Getting ‘Round

Several months ago, I was up in Spokane visiting my sister and her family. About this same time, they were getting their house ready to put on the market and sell. While I was up there, they found out that they were going to have to replace the roof in order to meet all the requirements for selling their home.
Having been one of the Roofing Trade for quite some time in my younger years, I volunteered the services of myself and our father to help them tear off the old roof and replace it with a new and less leaky roof.

Fast forward to two weeks ago when my Dad, Mom and I drove up to Spokane to fulfill that offer of service from yester-month. We drove up in my truck, laden with the tools of the trade and a few duffle bags.
Now I will be the first to admit that when I first conceptualized the idea of replacing their roof, I really didn’t think that it would be much of a challenge. It is a fairly simple roof, with only two valleys and pretty much straight runs covering the rest of it. We arrived on Monday night. Our plan was to tear off the roof in one day, and then lay down the tar paper and the first few rows of shingles the second day, and finally finishing off the entire project on the third day. We would be able to head home on Friday.
That’s not how it panned out…at all.
However, we were able to complete it all. It took two days to tear off the roof, and an additional three more to put the new roof on. During the installation process, as per City Code, we had to have an inspection done after the first layer of Ice Shield had been set down. When the inspector arrived, in less than a minute, he commented that this was probably going to be the only roof he passed that day. He went on to point out that all the other roofs were being done by professional contractors. So that made us feel good.

Finally, Saturday morning came. We didn’t have much left…but by this point my Dad and I were both just physically exhausted. What I thought we would finish by Noon, still took us until almost 9 PM that night.

But we did it…the roof was completely replaced with great help given by family, local ward members and especially the missionaries. My sister Gretchen especially deserves a personal shout-out as she was a huge help to us, and still maintained her household. My Mom was a great blessing in helping to watch the kids and in cleaning up. We were all truly blessed with safety and strength to get through it all. And the best part of it was that the final inspection went through with no problems at all. I was very happy to hear that.
The biggest lesson that I learned though, was that my 63 year old Dad can still out work me. The man is a machine.