A Roof At Last ...

If I'd known how much work this was going to be ... well, I'd have done it anyway because we need it.  Something to keep the rain off (and it does rain here) and protection from heavy snows (get those too) and, as a bonus, I'll be adding a gutter to feed the rain and snow into a catchment (we're still hauling water but hope to add a well before too long).

Problem I'm facing is how to show you what's going on.  Below is a single photo of the motorhome, deck and the new roof ...

... but the problem is that you can barely see anything for the trees

Of course, we don't really consider this a problem, it's only when I'm trying to get a good picture to show what's going on that things get awkward.  So, as a possible solution, I put up an orchard ladder (lying on the ground bottom left above) and took several shots which have been "stitched" into a single panoramic image (below).

Of course, there's some distortion here but the height of the ladder (to get over some of the smaller trees, etc) provides a somewhat better view of the new roof.  While it doesn't show real well here, the roof is transparent vinyl panels so I'm not cutting out light (for obvious reasons, it's already shady enough here.)

I suppose I should have taken a couple of shots last year when the snow was so deep on the porch, just to provide some contrast.  Well, maybe this winter ... but it will be the snow on the roof ... where I don't have to shovel it.  (BTW: note the snow shovel hanging at the far right -- I didn't own one of those until we came up here ... but we love it.)

Finally, here's photo taken at dusk with the new lights along the porch.

The lighting is a 25 ft string of high intensity white LEDs.  At lower right, another string of LEDs (lying along the ground) lights up the path to the pantry / freezer.

And, not least, come winter (Christmas 2009), here's more than a foot of snow which I have not had to shovel off the porch.

A week later -- as things begin to thaw -- collapsing roofs (schools, carports, horse stalls, various buildings) have been regular fodder for the evening news.  This roof, however and despite the wet, heavy snow load, has not sagged, quivered, nor shown any indication of any failure at all.  (Of course, I've been accused of "over engineering" things for years so I guess that's really no surprise ... but it's nicer that way.)