With the walls up and sheathing going on, we are now playing a high-stakes game of "beat the winter weather." We have to finish the sheathing and we have to get the roof on. Snow is now in the forecast, and the shoreline has been icing-up at night. So the race is on...

For the first time in this project, it's genuinely cold. We're on the lake with the wind whipping at 20 mph and it's only 30 degrees out, but the roof must go on!

A frantic day of hammer swinging and we finish the ceiling/roof joists. That night, we get our first snowfall. We are becoming even more concerned. We still don't have the plywood on the roof, and we're going to install a rubber roof, which must be put on when temp's are in the 50's, otherwise the adhesive won't work, and we'll be waiting until April to get this project going again.

The following weekend, we finish putting the plywood on the roof and cover it in a giant tarp. The wind is blowing at 30 mph, and we put all the extra long lumber we have to keep that tarp from blowing away. There isn't much more we can do than hope that the weather will give us one more chance to get the roof on.

Another week goes by - it's the week before Thanksgiving and a warm front rolls through. We have an afternoon high of 51 degrees. The roof goes on! Unfortunately, the days are very short by this time, and we use-up all the daylight we have. Wendy springs to the rescue with a giant LED flood light, allowing us to wrap up our work into the evening.

With the roof on, we now focus on the last step to becoming "weather tight" for the winter -- house wrap. 3.5 billion staples later, we have the boat house wrapped and ready for whatever mother nature has in mind for winter in northern Wisconsin.

Next installment: The weather gives us one more break...