home again home again, jiggety jig

Before I get all complain-y, let me state that I realize that many people put in days longer than mine was today ALL THE TIME. Parents, for example, are on call 24-7 and may never get to spend an early evening in bed typing away on the computer. This is one of the reasons becoming a parent is a hard thing to wrap the mind around.


Today I put in a solid 10 hour day at school (no preps, and a short lunch) followed up by a 3 hour university class, which totals 13 hours spent being either forced to listen or forced to get people to listen to me (not sure which one is harder, come to think of it). I am wiped!

But I am also excited about this new blog and our latest renovation win! A roof!

All summer we talked about the need for a new roof for the Lipton house (that's the one we live in - we also have a rental property (formerly my house) which requires maintenance, but that is a whole other thing). As these things go, summer was busy and when Fall rolled around Jake started getting anxious about getting it done before the snow flew and the inevitable spring melt wreaked havoc with our newly drywalled sunroom.

So we did what anyone does: we got quotes. TONS AND TONS OF QUOTES. Every single one of them said something different about how to handle venting/plumbing stack/low-slope roof/overhang of shingles (take your pick) . The prices (we got approximately 12 quotes - often more than one happening at a time) varied widely: from nearly $7000.00 to $3500.00. How in the world do you choose your roofer when the information and prices contradict each other?

Finally we settled on the most tried and tested method: recommendation from a trusted friend. In this case, someone who does a lot of her own renovation work and knows her stuff. Our roofer was a one man operation, knew his stuff and his quote was right in the middle of the pack cost wise.

Today the job was finished, and although there were a few hiccups (cut wires in the sunroom meant removing 100yr old wood siding, digging through new spray-foam insulation and then finding and patching the cut wire. TWICE. That's right. Same problem on both sides of the sunroom! It was not a good day for Jake), the new roof looks awesome. It is dark right now, otherwise I would take a picture. I'll update that later.

Let me tell you what's awesome - having someone do the work and clean up and all you have to do is WATCH. Except for that electrical business. That was unfortunate.