Roofing

Black onyx is our roofing tile color and I’d like to say, that is mostly what we got…eventually, after our many trips to The Home Depot.

What is the hardest part of roofing a ‘small’ addition?

No, it wasn’t getting the gun away from the Damn Cat.

No, it wasn’t getting the under-layment down in the wind.

It wasn’t hiring a roofer? WHAT! Truly, that was never really even an option, because

1. This is a small project…to roofers.
2. I wanted to do it.

The hardest part of doing our roof was getting the 16 bags of roofing tiles each weighing 100+ pounds up on the roof. My Loving Spouse was gone for the weekend, so I was trying to figure out a way to get the bags up where we needed them. I hatched a plan that included a lot of heavy chain.

I lay them up over the roof line, one end wrapped around the axle of our quad bike. Old planks of lumber laid down to protect the under-layment as I pictured the bags working their way up the roof.

Two sets of ‘come-a-longs’ and canvas grocery bags to carry each set of tiles. The wind came up, but I was careful. I called my neighbor and left a message.

“If I don’t call you back in 20 minutes, come and see if I fell off the roof”. The wind got worse and the ‘come-a-longs’ were not ‘coming-a-long’. I decided to call it off for safety reasons. I called my friend and left a new message, “I’m off the roof and fine.” She called two hours later, “Oh, I see you called. What’s up?” Note to self: do not use great neighbor as a safety back up plan when on the roof.

All of my work was not in vain, as it got My Loving Spouse thinking. As he arrived home, he had a new plan. The plan included Blue, a large long metal pole and heavy chain.

It looked a bit like a battering ram, or a lance for a steed, but whatever it looked like, it worked brilliantly.

Before we knew it, we had all the heavy bundles on the roof.

We attached the drip edge, the flashing and the first couple of courses of shingle tiles.

Roofing is ‘not’ rocket science, however I wouldn’t want to do this for a living. We worked well together. My Loving Spouse putting the tiles out and me nailing them down.

Whack, whack, whack. I did get my chance to run our roofing nailer. Actually, I got quite good at it. Every once in a while I missed, but all I could say was…”Oh, well! or possibly a ‘Bad British Word”

We used twice as many nails on the windy side and worked like the formidable team, that we are. Some of the tiles are a tad crooked, but only the fly boys can see them…I imagine they’ll say something like,

“Wow, that roof looks like it was put on by a 60 year old woman!”

Indeed!!

I managed the bucket lift and moved My Loving Spouse up and down as he trimmed the edge of the roof.

We’ve checked off ‘roofing’ on our long list of ‘to-do’ items…

and we know that we are blessed!