It is Always Something

We have known that we needed a new roof, or at least some maintenance to the existing one. Who even knows how old the metal roof is?!!? Our house celebrates it's 99th birthday this year, so one can't really be sure. The poor old roof was looking a bit rusty, tired and in need of a freshening.

We called several contractors to come have a look and see what could be done with the smallest financial impact. After many a visit with "gentleman" after "gentleman", telling me that we needed a whole new roof to the tune of $10,000 and up-I decided to put my foot down. I typically don't like to engage in arguments with professionals, I do my research before contacting them and then usually trust them to know their stuff, as I expect clients to trust me to know my stuff, when it comes to their weddings.

I finally found a contractor that would just paint the existing roof. Wire brush any surface rust, patch any thin spots and paint it a nice glossy black.

After all the previous men had been up on the roof declaring it a total loss, this one fine man told me that once they got up there and started painting, they could see that the roof was actually in great shape, only the paint had worn off. Great. I will choose to trust that. The bill came in at about $500-clearly more feasible right now. The contractor told me that if we keep painting the roof every few years, we could get another 50 years out of it. Well, I don't know if that is true, but I appreciate the optimism as we head into the expensive heating and holiday season.

The chimney had a bit of a makeover as well, a new brick cap installed, by our kind neighbor, a stone mason who is also installing this little beauty in our backyard. It is in progress, but I can't wait to put little votive candle holders on the shelves during our Winter Cookout by the outdoor fireplace. Yikes, I need to start planning that soon!

The roof never leaked and I will choose to believe that until it does, it's new glossy finish was just the fix. I think the roof is happy with it's new makeover-it seems to smile at me every time I pull in the driveway.