Hello! I need some advice about walking on the attic. My attic access
is through a walk in closet. Because I have the cathedral ceiling,
therefore I have very limited space in the attic. My house was built in
1999.

I recalled that during the last home inspection, the inspector
mentioned that we cannot walk on the attic directly; we have to walk
on the rafter.

My questions are
1) How to identify a rafter? If I get into the attic, I recall that I
can see woods sloping down and merge together on the floor of the
attic. In other words, when I look into the attic, I see woods with
shape of "V" -- the bottom tip of "V" is on my attic floor. Are these
woods called rafters ? There are many of them. Thought rafters ONLY
refer to woods that support the roof. I saw some of these "V" woods not
directly link to the roof.

2) Do I walk on the bottom tip of the woods "V" ? Not sure if I recall
correctly, but I thought the inspector told me that not every rafter is
strong enough to hold a human (I weight only 180 pounds).

I need to access the attic because I see a hole at the edge of the
roof-top of my house. I worry birds, or bees will get into it. I am
trying to access the attic, get to the edge of the house, and seal the
hole.

Please Let me know if you have any other better idea.

Thanks
Tong