December Reflection - 2016

December 15 - Best decision of 2016

Has to be the beginning of the repairs we are doing on the house.  After 20 years of living here the most we had done was patch a few spots on the roof that were causing leaks inside the house and painting the bedrooms and bathrooms once.  Our little house definitely needed some TLC.


Taking it from this:

to this:

And this:

to this:

has made a huge difference.  

We still have some things to do - yard work is next perhaps, but we'll have to pay for this stuff first.  I'm thinking maybe by next summer we'll have a backyard fit to have a barbecue party.  That's gonna be on my goal list.

How about you?  Best decision of 2016?  Done some home improvements?  Love to hear about it.

In The Marry Month of May

May 17  -- Update

From this:

Through the measuring...

 ...and then the old stuff comes off.  Quite a noisy, dirty process this roofing is.

Let the sunshine in!  Looks like we really needed some extra protection on the garage roof!

An interesting conveyer belt gets the new material to the roof.  

To this...Not finished yet but it looks so much better!  This is the same spot on the garage roof as in the first picture of this post.  

I really like the color of the new roof.  It is going to look really nice with the siding and trim.   I didn't realize how noisy this procedure was going to be.  When they were scraping off the old shingles it sounded like the house was falling apart.  Then the nailing!  I do have to say that the company we are working with, 21st Century, is being very good about cleaning up after each day.  There was almost more mess around when the old shingles were falling off when it rained or was windy than there is now that the workmen are here!  

So, now they are working on the eves and getting the rest of the house ready for the siding.  I grabbed some of the TyVek that they were using to seal the house.  It makes great, sturdy binding for my mini albums! 

Stay tuned for the next installment and watch for my Instagram photos and quick videos.  There's a great one of some pieces of the roof falling over the side of the house and the conveyor belt in action.  I know you're fascinated!

In the Marry Month of May

May 11

May is turning out to be quite an eventful month for us!  In one of my earlier posts I wrote about my vision cards for the year and how our house is one of the areas I/we will be focusing on.

We moved into this house almost 20 years ago, just before our youngest daughter was born.  In fact, I was about 4 months pregnant and couldn't do much in the actual moving part.  We used to tell people that they should look for the house that was the color of mint chip ice cream.   

To say we've done nothing to the house is not quite true.  A few years ago we had a leak in the roof over the kitchen and, after living through one rainy season with pots on the floor, we patched that section of the roof.

And last year we replaced part of the fence in the backyard that had just about fallen completely apart.

There are many reasons why we haven't done much to the house over the years.  In the beginning, nothing needed fixing.  Then, as little things started to pop up, my husband, who is a pretty handy man, was busy working, sometimes odd shifts like graveyard or swing shift which would throw his sleeping habits all out of whack and make the timing of doing things inappropriate.  (He couldn't start making repairs when he got home from work at midnight or 3 AM and he would need to be sleeping during the day).  Now, when things are really needing attention, his back will not allow him to handle the strenuous activities.

So, we've made the decision to have a company come in and replace the roof and gutters and put siding on the house rather than paint.  I've gone around and taken pictures of what things look like now so we can compare them to the finished product (and so I can have another subject to scrapbook about - let's be honest)!

Pretty shabby looking, but I don't usually look up at the roof.

This is in our driveway at the moment.

There are men on the roof as I type this.  Inspection tomorrow, Friday they start putting new shingles and gutters on and it should be done by Monday!  Cross your fingers all goes well!