I went topless (well, roofless anyway)

The roofers were scheduled to start today at 8:30, and I had a delivery from the plumbing supply house scheduled to come at some point today. They were going to call me one hour before they arrived so I could be there. An interesting thing is that most places I've ordered from only do curbside delivery - gone are the days when someone would put something in your garage or house (I think it has to do with too many lawsuits). My phone rings at 7:50 a.m. and it's the driver for the plumbing supply place saying he is AT the house. I told him I was supposed to get a call an hour before, and he knew nothing about it. I told him I could be there in 15 minutes and to not do anything until I got there. When I arrived 15 minutes later, he had already put everything on the very wet ground (it rained last night). Ok, first of all, what part of "don't do anything till I get there in 15 minutes" don't you understand? Second, knowing I was coming in 15 minutes and that your company screwed up by not calling me, why would you put very expensive stuff on the soaking wet ground? Ugh. The bathtub box was open, wet and damaged, so I hope the tub is okay. There was so much commotion with 10 roofers trying to get started and this delivery guy and his poor judgement that I didn't think to note the damage on the packing slip or refuse delivery. The tub has dirt and grit in it, so I hope it's not scratched. Also, the box is supposed to protect it and it was very damaged. Oh well, hindsight.......

The roofers showed up with their permit right on schedule and got to work tearing off the roof. It was fast work with their crew of about 10 guys. It was also noisy and dirty. They stripped off 4 layers of shingles, and I think it was the first time the roof decking has been bare since the house was built in 1952. It felt really good to get rid of all that old roofing material and start fresh. I bumped my head again while they were there - I was busy looking up while trying to enter the porch (making sure nobody was about to throw something down on me) and didn't see the guy carrying 12' long boards towards me. Again I lucked out - no blood, small bump.

I learned that it pays to stay around. The job they were doing was slightly different that their normal job - I was having a fascia board installed, which they usually don't do. It may sound simple, but the board has to be primed on all sides before installing, and the ends of the rafter tails have to be primed as well since they are no longer accessable. The roofer purchased preprimed fascia board, so this part went smoothly - no drying time. But, the head guy left and his crew was about to put up a fascia board without priming the rafter tails first. I pointed it out and they got it corrected. Also, I noticed that a lot of debris fell through the roof into the bathroom where there is currently no ceiling. I realized that the same thing would happen in the garage, so I was able to cover everything I have in there (tub, cabinets, etc) with a drop cloth.

File this under "how can you be so clueless?" I was at Home Depot last night looking at Anderson Windows. They offer glass choice called laminate. The guy at Home Depot had no idea what it was, and no samples to look at. I thought it was a whitish, cloudy glass used for privacy which I had seen at other places. He gave me a number to call at Anderson, and first the woman on the phone did not understand my question. Really, how hard is it to understand that a customer wants to know what one of your products is? She literally did not know what I was asking even though I asked her the same question 4 different ways. Next, she tells me she's never heard of laminate, and I had to tell her it is one of the products Anderson offers. After putting me on hold several times, she finally comes back and tells me that laminate glass doesn't shatter. Well that's what the difference between laminate and tempered, which also doesn't shatter. I listen to cheesy hold music for a few more minutes. She comes back and says "laminate tends not to shatter, tempered resists shattering." What? Is this something the master said to grasshopper? The conversation goes like this for a while - I ask a question, she doesn't understand, I ask again a few more times till she does, she puts me on hold, comes back with non-sensical answer, I question her and we start the cycle. I finally concluded that nothing she said was reliable (good thing it wasn't a critical question). I can't use Anderson anyway because their moderately priced windows don't come in sizes I need, so I was really just trying to get comparison pricing for the windows we will end up buying.

The last thing I did was to run to the roofing supply place and get shingle samples to pick a color. The brand we are using comes in really nice colors with gradations in the color - e.g. it's not just "tan," it is tan with some chocolately brown shadows, some rust and a few flecks of vanilla. They look really good.

While looking at these pictures, I really noticed how shabby the rafter tails looked - they are were exposed and got really rotted and splintered. I has the roofers install a fascia board, and I think it looks so much better already.

Here is a picture inside the attic. You can see daylight through the boards because the shingles are off.



Beginning the tearoff process:

This rafter tail is being replaced. They have to remove a few 1x6's to get to it, then replace the tail and reinstall the 1x6's, reusing the 1x6's where possible. We had a lot of rafter tails and 1x6 that needed to be replaced.

The first fascia board goes up:
The house and garage were protected with plastic in case of rain.