The Rainfly

In my last post I spoke of a shed roof.  Actually, to be precise, the two-story section of the house will have a gable roof, while the one-story sections to either side will have shed roofs.  A gable is the (usually) triangular section of wall enclosed by two sloping sides of the roof.  Thus Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables — which was built in 1668 and is still standing in Salem, MA.  I guess two sheds make a gable.

This approach to roofing my house works well everywhere except at the front.  Here, to save floor space inside, I wanted the stairwell partially bumped out.  In addition, the front entrance and its porch sit immediately south of the stairs.  Obviously, the stairwell needs a roof, and people using the front entrance should be protected from the elements.  How do you cover these spaces without creating a visual jumble?  Bob came up with an elegant solution — a section of gambrel roof.  A gambrel roof is "hipped" and creates a line similar to the back leg of a horse (the joint of which is called the gambrel).  The lower portion of a gambrel roof has a steeper pitch than the upper portion, and the two sections are joined at the curb, hence the name curb roof.  Imported form Asia to colonial America, this roof has been widely used on barns and houses.  In this case the gambrel roof nicely caps the stairwell "box" and yet comes down low enough to shelter the entry as well.  I christened it The Rainfly, because it reminds me of the plastic rain tarps I often rigged when tent camping in order to create a dry space to cook and sit.  The roof will be punctured with a fixed skylight (not shown in this Southeast perspective) to provide daytime illumination.  The skylight may also afford a view of the stars at night. •••