And It Didn't Even Leak...Yet

When it came time to replace our initial wood shingle roof, Jack put on what was supposed to be an excellent replacement--Hardie Shakes.  I loved the color of the roof (not as much as wood shingles), but the material was faulty.  It faded, became brittle, and was the focus of class-action lawsuits.  We didn't participate in any of those suits, so we had to wait for ours to suffer enough damage from our frequent hail storms to deserve replacement.  I felt like that time came when we had that last storm,  with golf ball size hailstones at my house.  Sure enough--the insurance adjustor said it was time.

Here is a picture of the garage roof.  If you look closely you may see chipped shingles and dented gutters.

If you've never heard about Hardie Shakes, I can assure you all the roofers have!  I was inundated with roofers, licking their chops.  Jack had a roofer, however, and I wouldn't consider calling anyone else.  He does not do homes, so he recommended someone with whom he works to take care of my roof.

As I am prone to do, I thought I pretty much knew what to expect when getting a new roof.  I carefully decided where I wanted the material placed so that I would be able to get in and out of my driveway.  I'm all excited as the material supplier unloads the first of the shingles, etc.  Whoopee!  A new roof is on the way!

Well, in addition to the massive amount of shakes, there were these stacks of "radiant barrier panels."  Those sound and look great to me, but took up a lot of space.  Still had plenty of navigation room, though--even for Jack's Navigator which I was driving because my Prius was in the shop.  Here it is parked over in my neighbor's driveway, where I must place it before 7:00 A.M. each morning!

The first day (last Monday) was not too bad.  I even threw myself a birthday bash that night with all the family coming over for my chicken enchilada casserole!  We enjoyed dinner with roofers tearing off the old roof above us!

Tuesday wasn't bad, either.  Wednesday things became a little worse.  There was quite a bit more noise as more installation started taking place.  I failed to take a picture of what the back yard (where the neat stacks were) looked like when I got home from choir.  There was every manner of "stuff" piled in front of the neat stacks, including a giant pallet of trash, leaving me barely enough room to pull into the garage.  In fact, I had to move one of the heavy panels to avoid running over it!

Being from the Jack Stovall school of construction protocol, I had to place a call to the roofer and state that these guys just weren't cleaning up acceptably.  In addition to the mess on the driveway, they had left plywood and other junk on my grass, which looked absolutely perfect last week and like this now!

But...they did clean up better today--somewhat.  Do you think it is funny that they spent an extraordinary amount of time shoring up and trying to cram all the trash on this small trailer?  The dump must either charge by the load or be a great distance away!  This lovely item is sitting in front of my house tonight!

Now when Jay heard that I was finally getting a new roof, he called me to tell me two things.  First, that I needed to get away from the house because it would be so noisy.  Second, that there WOULD BE nails in the driveway, so I needed to check for them nightly before pulling in.  I don't think I really believed him, but...

Today hit a new level of noise.  The hammering isn't so bad, but they take those heavy radiant barrier panels up on the roof and drop them.  They sound like a bomb.  I jump out of my skin, and poor Charleigh-Girl has cowered in my closet all day.  I finally moved her "palace" (crate) in there for a little more comfort.

And...before I pulled the car in, I did check the driveway, even though the roofer had assured me it would be carefully run over with a magnet to be sure there were no nails.  HA!  Here is what I found.

This is all going to be wonderful when it is completed!  I also get the new roofing material on this swing and gazebo that Jack had built.

 It's just going to be a little lengthier and more trying than gullible me thought it would be!  Stand by for some "after" pictures.  I hope you don't have to stand by too long!