Panels on the Roof

The panels and the 80 gallon (300 L) hot water heater came this past Friday.
With the help of my two good friends Mark and Tom, we wrestled the two 4'x 8' (1.2 x 2.4m), ~120 lb. (55 kg) panels on the roof. We threaded them through my small house, which was a bear. Unfortunately my 16' extension ladder wasn't quite long enough to make getting them up from the ground possible. Happily we didn't drop the panels, bang up the house or throw out our backs in the process. This is definitely a three+ person job!

The picture is looking north over the roof, where you can see downtown SF in the background. For now I'm leaving the panels flat on their backs until I figure out the exact placement of the rack and how best to fasten the rack feet to the roof joists.

Tom's looking up from where we lifted the panels from our small second story deck to the roof. Two lifted from below and I pulled the panels up. A second person pulling from the roof would have made this process slightly less tense. May all our backs feel fine in the morning...