For recent folks, a short recap:
Mid 2012, I bought a house. And then got a lawnmower, bbq, etc., to go with the house. As one does.
End 2012, the old car fell apart on the highway and I had to buy a new one, and my bike was stolen.
In 2013, my cell phone, laptop, printer all died. A birch tree in the backyard died and had to be taken down. And I lost my job. I found a new one by the end of the year, but still.
And in 2014, my 60-foot retaining wall rotted apart after our very snowy winter and needed to be replaced.
It’s like everything in my house is determined to break all at once. With the exception of the bike (I still haven’t replaced it), nothing could wait. The consequences of not replacing whatever it was was always more costly and difficult than going ahead with it. This is not to say that I could, by the time the retaining wall gave out, actually afford it. Single mom–one income–seriously depleted bank account thanks to house and car downpayment–ongoing mortgage and loan rendering it difficult to rebuild savings–all equals some debt for the retaining wall. Curses.
~~~~~
If you’ve known me for longer than fifteen minutes, you’ll likely have heard me compare the costs of climate change to a roof on your house. Yes, if the roof leaks, it is expensive and a total PITA to repair it. Maybe you can’t afford to fix it right now. You’re still better of fixing the roof, because if you don’t, you’ll end up losing your house to rot. Go into debt if you need to.
Well, guess who found shingles on her lawn this morning.
Yep. This person.
There was a massive windstorm Monday night this week, and it apparently did more damage than I was really, really, really hoping it would do. I was really, really, really hoping that the roof would last through one more winter, and I could replace it in the spring after paying down the retaining wall.
I so can’t afford to fix my roof right now. But I guess I’m going to have to.
If only I could sew a new roof … but no. What this does mean though is that my current super-strict sewing budget will need to be both stricter and in place for longer. Sigh.
I love it when I become the living embodiment of my own analogies.
Zoopolis 
Oh dear. Sorry to hear about it. Life ain’t easy at times.
We lost some shingles too. Our roof isn’t that old, but they did a poor job and we have to have them come back after every wind storm. And it’s no longer under warranty. Sadly. 😦
Yes, that would stink.
I’m sure this isn’t under warranty. It’s an old roof. I was hoping to get a few more years out of it, though.
Oh crap. I just had a ‘remove the broken garburator job’ turn into all new kitchen plumbing. I love spending money where I can’t see it just before Christmas. Here’s wishing you some honest and empathetic roof guys.
As AC already mentioned, we had some damage in the wind storm too. No shingles lost this time, but a few are loose and flapping around wildly. The roofers will come and add a bit more tar to the loose ones and replace any that need replacing to get us safely through the winter.
Maybe you could have a roofer come and just replace the missing shingles like they did for us the year before we had the whole thing re-shingled. I think it cost $200 for the repair job, and they deducted that amount from the new roof when it came time to do that a year later.
The wind the other night was crazy. I thought it was going to rip the siding right of the house and flatten the fence in the back yard. I got up around 3am and peered out the back window fully expecting to see parts of the house on the lawn. Was very relived when the lawn was clean, and we only suffered with a few loose shingles at the end of the night.
That would be nice. I’ll ask them about that option, if and when anyone comes by!
The wind did manage to blow my shed across the carport and knock a bunch of branches off the tree, but thank goodness, no real damage. Except for the shingles.
We had a disturbingly large leak coming from the chimney the last heavy rain storm…basically we shrugged and waited for the ceiling to come down so we could try and figure out the issue. We have to replace our furnace by next summer, but at least it’s not a NOW thing…roof needs to be replaced, I’m waiting for the bathtub to fall through the floor, and the back stairs are crazy making.
In short, WHY DO WE THINK BUYING A HOUSE IS SO AWESOME?!?! :p
(Go for a steel roof. That’s what I’m doing when we replace it. Screw this shingle shit.)
I think I’m sticking with shingles, if only so that if/when I go for a solar microfit it’ll be easier to evaluate. At the moment what I really want is a roof with shingles on it, period, and I am having the worst luck getting anyone out here to look at the bloody thing. (They’re all swamped with calls after Monday.) I have called five companies–two have returned my call, and neither of them have shown up yet. One of them has promised to charge me extra for the service call thanks to all the calls they’re getting this week.
If you have not yet located a roofer. An excellent contact located in Dundas would be Bob Dowdy (Cobra Contracting). As honest, polite as you will find with great attention to detail. He has been in business for approximately 30 years. I would not get anyone else to do my roof and I am not a close personal friend, although, I do know him from high school. I hope that helps.
Just came across this post. It’s 2023, and I truly am touched to read such a review of my character, and workmanship. I’m still in business, working alongside my son, Tyler. We help homeowners with the sa,e care as if it were our own home. Thanks for the review, Mike.
We had to put on two new roofs in 11 years. Our original roof was wooden shingles and looked very nice, but because we live in the Sierra foothills we wanted something more fire resistant when we needed a new one. We found a very attractive cementaceous slate tile that was light enough for our roof structure. It was rated for 50 years and made by a highly rated company. The CC&R committee yanked us around for awhile , but we finall got it approved and got our wonderful new roof for I think it was 14k 😳. Flash forward 11 years and husband needs to do something on roof- comes down furious: our highly rated tile has assumed the character of soda crackers. Everywhere he stepped the tiles crush. We investigate and the high rated company has stripped off its roofing business which immediately declares bankruptcy. A fund to cover possible law suits that was quietly established has been depleted and the statute of limitations has passed. When the product was tested in the PNW, it was rated for 50 years, but it was never tested in a hot summer area- the sun has eaten our tiles. We are screwed. So we again dig deep in our pockets to re roof- this time in time tested heavy composition shingles. It looks good ( except to a few neighbors who sneer at it – we are cheapening the neighborhood). This time we had to have some dry rot as a result of leaky tiles repaired now over 20k😟. Hard lesson, learned hard!