Yeah, I'm Still Here

Just too busy and uninspired to write, but here’s the beginning of the run-down since my last post. 

The heat stroke I suffered had residual effects for weeks.  I was only able to put in a few hours a day working around the house.  My task was to remove the roof over my garage.  That garage roof leaked since I purchased the house.  It has a flat roof with a very slight pitch.  Years ago I tried fixing it with several layers of fibered roof coating, but that didn't work.  Then I tried a corrugated metal roof and that didn't work either.  Finally I ripped it all off to the rafters and put down new sheathing. 

Funny thing is that the original builders, who I believe also built the garage/ now rest rooms at the Astoria column because the buildings are identical…anyway the builders gestimated their distances.  Some joists were 16 inches apart, some were 20, 17, 26, 15 inches apart.  This means every sheet of ply wood had to be cut.  It was a mess.

We hired professional roofers to do the garage roof and to put a metal roof on the house.  I was tired of the constant wind damage.  Comp roofing just can’t stand up to the winds we now get since the area was clear cut.  Hiring a local roofer was a bit of an ordeal.  I called several local roofers for estimates.  Talked to many of them and they never showed up to give me an estimate.  I asked “g” and he suggested a semi-local company and they actually came out and put in a bid.  Just to keep it all on the up and up I also called a roofer from Portland who did a metal roof for my father-in-law. They came in with a bid that was 2/3 the price of the quasi local company and they threw in new gutters and leaders.  This crew was great, they kept things neat and clean and replaced some rotten 5/4 tongue and groove wood that is our living room ceiling. They put new insulation foam panels above that so our living room now has an r-factor.  They reflashed everything including the five skylights and kept me posted on everything as they went along. 

It will be nice to never have to go on a roof again.  With a 40 year guarantee this roof will out-live me.  More on the other projects soon…