An update on the boats and building fronts.
This weekend, we're traveling to Vermont for a college reunion and making a detour to Massachusetts to look at a Mariner. Will this one have a solid steel centerboard? Will the trailer it sits on run well on the highway? Will Monica finally have the other boat she doesn't realize she needs?
Meanwhile, the cupola pieces are unassembled in the basement. Today I will cut the notches in two sides so it can straddle the ridge of the roof. Then I'll paint some more. When that's done, I'll be ready to fabricate the metal for the roof.
The other day, Bill Haldeman, my sailing friend and carpentry and piano guru, stopped by to inspect my progress on the cupola. He analyzed the sheetmetal work required. (He had brought over his spare metal brake earlier. That's the device you use to bend metal. If you don't know what it is, I guarantee you have seen many of them on the vans and pickup trucks of people who do metal and vinyl siding.)
Bill showed me many neat tricks and explained the pitfalls I'll face constructing the metal for the roof. He suggested that I make a practice roof out of aluminum before I try it in copper. For one thing, aluminum is much cheaper than copper, so mistakes are less costly.
Later, bill pointed out an aluminum cupola roof in the neighborhood -- red, this one -- and suggested that would be a nice alternative to copper. I'm considering his thoughts. I think if I went the aluminum route, I'd like green reather than red, though. It's more in keeping with the understated nature of our little home, I think.