This post has been a long time coming…over a year, in fact. But honestly, I’m not sure I could have written about it sooner, as it took an emotional (and financial) toll that was really tough to swallow. When we bought our little shanty, it needed a new topper, as our insurance company said they would not cover our existing roof. Hello peeling shingles…and gutter…and paint…cough…yeah, we’re working on the exterior of the house, just in case you had doubts.
We could tell that some previous water damage had already occurred in the back bedroom, so we made plans to re-roof within six months. In July of 2010, we snagged a week that promised good weather, called up a host of friends and family, and piled on the roof to pull off the myriad of shingles that were rotting away.
To our dismay, there were not just two—but three—layers of shingles smothering our home, with the bottom layer being cedar shakes. This was unfortunate for several reasons: 1. Cedar shakes must be removed one by one, which is quite time consuming. 2. No plywood sheeting existed under the shakes—only slats of wood. Again, time consuming, considering we had to make an impromptu run to Lowe’s, shell out additional dough, strap huge sheets of plywood to the top of Matt’s Xterra, and haul it up to the roof. Hence, the title of this post…
*Tidbit: While Matt was flying home with the plywood strapped to the top of his vehicle, it came untied in the middle of a major intersection! Yes, the hubs (plus several kind bystanders) halted traffic and scrambled to gather the scattered pieces of wood. Thankfully, no one was hurt, no cars were damaged, and no wood was splintered. Maybe a guardian angel was also standing by? And I wasn’t there to freak out about it, which is also a blessing.*
Anyway, we were able to nail most of the sheeting down, but to make a long story short, the roof was not fully waterproofed before a massive storm rolled in—an unpredicted storm, at that. We were eating a quick dinner when I heard the sounds of rain pattering. Before I could tell myself that it would likely pass over quickly, I saw water streaming down our walls—rivers of water that began pooling on our newly refinished wood floors. Within seconds, the bowl-shaped light fixture in our hallway spilled over with water. It didn’t take long to realize that every crook and cranny of our house was going to be soaked. Yes, my friends, the rain came down and the floods came up. Colorado Springs experienced possibly the most torrential downpour—from 7 pm until midnight—I’ve seen since moving here over five years ago. And not only that, but it continued to rain on and off for several days—even in the mornings, which is completely abnormal. We live in the desert, people! Needless to say, it was a living nightmare.
You may be wondering what my reaction was during this crisis. Perhaps I was simply in denial about the fact that six months of insanely hard DIY work was literally going down the drain, because I buried myself in a juicy book and then announced that I was going to bed (don’t judge—we had already used every towel and bucket/bowl in the house to catch rainwater—what was there left to do?).
*Tidbit: It was at about this time that I called my boss at the golf course and informed him that I would not be coming in tomorrow because, and I quote, “I’ll be picking up the pieces of my life…[sob/hiccup].” I heard about that one—usually with a mixture of laughter and sympathy—for the rest of the year. Apparently some people thought I was being dramatic…which is, uh, probably true.*
I fell asleep within moments and didn’t wake up until the next morning (somehow the front of our house didn’t get wet—so our bedroom was thankfully a safe zone—other than my closet, which was drenched). Crazy, right? I’ve often wondered if I”m narcoleptic. While I snoozed, my mother-in-law and her husband brought fans over to help dry out the attic, while Matt stayed up until 2 a.m. doing who knows what. Alright, alright—clearly I don’t win Wife of the Year points for hiding out during our crisis.
Fast forward to a few days later. We finally finished our roof (a local doctor, who is the uncle of one of our friends, actually came over to help us finish, and we had never even met him!) and were waiting to see if the fans in the attic would dry things out. Errr!! That’s a negative. We finally ended up calling our insurance company and somehow they agreed to cover the damages, which is completely nuts, because they would not even cover the original roof. We were totally honest about what happened, but chose not to question their merciful act and instead praised the Lord that we were not going to have to redo all our our previous work, like putting up new sheetrock, blowing in new insulation, re-mudding ceilings, etc. The damages actually came out to over $20,000. Unbelievable. Because our kitchen cabinets were removed to repair the kitchen ceiling/walls, we actually got new cabinets and countertops—with self-closing drawers, I might add! If there’s anything good that came from the water damage, that’s at the top of my list.
Before any work could be done though, they had to dry out our house. For two weeks they ran huge dryers in our house to ensure that no mold would grow (by the way, none did—whew!). Check out the effects…
It was like walking into a haunted house. A living nightmare.
Thankfully, some good friends let us crash with them for six weeks while all of the damage was repaired. Now that’s friendship. We received a great deal of encouragement from our friends and family during this tumultuous time in our life, and we truly do not know how we would have survived it without them. While we still put in quite a few hours (and some of our own money) repairing damage, we know that it would have been unbearable if the insurance company had not come through in the clutch. (If you’re wondering, we have Allstate insurance.)
Home improvement projects run the gamut of being a joy and a total pain. Looking back, it’s easy to say that we should have just hired a roofing company, but no one can predict these things. In many ways, I appreciate our house more now, and although it took me several months not to check every room when it rained, I feel like our house may be even better now than it was before (ahem…this provided me the opportunity to repaint without guilt!). After experiencing the horror of not having a functional roof, we sponsored a roof for a family in Africa around Christmas. It was one of the most meaningful gifts we’ve ever given, as now we understand that having a roof over our heads—something most of us take for granted—is a blessing that can not be underestimated.
What about you guys? Have any of your DIY projects turned into catastrophes? Feel free to leave a comment with the details. Think of it as writing therapy!
