Day 1919: Oh no, we got snow

In London in rarely snows .. days where we get much of the white stuff you can count on your hands. So when it does happen, it's a pretty big deal. We still reminisce about the great snowfall of 2009 ... 

We had a sled that survived the move but was last used when Caitlin was a baby. So you can imagine our surprise to look out our window this morning to see the image below .. 

Of course the once in decade snowfall just happens to come in the one week that we don't have a roof on the house ... Hello Karma, thanks for dropping in.

So despite our slight concern about the state of the roof, we made the most of the snowfall (and the neglected little green sled)

And we weren't the only ones. It seemed like all of Surbiton was out in the street and in the park today. Within hours, Alexandria Park had become a field full of socially distanced snow people. 

Others apparently had taken out their unused sleds as well.

So the snow has finished and mostly melted now - and the temp roof looks to have held up (hopefully). We should be getting more of a roof back starting tomorrow. Phew!

Day 1915: Almost a roof again

The guys from MTL were back at it again today to get the roof ready for tiling. In spite of our little issue with the leaning stack, everything else seemed to be going OK. 

The felt underlay was placed on the new rafters and battens for the roof tiles placed on top. It will look sharp with the new tiles in place. These should hopefully go on starting Monday. 

And good thing as the forecast is showing more rain (and possibly even snow) ... Oh dear.

Day 1913: It's hip to have a gable

Today the weather was glorious .. cold, cloudy - but finally no rain. Hey, they way things have been recently, you take what you can get.

As promised, the carpenters came today to start putting the roof back. The key task was to get the hip to gable conversion started. Impressive how much the guys were able to accomplish in one day as you can see in the photos below. 

The centre beam and roof joists seemed to go up in no time at all. 

Not a job for those who are afraid of heights. The guys had a proper workshop setup at the top of the scaffolding. 

Stacy from MTL was inquiring re the chimney as they would have knocked it out to get a smoother roofline. Since we have a log burner in semi-frequent use (especially recently) this needed to stay. Ashleigh also reminded me that we couldn't take it out or Santa would have no place to go next year - a very important point.

All neatly buttoned up at the end of the day. 

So weather permitting .. they should be back at it tomorrow working on the dormer. If things go well, and weather permitting, we may have a roof back by the end of the week.