On Getting a New Roof

Not a day goes by that we are not grateful for this house.

That said, homeownership already feels like either a tragic or comic (depending on the day) series of ripping away band-aids to reveal ugly scabs underneath.

Like our roof. As previously mentioned, we need to have a new roof put on before winter (i.e. within the next month). Yesterday, the roofers came to set up, so our house now looks like this:

And the yard now looks like this:

This morning, they started ripping off the old shingles. Within minutes, there was a knock on the door, and our first bit of bad news. Turns out when the previous owners built this house, they went the cheap route and decided against anchoring the shingles in plywood. Instead, they laid boards across the insulation and nailed the shingles to those boards. The good news is that this explains the evidence of past leaks. The bad news: this means that we have to go through the more time-intensive and expensive process of first covering the roof in new plywood before the new shingles can be put on.

It’s naptime now, and I just went outside to look at the product of 2-days’ work: a very tiny area of bare roof, covered by a protective material because it’s probably going to rain tomorrow (thus delaying the process even further). And what you don’t see is that plywood is being ordered right now, which will almost double our expected expenses. Heavy heart…..

Until I noticed what was written on the underlayment.

See that? It says “Grace.” Turns out that’s a brand of roofing underlayment, and I don’t know how they arrived at calling it “Grace,” but how perfect. Because that’s what we’re going to need to get through these next weeks of pounding and mess and probably more tough decisions. In fact, that’s what I’m going to need to get through life, right? So maybe I’ll skip the shingles all together and just go out every day and look up at the roof for my reminder: Grace.

Work and Play

Although it’s still summer here in Vermont, we are starting to prepare for winter. It’s been a while since we’ve lived with the drama of four distinct seasons; while I always felt that there were seasons in Northern California, they were subtle and caused few dramatic variations in either wardrobe or lifestyle. Not so in Vermont. The nights are getting cooler, the odd leaf in our yard has already turned red or yellow, and we hear that snow can begin as early as late October. Here are some of the things we’re doing to ready ourselves for the imminent onset of winter:

*Getting a new roof. Although we bought this house understanding that we’d need a new roof in the next 5 years, it quickly became clear that we needed one immediately if we wanted to be spared some serious water leaks once the snow starts. (One roofer who looked at our situation told us that, short of a new roof, our best bet for surviving the winter were plastic tarps).

*Getting a generator. We’ve lost power a couple of times this summer due to heavy thunderstorms. Because we’re far enough outside of town, we’re not on the town water system; our water is pumped up from our own well, and we have our own septic tank. This means that no power = no water. Okay for short periods of time during the summer, but not okay in the middle of winter with three small children.

*Finishing Phase 1 of our painting projects. In fact, this is an activity that we supervised as opposed to participated in; Nana and Boom were just here for a week painting our bedroom as an early birthday gift. This involved some serious carpet-ripping and tearing off wallpaper, but the results are amazing. To give you an idea, here is the original bedroom with dark blue wallpaper and blue wall-to-wall carpet:

And here is our bedroom today:

*Thinking about re-graveling our driveway….

*Stockpiling firewood. Thankfully we’ve got a rugged junior lumberjack to help with that.

*Buying these at Junebug, an amazing local children’s clothing resale store:

*Fattening ourselves up on freshly-baked brownies.

We’ve been busy. But it’s not all work and no play around here. There are afternoon snacks out on the deck….

The girls had a blast at the Addison County Fair and Field Days….

Success! All tired out at the end of the day.

And we enjoyed an idyllic boat trip around Lake Champlain with Nana and Boom:

Sisters check out the huge lake pre-cruise.

Campbell kept calling for "Champ," the mythical monster of Lake Champlain. He didn't show...this time.

We’ll be sad to see summer come to an end, but we’re looking forward to Fall — we hear it’s spectacular up here.

So if you’re thinking of visiting us, don’t delay! The snow is coming….

Before and After

I’ve mentioned in previous posts and on Facebook that we’ve spent some time re-painting two rooms in our new home, and I’ve had a couple (well, at least one) requests for pictures. You speak, I listen; here you go:

The first room that Erick and I ever painted (and by Erick and I, I really mean Erick, me, my parents, and my cousin Chris) was the girls’ bedroom. Here it is in its original form:

Not bad, but not exactly appropriate for three little girls. Here it is, de-wallpapered and painted “Potpourri Green”:

We still have some things to do to make the room more fun and cute, but the girls have been thrilled with it.

Filled with confidence in our new-found painting skills, Erick and I decided we could tackle the second room that desperately needed a makeover, the rec room. In its original form, this room was what I can only call a “Floral Man-Cave.” Don’t believe that’s possible? Check it out:

We wanted to turn this room into a fun space that could be easily adapted as the various definitions of “recreation” change for our family. So, right now it’s basically been taken over by toys:

But there’s also a nice quiet reading space, pictured above. We’re particularly proud of this room because Erick and I truly painted it ourselves, which involved a weekend of fairly major logistics as we juggled children and painting. Very rewarding in the end!

Finally, while we’re on the topic of “before and after,” I’d like to share the following item from our local “Addison County Eagle” weekly newspaper:If it’s hard for you to read the text, let me fill you in: the photo on the left is a block in Middlebury in 1900. The photo on the right is the same block today. Now, ignoring the horse and buggy in the foreground of the first picture, do you see the difference?

Me neither.

This is yet another charming facet of this small town. Apparently there hasn’t been much major development in over 100 years, yet somehow, whatever minor changes have occurred are worth taking the time to reflect upon.