[legion]

Yes, it's Tuesday evening and my weekend is just now drawing to a close...

I decided to re-roof my house.

I bought all of the materials.

Saturday was to be the tear-off, but bad weather prevented that.

Sunday was the day. I called in every favor owed. I got everyone I could to show up and help with the tear-off. There was a 0% chance of rain Sunday and for the next four days. We started at 7:00 a.m. By 3:00 p.m. we had the roof cleared. Two layers of shingles, roughly 10,000 pounds of material removed from my 2,600 sq. ft. roof. (I find it somewhat funny that I have a 2,600 sq. ft. roof on a 1,600 sq. ft. house. And no, it's not steep, I have a 1,200 sq. ft. garage.) By 8:00 p.m. we had most of the ice dam down and most of the complicated flashing installed.

The roof has six planes and two valleys. There are some complicated areas where the garage was extended on the back of the house. Just as I was about to call it quits for the night--we'd already gone an hour later than I intended--I heard thunder off from the north.

We scrambled, but it still took us two more hours to nail down the tarps. We had most of the roof covered except for an area over the garage. Looking over the tarps yesterday morning, you could tell the areas that were nicely stretched and laid out and the areas where we were scrambling. The thunder and lightning got ominously closer the whole time.

We had skipped dinner and had imbibed large quantities of caffeine to keep moving. My hands were blistered, my back sore. My brand new work gloves had holes worn in them in the same spots as my blisters. I was better off than most of my friends. We all kept going. I learned that night who my real friends, are, and I am forever indebted to them. Everyone went above and beyond what can reasonably be expected of another human.

I nearly had a nervous breakdown. I've never been so on edge in my life. I was about to lose everything I'd worked my whole life for. I started shouldering 80 lb. bundles of shingles to get them on the roof. The wind was quickly exposing any gaps or loose spots in our tarp-work.

At 10:00, almost exactly, the sky let loose. "EVERYONE OFF THE ROOF! NOW!", I screamed, and everyone obliged. The tarps were getting slick as the rain came down in surreal inch-sized drops.

It rained hard for 30 minutes. The rain ran between the gutters and the house as we hadn't gotten any drip-edges installed. Then as suddenly as it began, it stopped. Then the wind came.

I ran around the house for hours checking for leaks. For wet spots. Everything seemed dry.

I went to bed. I barely slept. I caught a few minutes of sleep here an there, but I was on edge all night.

Monday was decision day. Should I file a claim? Was there damage I didn't know about? Everything seemed fine. I went straight to my agent's office. I was was given a list of contractors that could file a claim on my behalf. This way, I could have them check for damage and not file a claim if not necessary.

My wife called all of the contractors we were referred to, plus all in the phone book. Three agreed to come. None found permanent damage. I asked each to provide an estimate on finishing the job. I could get 2-3 of my friends to show up in the evenings the rest of the week, and it seemed to me that it would take three weeks to finish the roof at that pace. We are supposed to get rain all weekend...

With three estimates in hand, two were within $50 of each other, and the third was double the other two. The guy with the bid in the middle could start the next day (today), the other two might be able to start Wednesday. I went with the middle bid.

Having spent a small fortune on materials, I'm finding myself essentially exhausting all of my liquid savings to pay for the completion of this job. I'm going to be broke until my next paycheck. Still, it is worth my sanity. I also couldn't bear to ask my friends to put in the kind of day they did on Sunday again.

The crew showed up this morning at 9:30. By noon, they had papered the whole roof, installed the remaining ice dam, and shingled the largest of the six planes. By 5:00, they had three of the six planes shingled. They are (I am as well) confident that they will finish tomorrow.

I finally had the courage to check the weather tonight. 0% chance of rain tomorrow. 20% Thursday, 40% Wednesday.

I think I will finally be able to sleep tonight.