While doing some touch up house painting, I noticed that one of the rafter tails on the roof had some dry rot. After a bit of inspection, I realized that whoever installed the gutters put a nail in the wrong place. This allowed water to seep in and damage the wood on the rafter over time.

I got a bid to have it repaired and was a little shocked at the cost to do the job. I figured I’d give it a try on my own. I used a screw driver to poke into the damaged wood to determine how much rot was present. It seemed that only about 5″ was damaged.

I got out my tools and cut and chipped away the damaged wood. What was left was all solid wood, and there was no damage to the plywood sheathing.

I cut a 2×4 to match the arc pattern that I had cut in the rafter. I glued and screwed it in place. The following day I caulked the cracks.

Once the caulk hardened, I primed and painted the rafter.

If you look close, you can see that it has been repaired but overall looks great! Well worth my time, and I saved quite a bit of money too. Time for a brew!

What can one do to increase the storage space in a small bathroom? Well, if you are fortunate enough to have a closet behind one of the walls, nested shelves can be implemented.

I had seen this solution in many magazines, but I must admit I was a bit hesitant to cut a gaping hole in the wall. Nonetheless, that is what I did.

I took a few measurements to determine the shelving opening, and got out my saw and hammer. Here is the result. This is the view from the closet into the bathroom. I enlarged the closet side opening to accommodate shelves.

Next, I built the shelving unit. Three shelves on the bathroom side and two planned for the closet side.

I added molding around the bath shelves and painted them white. I also added in the closet shelf.

I really recommend this simple and easy storage solution. Finally, towels in the bathroom. What a novel idea!