How did she get so dirty? And why is she smiling?


We bought this, our first house, because it was built in 1921 and we wanted a “project house” we could restore. When I say “we” I mean we are doing all of the work. We are not hiring contractors. This month’s project is replacing the roof on the house. We already replaced the Studio and Office roofs (see “the Studio Roof Saga Drama Epic” story in the archives).

These pictures were taken mid-July as Carrie started ripping off the old shingles. The original 85 year-old wood shake shingles were still on the roof covered in a layer of asphalt shingles.

This photo shows the roof as we knew it on the right. That is the asphalt side yet to be removed. On the left is the wood shake exposed. That is Carrie happily applying her shingle-removing scraper. There is a small part of the skip sheathing visible where she has taken off the wood shingles.

So, how did she get so dirty? The temperature has been in the high 90’s and low 100’s since we’ve started this roof project which makes removing ancient shingles sweaty dirty work, especially when you approach the work with wild abandon like Carrie.

The smiling part is tougher to explain, but I can tell you that the harder she works the happier she gets.