Finally

It’s been a long time in coming, but the roof on my house is finally being replaced.

To give a little background, I didn’t do as much research into my roofer as perhaps I should have. On July 4th, 2005, my roofer came over with the shingle samples and Ron and I picked out what we wanted. The following week, I gave him the deposit and was told that once he got the deposit, he would put us in the schedule and our appointment time would be about three weeks away.

Has anyone seen the movie Money Pit with Tom Hanks and Shelley Long? The builders kept telling them three weeks for everything too. And absolutely nothing ever got done in those three weeks. I have been feeling their pain.

Three weeks should have put us at the end of July, beginning of August. That time frame came and went and no word from my roofer. I was trying to be patient, but by the end of August, I was pissed and on the phone. He told me he has been “busy”. Frankly, I don’t care what his problems are; I just want my roof done as promised. I was told, oh don’t worry about it. I’ll get to it in September. Yes, September was looking good. Alas, September came and went and no roof. October came and went and no roof. Keep in mind, this bozo has never once picked up the phone to call either Ron or me to tell us of any delay or issues. Oh heck with the phone, he lives right across the street! He could have yelled over but he couldn’t be bothered with that either.

Finally in November, I went knocking on his door. Again, I have to hear his problems. He said that he had to fire his employee and he can’t do my roof on his own. Then, he finally hired another roofer, but this guy didn’t have the experience to do a roof like mine. My roof was going to have to wait until the spring. Grrr This bozo created more angst in my life than he ever should have. Mainly because he could never pick up a phone and keep me up to date on what is going on. The funniest thing of this whole thing is that when I complain to him on his lack of responsibility and at the very least common courtesy, he said that yes, he’s been told that many times before. Idiot.

A phone call a few weeks ago to him had him telling me that I am next. Hmm. At least he didn’t say in three weeks! I was next. The following week after he told me that, it rained all week. Ok, that I can’t blame on him. Even with the roofer coming to talk to Ron last Friday to let us know he was starting us this week didn’t make a believer out of me. When he showed up on Monday with a full crew, I believed.

Monday was devoted to mostly tearing off the three layers of roof already there. What a mess I came home to see. Never living in a house before let alone owning one, there are so many things that I have no clue about and was not prepared for. The mess was astounding and almost overwhelming. They cleaned off the driveway at the end of the workday Monday so that I could get in and out of the garage, but that was pretty much it on Monday. In case there are any other naïve people out there, they just shove the shingles right off the edge of the roof as they are tearing them off. Anything below them beware. I’ve lost part of my best rose bush and I’m hoping there is not so much damage that it can’t come back from this. I don’t know what I expected, but this wasn’t it

Tuesday was more cleanup and the shingles were delivered. Once delivered, they were carried up to the roof and left there. That’s good because in my neighborhood, anything not nailed down gets stolen. Remember the post about Ron’s $1.00 ashtray stolen off of the front porch? “Nuff said.

Wednesday brought the entire crew out in full force again. I think they were working on another job in the morning, because they showed up at our house after noon. And boy did these guys work.

I started getting a headache yesterday so I left work a little early. I left about 4:30 and being so close to home, I’m home by 4:45. I really just wanted to lie on the couch and close my eyes for a little bit. That was not happening. Four or five guys on my roof with air hammers are not good napping companions. I thought we were having an earthquake. I actually at one point turned to Ron and asked if they were hurting the house any or if this was really normal. The house was shaking, people! I couldn’t believe it!

The crew finally quit around 8:00 p.m. last night. They cleaned up, packed up, and most of the crew left. The owner was the last one left. Luckily, he looked up and realized that one of the three dormers on the house was not covered by a tarp. So, out came the ladders and up to the roof he went. More banging banging banging to put a tarp up just in case it rained.

And yes, it rained last night. Poor Ron really has to put up with way too much just living with me. I don’t think I make his life easy.

Last night, sometime in the middle of the night the rain came. The sounds coming from the roof actually woke us up. I really don’t know what was happening, but it sounded like the rain was boring holes right through the roof. It might have been the water dripping from the dormers to the tarp on the roof, or just the rain hitting the roof, but it was a constant and LOUD drip, drip, drip.

You know, when mama ain’t happy, no one is happy. I actually asked Ron to go check the attic and make sure all was well and all of the rain wasn’t coming through. Being the good man that he is, he dragged his butt out of bed to appease me. The report was that everything was fine. I’ll really be glad when this is all over. I don’t know how much more Ron can take!

We have a few progress pictures that we’ve taken of the work. I’ll post them when the roof is complete. I keep telling myself that it will look beautiful when it’s done and I’ll forget all about the problems getting here. Here’s hoping anyway.

As a side note, if you haven’t seen a roofer at work, it’s something you should see. The next time I want to complain about my job, I will think about these guys. Jumping on and off of ladders, walking precariously around the roof, trusting their lives to little itty bitty ledges they put around the edge, no way. There is nothing you could pay me to do the work these guys do. I can’t even imagine what these guys go through in the heat of July and August. At least here in May, the weather has been nice and even a bit cool in the mornings. Now I know why a roof is so expensive. No matter what these guys are getting paid . . . it’s not enough.