Replacing the whole roof of a house.

Day One.  The men arrived at 8 am and erected a railing along the front of the house for safety.  It is a very long drop to the ground from there!   It was still very cold (for Australians - don't laugh you people in the northern hemisphere) only 5 deg.C, and Ken had put the gas fire on earlier.  See the little flue in the centre of the roof?  That is the flue for the gas fire, and we could see heat waves shimmering from it in the cold air.  The workers jokingly thanked us for providing a radiator for them, as they were able to stand around it and warm up their hands!

The new roof steel sections arrive on a BIG truck.

  and are taken around to the back yard.

 Not long after that, the insulation arrived.  Pink Batts with foil lining.

 Back up on the roof the guys are busy ripping off the old roof.

 As well as the old insulation (the yellow pile of stuff on the right).  I asked if there were any little dead animals such as rats and mice in it, and they said no, but there were a lot of spiders.  Thanks guys...

While all the noise on the roof was going on, where were the cats?  Tiger sought refuge under the rug on our bed until I discovered him and took a photos.

  Topsy had fled to her usual hiding place under our bed.  Poor cat, the camera flash nearly blinded her in the darkness under there.

 A team of electricians arrived to put new exhaust fans and heaters in the bathrooms.  Easier to do the wiring while the roof is off.  One disadvantage of a flat roof, not being able to get access to all that as you would with a pitched roof.

It got really busy up there at times!

 At the end of the day, they had completely replaced about one third of the roof, and you can see the pile of the old roof sections on the right.  We are hoping it won't rain tomorrow, as they are starting at 7.30 am and hope to finish the job by 4 pm.  If it rains heavily of course they won't be able to do anything until next week but the sky was red in the west tonight, and that's a good sign for fine weather.  Fingers crossed.

 While the cats were terrified, our resident brush tailed possum slept through it all in his spot under the eaves.  I think his day will come tomorrow though, as they will be working at this end of the house tomorrow...