glimpse into the future of what the lovely boyf will drive like when he's 80, peering short-sightedly out of the front the window, hands shuffling between 10 and 2 on the wheel...  it certainly lightened the mood!

Long story short, the new panels are shorter than the old ones were and to fix them properly we built a timber frame in between the existing metal A frames.  It necessitated another trip to the builders merchants, from which I drove home lying almost flat in my seat :o)  We worked till dusk on Saturday night and were up at 6.30am on Sunday.  It was an hard day, we already ached and the clouds were gathering, but it is such an improvement it was good to be getting it done and, rather poetically, the first spots of rain fell as we hammered in the last panel at about 6.30 that evening.

Inside...

and out but at 6pm on Sunday the boyf was really not in the mood for an action shot!

In the downtime in my role as "able assistant" I also gave the garage a good tidy up and taught myself how to use the skill saw.  Truth be told, I know how to use it but they frighten me, way too much potential for damage, but some bits of wood needed to be cut and, once I got going, I was having oodles of fun!  Apart from the lengths needed for the roof, I also decided to sort out the pile of random tree bits that we threaten to burn on the fire.  A sorry mess is now a neat stack of 8" (ready for the woodburner!) logs and I rather love this one which looks just like a squishy apple... it gives me Halloweeny ideas...

PS it rained last night and not a drop in the garage!  Not what I had planned for the weekend and I'm pretty sure, nursing some nasty cuts and bruises from his tumbles, that the boyf would say "never again!" but not a drop of rain in the garage.  No puddles, no plastic covering the electrics, no ruined things... it was worth it :o)