Thursday, September 25, 2014

New Roof On Cabin - Pt 2

Bryan, the contractor assured me the paper stuff on the roof would not leak during the rain forecasted for the evening.  I had my doubts but he sounded sure that all would be well with the roof.

We went to bed a little late and listened to the rain on the roof and wondered if the paper would hold up.  About 4:00 AM I felt a little cold and started to rearrange the blankets and my back side was all wet.  That had never happened before and I got out of bed to see what was the problem.  Yep, you guessed it, the roof was leaking and it picked that spot so I got all wet.  Then I felt the bed and it was wet, so I woke up Gerry and her side of the bed was wet, also. 

Bryan, we have a problem.  I sent him an email since he gets them on his smartphone outlining the problem.  Then we spent the next hour placing buckets, mopping the floor, stripping the bed, etc trying to minimize the damage.  Finally we said that was it and we went out to the motorhome to catch a few hours of sleep.

I called Bryan once again about 7:30 AM and left him a message.  Ooooh ooooh!  No return call.  We went into the cabin and emptied the buckets of dirty brown rain water.  Finally Bryan rolled in with his crew and was surprised that I had a problem.  Once I showed him how serious it was he started work on finishing the roof.  By then it had quit raining.


 They put the finishing touches on the roof around 5:00 PM after working 8+ hours.  I think the job was a little more difficult than they had bargained for and the rain didn't help things any.  The roof color is bronze, but since it was a cloudy day it looks washed out.  Also, the cabin needs painting really bad and we plan on changing the color to a light brown rather than the redwood stain.  The stain doesn't hold up very well.  We just painted the cabin 4-5 years ago.


I mentioned in the previous blog about some neat tools roofers use now.  The electric screw gun was a great idea, but I like the tool below used to pick up screws and other metal objects.  You just run it over the ground or area where the metal is and it sticks to the bottom of the device.  The wheels generate a charge to a magnet and is fairly powerful.  Don't put your external hard drive near it when you are picking up nails. Then when you have all the metal clinging to the bottom of the device, you just pull up a handle and it releases the magnetic charge and drops the metal.  What will they think of next?


One of my first questions to the roofer was who he employs.  A lot of construction jobs are performed by illegals and I don't really approve of that when there are Americans willing to do the jobs.  I would rather pay more and have the funds stay in the U.S.  He only hires legal Americans for his company.  Great!  That is all I am going to say on this, but I do feel strongly about it.

Since it is fall and the temps are low at nighttime, plus the rainy day, the acorns are falling like leaves.  The cabin roof is and always has been a target for these acorns.  The old asphalt shingle roof didn't do much to deaden the sound of the acorns falling from 80ft and striking the roof.  The new metal roof is louder, but not so much that it will be a problem.  It does take some getting used to but that is one of the charms of living in the woods.

Bryan had to use more lumber for repairs than planned and he did not bill us for it and then reduced the bill due to the water damage in the bedroom.  We thought that was a fair deal and accepted his offer.  Now, if the roof problems are behind us it will be great.  As my friend Russell says, " Oh, the joys of home ownership".  

We had ordered a number of items through Amazon on Monday.  They arrived on Wednesday.  The baseplate, tow bar, lights, and other accessories arrived and I didn't even know they were here.  I thought the boxes were supplies for the new roof.  What a surprise to us that they arrived so quickly since a couple cartons weighed 30-60 lbs.  

That was our exciting day, how was yours.

1 comment:

  1. Glad your roof is done. We've had the water challenge and it's no fun. Amazon is something else. They must ship carrier pigeon direct. Have fun getting all your"stuff" ready for the westward trek.

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