Frickin' Roof

It's been a couple years of gazing out my daughter's window at the lush green vegetation below, and I knew I had to do something. You see, it was my roof that was providing a home to many pockets of moss and other things living. Two years ago, my father-in-law and I spent some quality time up on the worst part of the roof doing some weeding and sweeping. The time had come. Since I bought this house from my parents, I knew that the roof was 30 years old, and had several layers underneath it. However, I would soon find out there was more I didn't know...

The process began with getting several quotes from recommended roofers in the area and also a quote from Home Depot. Their reactions said it all - the rep from Home Depot actually looked like a doctor telling me I had 6 months to live, and the guy who came recommended, his eyes gleamed with a fever telling me all about how he would personally enjoy roofing my house because it had "character". The damage - $23,000 from Home Depot and $18,500 from the local guy. I had secretly budgeted myself for $8000-10,000K for this job, and since I had over $1500 in Home Depot gift cards burning a hole in my pocket, wanted to give the job to them. But $23,000! I found other uses for the cards, like ebaying for cash!

Needless to say I went in another direction. A third guy came out, recommended by my uncle (a lawyer), and quoted $10,000. After various questions and "give me a day to think about it", I had to accept. What was making everything so damn expensive was that besides being a total tear-off (including 6-7 layers in the ecosystem section), I needed an entire layer of plywood to be put down since there wasn't any up there! The house had the original cedar shakes, covered with layers of shingle. Thanks mom and dad!

Ten grand later (in cash), I am the proud owner of a new roof and a warmer house. And since I purchased this house over 5 years ago, the only thing we haven't replaced is the upstairs toilet seat. And come to think of it, maybe we should.