Boathouse loft addition

More about the loft addition... I finished the roof sheathing and some of the roofing. I used rolled roofing to save on weight. That is an important consideration when constructing a boathouse- weight and balance. I needed to keep the house balanced from front to back and left to right. I needed to be careful not to add more weight than the barrels supporting the house could hold. That floating platform in the lower right of the first picture actually attached to the back of the boathouse. It attached with hinges and was not very stable. When boats went by it flapped up and down. But it did give me a nice area in the back.

I used salvaged windows in the loft. There was also a skylight on the roof. The window on the back was a 16 pane window that came from a building at the state university in town. I also built a small deck outside of the window. The window was on a piano hinge on top and it swung out for access to the upper deck. I did not use this deck much as it was not very convenient. The window was not very practical for air flow and I had to make a big screen in order to keep the mosquitos and fish flies out.
Living in the boathouse was wonderful but it took constant supervision. Winds could be troublesome. The house would sway back and forth. The river would get rough and the house would bounce up and down and some times that might cause a barrel to pop out. One side would be lower and that would raise the otherside and put the barrels at risk of popping out. The barrels held the house up and the wieght of the house kept the barrels in place.
During the time I lived there I was working at a knitting mill on the east end of town. The factory was right next to the river (well, the whole town is). I could see the river from my office window and there were many stormy days that I kept my eye on the river and hoped that I did not see my house go by. The red house next to mine broke loose once. Luckily someone saw it an jumped in a boat and was able to tow it back to its spot.