Day 11

Rain is in the forcast for the few days. This is bad news for us and the leaky roof. Not only just because the roof will leak, but because if it rains on the weekend, we won't be able to use that time to work on the roof. :( Rain, Rain stay away, come again some other day.

The kids had today off of school, so I had taken the day off. Jonathan decided to take the day off as well. It was supposed to be nice and sunny. And hopefully we would be able to attach the tarp in a way to keep some rain out. Tarp: take 3.

So off to Beatrice... The roof is the first thing we start working on. We actually started ripping up the old stuff that they had on the roof. One of the things we really wanted to know is just how bad the roof was. We got all of the tar and first layer of roof tossed off of the house and on to the metal part of the roof. It was kind of sad to think that this roof had been on this house for hundred years, and had someone actually taken a little bit more care of it, it would have still been fine. The top of the metal was rusted, but the underside in most areas was just fine. All they would have done was make sure that it had been painted. :( We got the east 1/8 or so of the roof cleaned off and down to bare wood. The really good news is that the wood underneath is actually very good yet. There are only a couple of boards that will need to be replaced. And we started on the bad side of the roof, where most of the leaking is happening. :D

One to tarping: It was actually quite windy yesterday, and for me this is one of the worst parts about being on the roof. Now add the holding onto of a 20x40 foot tarp and I am in a very uncomfortable position. Mostly my job consisted of holding the tarp while Jonathan wrapped the end around a board and nailed it down along the edges of our now expossed wooden roof. This process took more time then I like to think about. I even got a little bit of a sunburn. It was happy when we were finished, both because I was able to get off of the roof and because I think this will do a good job of keeping the rain out of that area this weekend. Still praying that if it rains, it only rains a little, and of course not too much wind please. We are watching the weather and hoping for a few days in a row that we can use to reroof.

After we left the house we headed over t Menards to look at the EPDM roofing materials that they might have. And again we have good news, they actually have it in the store. So we won't have to wait for it to be shipped. Now all we have to do is watch the weather and read up about how to install the EPDM.