Thanks, Jeff. This experience has been very rewarding, and the results are pretty amazing... we just finished installing the kitchen tile last night and it is way cool.

I've been working on this green roof with folks on REALNEO (debating roofing materials... we went with torch-down rubber... I don't know the brand but can find out... I have some scraps in my garage), and with my former neighbor in Ohio City, Tom Santiago, who operates Santiago Roofing.  None of us had done a green roof before, but the construction is not complex. An engineer friend took a look at the structure before we did anything and it is plenty strong to support all anticipated uses - the biggest weight load it will ever have is from good-old Cleveland blizzards.

Where the roof is located makes it very important. It is the only one story part of the house, and is frame and stucco, rather than brick, on three sides, with full north and west sun exposure all afternoon and evening, and the sun heat collects and reflects and radiates down and off this roof and straight into the back of the house at its most vulnerable point - a large three panel wood and stained glass window area on the two-story stairway, exposing the entire first and second floors to whatever elements may come through... including those brutal winter storms off the lake - this roof is a snow and rain collector, as well as furnace.

When we bought this board-up, this was the most damaged part of the house, while featuring what would become the coolest room of all - the library. The original construction and modifications were odd, but offered some interesting flexibility in designing the renovation - we were able to raise the inside ceiling height and add skylights and a ceiling fan without changing the exterior exposure. We also added some overhang of the roof to provide shade and protection from the elements to the wall and window areas below, which are all the most weather-beaten parts of the house! So the design adds shade and exposure protection, skylights for natural light and ventilation, and a ceiling fan, for circulation.

Planted, the green roof will provide super insulation in all seasons, and other energy-conservation benefits. We insulated the interior spaces of all parts of the project area we could reach, throughout the renovation, and the new roof material has an insulating effect, and is light colored and so reflective. Adding a layer of planting material will insulate further. The evaporation of moisture from the planted area should cool the air around that, and the soil should retain more coolness throughout the day than would a plain rubber roof. Depending on what is planted, that may provide shade and other cooling benefits as well (we have not decided what planting material and plantings we will use, so this is a timely subject for us).

As for how we built this...

There was a badly modified, deteriorated, leaking, multilayered flat roof over the library, connected to an even worse roof area over a worse enclosed back mudroom area, off the back door... they kept their dogs back there... really gross. I tore off the back mud room addition completely and put up temporary stairs - that still needs to be replaced... above the mud room there is a sweet little door - off the back stairs - that will be used to access the green roof... for now, we go through the stained glass window panel.

I tore off the old many layers of roof material on the flat library roof, including any weathered, deteriorated or water-damaged wood - and we removed the rotten ceiling beneath, and replaced all the framing with new material, with metal reinforcements... the substructure of the house is fine and sufficient to support the weight above. Then, new plywood decking - curbs and skylights - a layer of Tyvex - and the rubber roof is torched down in overlapping sections. running up the curbs and exterior walls of the house as far as needed - in our case, the roof is flashed 4-6" in all areas, depending on the constraints of the house construction. Then, we sheetrocked the interior ceiling and installed the ceiling fan - we'll be cleaning up the mess and finishing the rest of the room over the next few days.

We haven't done any exterior detail work since completing the roof itself, and need to add the planting matter and plants, so the rest of the project is to come, and I'll welcome more ideas and share the results as we see them.

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We have one rain barrel and want to add more - at this point, lots of our gutters aren't even up or connected so we are off the grid... the issue will more be retaining water. But we have lots of water management projects ahead...

We split our inside sewage plumbing to black and gray and still need to divert the gray to water parts of the yard - we trenched the yard and removed the toxic soil wherever we will grow food... are getting some truckloads of organic soil, mulch, etc. in the next few weeks (anyone want to recommend some sources), and want to use rain water to irrigate our food gardens. We are considering having a pond for water storage but need to investigate that further. This part of the project - the gardens - is one of the most important and also largely Evelyn's territory... we will grow lots and lots of healthy, organic food!

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Thanks, John. Evelyn was just calling garden centers for prices when I saw your posting - she called Rosby and their price was 1/2 the best deal she had found so far... and less for delivery, with a larger truck (so we can get all we need in one versus 2 loads).

One other such vendor who gave us good service was the Rock Pile, for gravel... but I don't think they do soil... we're trying Rosby... will report back on our experience (we've had to deal with bad soil before... and remember the fill they put on Whiskey Island, with all the broken glass...).

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Nothing cute about raccoons to me... I think they ate my cat. They have been breaking into my house the whole time I've been renovating it and still get into the walls today... they have made plenty of messes, although not too much poop (more into finding catfood). We'll get them out eventually and then will keep them away as best we may.

Each night you hear them fighting all over our block - they come in from the cemetery and attack the trashcans and stop at known feeding stations, like 1894 Roxbury was. They fight. They mate. and they return home to the cemetery or perhaps Forest Hills park by sunrise... replaced by the feral cats.

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Here's an interesting and informative article about raccoons in your environs. The site also offers humane ways to protect your gardens.

I live in Cleveland Heights - skunk central. My neighbor said that they came to our house because we had compost. We did not stop composting, but when money allowed we did get a cover and lock holding bin. The neighbor is less concerned, and we did not see any skunks in our yards until... a skunk moved in under his porch back in February when we had a warm spell. I came home from a weekend away and expected that my dog (who had been home with my roommate) would stink with the skunk residuals, but no. The skunk had moved into the lovely skunk condo under the neighbors porch and has just recently left.

The other night, unable to sleep, I got up and came down to surf the web a bit. I do this in the breakfast room where I can also look out the windows. The neighbor on the other side of me has a motion sensor light on his garage, and it kept turning on and off. I finally got up when it turned on again and saw an oppossum. Why, I never! I thought oppossums were a southern mammal! But no sirree! He was right in my neighbor's driveway doing his nocturnal rounds. Now I know we have seen turkeys and deer and I even heard about coyotes at the Shaker Lakes Nature Center, but oppossums!?!

I do hope you one day have a hen house and I don't hope you have a fox in it. Ask those folks with the strawbale house in Cleveland Heights how they keep 'ahold to their's. I thought I saw a fox crossin' the road around Cedar Fairmount not long ago... surely it had just come from the doctor's hen house... OK, jes kiddin'.

I came across the turkey in Forest Hills Park in 2006, and we should add to that posting some time... I saw a Coyote in my parents garage, at Shaker and Attleboro, Shaker Heights... that was at least 10 years ago.

It would be interesting to track such things on our web, and map them... wouldn't it be fun to know what was prowling your backyards at night.

There were lots of opossums at a place I rented in Pepper Pike, on Lander by Fairmount... they seem common out there. Also, bunnies... and huge mutant crows that ate the bunnies.

And we certainly have skunks all over the region... we smell them all the time in our back yard... haven't seen one though, in EC.

Now the coolest thing I've seen was a HUGE Red Tail Hawk, Evelyn believes, in my parents' back yard, a few months ago. It nailed a squirrel and ate it up right on their neighbors' patio. HUGE, I tell you.

And then there is the Blue Heron at the Shaker Lakes... very cool.

Regionalize nature! Don't kill it off at the suburbs... let it flourish where it finds a home, like East Cleveland. Coyotes can't be worse than the packs of wild dogs in Rockefeller Park!

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