New Roof and Al Gore Visits

Riddle:

What is the best way to guarantee that you'll hear the words, "Your roof won't make it through the winter"?

Answer:

Think of how much money is THE MOST you are willing to sink into your house this year on a remodel. Then spend double that. Once it's done (or close to it), you'll get to hear those words. Like magic. If you're looking for a new roof, you should seriously try it.

We did.

Here's the before picture of our roof.


Looks aside, (because, really, I could spend pages just touting how beautifully stunning it is) I know what you're thinking.

"What the blazes were people thinking building a flat roof in a place where we get this much snow?!"

But it really wasn't all that bad. The builders of our home really planned ahead. They looked out for us. In the... um, we'll call it the "attic" for lack of a better word, they only put R11 batting. Kind of like the stuff you have in your walls, only thinner. Code states that the minimum attic insulation is R38. Most people have 50ish.

That's where their planning ahead came in.

See, with R38 or higher, that snow would have come down and piled up on my roof, possibly putting it in danger with that much weight resting on it. By putting in only R11, they guaranteed that enough of our home's heat would make it through the roof, thereby melting every snowflake as soon as it touched the roof.

I know. Downright genius.

We'll be forever grateful. Plus, we got something else cool out of the deal. As soon as we had the old roof torn off, the new roof built, and insulation filling the attic, something happened. Apparently, the amount of power and gas needed for our city dropped drastically. So much so that Al Gore personally noticed the change. He had his aides track down the difference, and energy drops led them straight to our house.

That's right. Straight to our house.

As in AL GORE came straight to our house. Here's a picture of him thanking me from the bottom of his heart.


And here's the certificate he presented us with.


How often do you get a former Vice President of the United States of America coming to your house to give you a certificate? Almost makes putting up with the flat roof for sixteen years worth it. That baby's getting framed and mounted over my fireplace.

If you're the type of person who likes befores and afters, these are for you.

A different view of the "before."


Mason Jasper hard at work, making our chimney taller.


Bringing in the wood for the new roof.


Framer Ben hard at work with friend framers.


From the backside of my house. Doesn't it look like we took off my house's hat, exposing his little bald head?


The beginnings of our new roof.


A view from the backside. See that gravelly stuff? That was the top of my old roof. See that grayish stuff at the bottom of those boards? That's the sheetrock in my kitchen (you can even see the electrical wires leading to the light above my sink). That space inbetween the two? THAT was my attic.


End of day one.


Framer Ben putting up sheeting.


Framing done!


Delivering the shingles.


Roofer Ron hard at work, trying to beat those storm clouds to the punch. (Many thanks, Ron, for winning that race!)


Our old roof. Or as we like to call it, HPOC. As in, "Huge Pile Of Crap."


Backside view of HPOC.


This, times four, in a seven-and-a-half hour period....


Turned HPOC back into this:


The siding isn't happening as quickly as I had hoped, and I don't want to wait around for a true after picture. Here's the next best thing:


And then, as it neared completion, I ate a fortune cookie. This is what it said:


'Nuff said.