Our Level Best

Soon after the roof fiasco, Deder and Jesse (the contractor) spend a Saturday crawling under the house trying to get the floor level. The house sloped inward, towards the center, by a little over an inch. The pilings had apparently sunk as the soil under the house was inundated with water every year. Of course, the pilings under the center of the house sunk the most since they carried the most weight unsupported by the foundation. Thank goodness they don't make them like this anymore.

So, after several hours of crawling, an extra multi-ton jack or two, a few bizarre discoveries (full size dog skull), and many, many shims, the house was finally sort of-kinda-level (its only a quarter inch!). Satisfied by a long days work, we retired upstairs to find that none of the doors or cabinets close!! Well, progress is progress I guess.

The Roof.

The roofing company finally got started in October. The whole crew showed up for demo and by the time we got home from work that Monday, we had almost no roof.

The carpenters got to work and we quickly realized that they were just a touch out of their league.
We were surprised, to say the least, when--two days into the project--the roofers started asking for payment. This was the beginning of several surprises and a few disappointments the roofing company ended up springing on us. These included but were not limited to : a wage twice what we agreed on, at least one horrific, storming night of water damage, several days of negotiations, and a roof that cost 4 times more and took 4 times longer than we had been quoted.
It ended up taking more than three weeks to get our new roof.

Deder took a few days off through the whole ordeal to keep an eye on the work being done and ended up making all 17 knee braces (braces that hold the 2' eaves up) and spent a few days putting some of them up after the roof was done. They are almost all up except those that will require a cherry picker or scaffoding (Deder has learned this lesson having sacrificed his circular saw to Newton's god).

Now that its over, we really love our new roof. The huge gingerbread-chalet facia is gone, the eaves are actually attached to the house now (they weren't before!?), we have new sheathing, new felt, new shingles, and new drip metal and flashing. The new roof looks great and works great and it feels like, even though it was a trial, we've really made the first BIG step to making this house shine again.