I did buy the Express II at Job Lot for $130, got weight bags on Freecycle (2 sidewalls as well), I just bungee the bags to the frame and set them on the (small) feet. It's pretty heavy (50 lb) for me, heck the bags are pretty heavy too esp. when wet but my almost-14 yo DS has been helping me at market and we're pretty good at getting it up, better at taking it down though we do need to "hug" it to slip the bag all the way down over the top. The lay it in the bed with feet sticking over tailgate to zip it up. Haven't had it out in heavy rain yet - was thinking about it today for family reunion, good thing I didn't bring it b/c 5 canopies (2 of them cheap ones like the 1 I lost last month) collapsed before we could get the covers off and get them folded, a Sierra II ended up on the roof of the shed. But the guys held a tarp over the pig and finished roasting. All of us who were outside helping with pig and canopies (no one was under them yet, people were still on porch and in kitchen) had to spend the entire time outside in wet clothes, have people bring us plates out (and take the pork in after the guys cut it in the shed). Glad to get home and get in some dry clothes.

Minimum design "Ground Snow Load" is contained in charts by cities & towns in the 7th edition of the MA State Building Code. The single family portion is published separately and taken primarily from the 2003 IRC but there are sections unique to MA. The code comes in a 3.5" thick loose-leaf binder and can be purchased at the state bookstore at the statehouse in Boston for $35. It can also be seen online at the link below. Your location probably has the highest snow live load of 65 psf. For comparison Boston is 45 psf. If the dead load is 10 psf the total design load would be 75 psf. This number would be modified by roof slope, potential for drifted snow, etc. This is not a big issue for a typical house design because the building code rafter design tables take into consideration the ground snow load. As I mentioned before, in terms of waterproofing, the important issue is not the amount of snow but the extent of freeze-thaw cycles. Unless you have lived in snow country near the east coast you might not understand how destructive ice can be on a roof. You should use full coverage Ice & Water Shield roofing underlayment and put any gutters an inch below the projected plane of the roof surface. Personally, I would consider the Prairie Style the least practical house design for northeastern MA. I've designed ski resorts in the Rockies and the Alps and built houses in VT, NH, and ME. Snow is never the problem; it's ice and poor detailing that destroys houses. Wright might have been ahead of his time artistically speaking, but his stubborn, arrogant disdain for the practical aspects of building and the comfort of his clients is legendary. His houses were not only non-owner-friendly but were difficult to keep dry and warm and he didn't care. Personally, I think his net influence on the architecture of single family houses was negative. Check out the Westhope house in Oklahoma for a good example of how not to design a house. This is the house where he told the owner to move his desk when informed by phone that the roof was leaking on it. The man's wife when moving pots and pans around the living room to catch roof leaks in the newly completed house is quoted as saying that "This is what we get for leaving a work of art out in the rain". Here is a link that might be useful: MA State Building Code

I'm glad to come across this thread because I'm also trying to figure out whether/how to add blown-in insulation to our attic, and possibly radiant foil. I hope I'm not derailing the thread by tacking on. Our home is a roughly 120 year old Victorian, and it also has a sprinkling of old insulation in the (sealed) attic, but nothing more. And when I say attic, I should clarify--we actually have a finished attic/third floor but the very peak of the attic, above the ceiling of the finished area, is unfinished. It's like a capital A, where the lower half is the finished portion and the upper half is unfinished. I'm sure there's proper terminology for that but I don't know what it's correctly called. We use the finished portion regularly, or at least we would if it didn't get very hot up there in both the winter and the summer. In the winter, we can counteract this by closing the HVAC vents so the attic is only heated by the hot air rising through the house, and that works well enough. But in the summer, we add two window units in addition to the house AC (to cool a space that's probably 400 sqft)--the window units are kind of a mixed bag because with the way they're installed, they let in a good portion of hot outside air around them through the window. We're contemplating replacing the window units with a minisplit system in the attic alone, but I feel like it's worth exploring all the various possible ideas to try to keep summer heat out of the finished portion of the attic before installing a whole new additional system. Any thoughts or ideas for me?

All this anti room-sharing and bath sharing! Good grief! For decades, families ALL shared ONE bathroom and managed, regardless of sex. I'm certainly not suggesting that we go back to one bathroom houses, but the idea that teenage opposite sex siblings cannot share a bath is ludicrous. Buy the girl a dressing table where she blows her hair dry and keeps any cosmetics. Makes time in the bath far less and keeps all her "stuff" out of it as well. My son and daughter shared a jack-and-jill bath just fine. DD now shares a bath with her two teenage boys - she has more control over them and their idea of bath hygiene than she does over DH who has the en suite to himself. My children even shared a room until DD was about 7 and kicked her brother out - wanted her room to be "girls-only" when friends came by. My two grandsons have always shared a room and have never requested a change. They have two extra BRs in the house so they could easily each have his own, but they like having each other. Younger GS is dreading his brother going off to college next year - can't imagine him not being there in the room with him. It's all these attitudes that have caused colleges to spend a fortune on dorms with the majority being singles, and at some schools, each with its own bath. Children no longer know how to share. Makes me wonder if separate bedrooms for married couples may become the wave of the future for these non-sharers!