Friday, November 6, 2009

the roof is leaking and the wind is howling

What have we been up to the past few weeks? Well, we just had a major home improvement done that we weren't planning on which is always not fun. Last winter, we had ice dams on our house which was really not good. Several times Hubs got up on the roof to clear off snow and ice to help clear it away and at one point, we noticed some water damage on the ceiling in our family room.
We talked to a builder from our church about improving the ventilation in the roof, adding more insulation and replacing soffats and got an estimate. Good to go...

Then as he was about to start, he discovered that the entire roof was in serious jeopardy of basically collapsing under any heavy snow. Wow. Um. Ok. It was so bad and moldy that he was afraid of walking on it. Yikes. So, our estimate tripled in price but we had no choice. And now, we have in essence a whole new 'high car payment' to pay for the repair.

But, the good news...Hubs never fell through the roof last winter because seriously, it was that bad. The roof issue was discovered before winter. Our heating bill over time should significantly decrease and we should be able to use alot less wood for the woodstove.

In fact, a few weekends ago it was really cold and actually rain/snowing out. Hubs started up the woodstove and it got so hot in the house that we were in t-shirts. Our family room which we could never get warmer than 68F, was 76F. So we know it's going to be so much more efficient and we won't be losing heat anymore. AND, we'll qualify for that home efficiency repair tax credit, up to $1500. We're praying we get the full credit because we certainly have spent ALOT of money on this.

Here's some pics.

Red roof


Black roof

4 comments:

CALAMITY JANE said...

yikes! it's good you got it fixed, for sure. at least for adam's sake :) that made me laugh. and i like the way the new roof looks! you have a really cute house :)

jtaco said...

oh man! I'm so glad God protected you guys until this fall! Looks great! And I'm sure a huge stress off your shoulders knowing it's safe and more efficient! yay! Seems like we've been getting socked lately too, water heater died, MUST stain and get new gutters on the house next spring, lights and heater in the garage for Brian to work this winter, and none of it is fun stuff! Boo hoo!

Tenny said...

woo. i remember having been in the same boat when we bought this house. except that we were expecting it. there are definite positives(no heat loss, no loss of limbs, etc..) but i know how it can sting. But God was definitely watching out for you all, so even in the paying it off, He'll be there. that's a good thing for me to remember, too.

Mary Beth said...

thank you tenny, what a great reminder. we recognize that God kept us safe and He will also protect our finances as well. (: