omg long post mm kay

today was like deja vu of yesterday

so first thing in the morning i measured, cut, and nailed up additional ceiling joist blocking. this was the blocking that runs along the front and rear walls, between the band joist and the first inside joist. the top of the walls toenail to these blocks.

next thing, i got the ridge boards up onto the ceiling. haha, that was fun. try lifting a 16' 2x12 of SYP. OK, now try getting it up onto a ceiling that's oh, i dunno, 12 feet or so above the ground. so how did i do it? i threw it up there. no, really. i did. two of them.

so then i laid the ridge boards against the rafter plate. then i realized i needed to mark the rafter plates first, so i pushed them aside. i used the square to carry the edge line of the ceiling joists up, and marked the opposite side of the line for placement of the rafter.

then i pushed the ridge boards back flush against the rafter plates, and carried the rafter markings across onto the ridge. sounds easy, but i probably wasted a good 20-30 minutes on this. i had the ridge against the left rafter plate, but that plate is a little longer than the main ridge (because of the small bump out on the left side of the building, there's a small ridge for that side.) once i realized that, i carried dimensions from the opposite rafter plate and away the marking went.

so at this point i was ready to make a template rafter and get cracking on the rafters. this was about 1pm or so. i accomplished nothing from this point until 4pm, when i left. i wasted alot of time and a few rafters, but i didn't come up with decent templates or anything. meh, practice makes perfect. i did discover i can't think for crap when its like 30 degrees and im standing outside in that neighborhood.

so tonight i recalled the use of stair gauges and found them on home depot's website, so i will pick them up. then i can use the rafter square as both a template to mark the rafter and as a cutting guide. this will be much faster than trying to perfect a hand made jig and will be reusable in the future.

so i think tomorrow i'll run one rafter with the gauges, then i can determine where reference marks could be placed upon the edge of the rafter. then i can line them all up on edge, snap lines, and have at it.

unfortunately, it's supposed to rain tomorrow. so i gotta get up at the butt crack of dawn to get down there very early, hopefully get the rafter material indoors, cover the roof with a tarp, and maybe if that works i can still cut the rafters.

i sure could use the time, the window deadline looms. don't keep your fingers cross tho, kiddies.