I can't believe my eyes!
Without rehashing the boring history of getting this far, let it be enough to say that the job finally went to my landlord Tom, who is a general contractor. The job will cost at least $2,000, but no more than $2,500. The total calculation will come at the end.
You can't tell from this photo, but the part of the roof off of which this soffit is projecting is pitched at a very low angle--almost enough to qualify as a flat roof. The new soffit includes about 14" of new roof that comes down at a normal pitch.
Seeing how straight and exact the work is coming along makes me feel better about spending all of my money on it. No, really. They're doing a very professional job.
The roof used to be very jankity here. The red line indicates the weird, pointless angle that used to be in this area. Since that was dumb, Tom had the area rebuilt to be one straight, solid line.
Unfortunately, Tom did not find any gold or jewels hidden in the attic. Just mummified squirrels.
"Happy Halloween!"