We rebuilt the roof on our house! We had pine shakes on the roof, and they were badly in need of replacing, even though the house is only 10 years old. So this summer, I took 2 weeks of vacation in July/August, invited my parents from Gatineau, my brother Jean-François from Montreal, and Luc & Gaëtane from Port Moody to come help out. (I offered free plane tickets as incentive to come work in 40 Celcius weather!)

Unfortunately, I ended up hurting my back 6 days into the project while intalling the shingles at the top back of the house. The rest of the roof was completed by my father, my brother Jean-François, Luc, Troy, Gaëtane, and my mom. Since I couldn't lift anything heavy, I ended up helping with just small jobs for the rest of the week.

Note that the roof had no plywood -- only 1x2" slats. The first part of the job after removing the old pine shakes was to install 7/16" OSB over the entire roof.

The first few days proved to be extremely hot, with temperatures around 40 Celcius. You can see what happens when a group of people are working up on a roof for several hours in this temperature:

• picture #1, Luc, Troy, Jean-François, & my father
• picture #2, my father enjoying an ice cream break
• picture #3, Luc, Troy, & Jean-François

My favorite picture is the one of my father I took while he was working on the front of the house.