Life on the terrace

Mico said: “We start from the top.”

The biggest problem was the roof that was damaged during the last war. Never totally destroyed but with some roof tiles broken, water was penetrating inside. First was to make house dry which meant redoing the roof.

After inspecting the wooden beams of the previous roof structure I’ve learned that ham and sausages used to be smoked in the attic. That left the beams covered in blackish layer under which was beautifully stained wood. Love at first sight decided the look of the future roof: All the insulation and the ceiling is coming on top of the wooden roof structure, instead of under it. This way the volume of the rooms upstairs got increased and the old wooden structure open and exposed.

The new covering of the roof will be with a type of the roof tiles that were original when the house was built. Besides the fact that I wanted to use this type of tiles I was actually obliged to, according to the conservation law that keeps Novigrad authentic. The Conservation Office, run by the Ministry of Culture was very helpful in the whole process and did everything to fill any gaps in the knowledge about making this type of roof. This particular type of roof tile is called “Kupa kanalica” in Croatian. In some places it is translated as: extruded roofing tile. It is traditional type of roof for the houses in countries of the Mediterranean circle. Two are reasons why this type of roof kept its presence until today. First, because it is naturally ventilated roof which helps to cool down in very hot summer days. Second was the adaptability to the asymmetrical roof structures. It allows shrinking and extending without cutting the actual tiles, which comes very useful when trying to tile irregular shapes that vary in every dimension. I’ve almost succeeded to take full advantage of it.

Big hurdle before starting the work on the roof was choosing the insulation and bringing all the material up to the house. There is no access with the vehicle to the house so everything had to be carried up the very old uneven stairs. Not trying to be too dramatic but taking things down from the house wasn’t pleasant either. However we started with old furniture that is not going to be restored.

Steve proved his destruction potential and we had terrace filled with ruined furniture in no time. With more valuable pieces dismantled and stored the upper floor was empty and we started to make some serious change.

Chronologically this was the point when Mico arrived from Berlin and joined the action. Besides bringing his experience and friendship, he also brought all the tools we needed including the van with a big trailer. Without these two guys practically things wouldn’t happen: Milic Skoric and Steve Bielschowsky.

While Mico and I were shopping Nikola and SuperFerdo joined the troops and together with Steve knocked down some walls and removed plaster from some other walls. Again getting things in and out of the house was problem so it doesn’t surprise that we finished bringing in 1500 roof tiles, 50 m2 of wood and insulation around ten o’clock in the evening. At that point terrace became storage area but the upper floor approached it final shape.

Before opening the roof there was still a lot of preparation work to be done. Decision to do the roof in November was very risky but I’ve counted on at least  one week of stable dry weather. That’s why we had to do even more work indoors to be able to use ground floor as the workshop. The fire place was “gently” dismantled. The wood separating staircase from the ground floor as well. But major difference made removing the two walls separating hallway with kitchen and room on the ground floor. Ground floor is now officially open plan that will contain kitchen and living area. Once cleared of the rubble which took a day or two, the room was big enough to bring the four meters wooden planks inside. We had to paint all the wood that is to become a ceiling later on. Even though painted outside in the end it was kept inside to dry and keep it out of moist and potential rain. Lovre made his appearance again at the right moment. After breaking his back with pushing the wheelbarrow up and down he was assigned with a bit lighter object to push up and down. It made him smile.

Eventually we had to start taking the old roof down.

Once the roof was stripped of old roof tiles, we could have seen which beams needed replacing. At the same time we had to level the wall edge and rebuild the chimney. the edge of the wall was than stone plated to generate the slight curve to the future roof.

Once that was in place we started to install the planks on the beams. That was the big push day again with Lovre and SuperFerdo present, along with Mico, Steve and myself.

Last “little” thing before start laying the roof tiles was to put insulation and wooden grid.

Finally everything was ready to start laying the roof tiles.

And than…

And from underneath once again:

And the story about the new old roof is almost finished. The chimney is to be finished once the scaffold is up and some other minor tuning up. November of 2011 will be remembered as the month with one day of rain only and great four weeks together with Steve and Mico (with Neli).