All of these roofing details take a lot of hand labor. Whether it's an 8x10 beam or a 3x3 stick, each one has to be routered and sanded. Mark Oleson is doing a lot of the routering and I am doing a lot of the sanding. The purpose of the routering is to round off the corners and edges of the lumber so it doesn't look like it just came out of the lumber yard. the purpose of the sanding is to remove any pits and discoloration and to make the wood ready to be stained.
Mark Oleson built a temporary work bench in the garage for our use in working on these boards. This is a lot easier than bending over a couple of sawhorses. And it's nice to be able to work inside the garage now. It gives me a hint of what it will be like to have my complete workshop here. While I'm on the subject of the garage, it's delightful to see how much the garage resembles an old barn with a hayloft.
Back to the roofing, one of the defining characteristics of a craftsman-style bungalow is broad eaves over those exposed beams and rafter tails. Most of the roof gets plywood over the rafters. However, the eaves need something other than plywood in order to look right. The underside of the eaves is very visible, and plywood is both unattractive and not in keeping with craftsman style. So "starter boards" are used instead of plywood as the roof over the eaves. These are tongue and groove wood boards of spruce, pine or other wood that give the illusion of old style roofing, from the days before plywood came along. The starter boards will look really good with the outriggers and exposed rafter tails. They will also be used on the covered area over the front door, but that comes later.
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