Roofing the roof over our heads

So we have this leak.  Several, actually.  We are blessed with a drip irrigation system in our living room for all our beloved plants.  And in the sunporch, during really big storms, our bunnies have a built-in shower.  And sometimes we even hear this erie sound in the kitchen of 'drip.  drop' over the fridge - but we don't see anything until it collects so much up there that it literally pours out onto the floor.

After a couple years of trying to find the culprit and some generous support, John and I have finally decided to throw in the towel and hire a roofer.  But to get to that place, John and his father tried many, many, many ways to fix this leak.

First, it was the hose and rain trials - you know - if it rains, look in the eaves and wait to see if the water comes in.  If it doesn't rain, get the hose and do the same thing.  I tried to collect all that wasted water, but it was no use.  Then there was the 'cut a hole in the kitchen ceiling and find where the blasted water comes in' experiment - John's father's idea.  Many days we arrived home to find his father's legs hanging from the ceiling as he tinkered around in there, looking for our problem.  Then there was the bandaid solution.  John and I got so tired of the problem, that we went up on the roof and painted the weak spots with roof tar.  Not able to reach the spots way up, the tar was...yes...*ahem* poured down the roof.  (sigh)

  

Now I have always loved the houses of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, don't get me wrong.  Gingerbread at Christmas is lovely.  But I think something's wrong to have it dripping down the back of our Watertown home.  

I can tell you how much fun it is to show prospective roofers this art as we round the back of the house.  They look up and shake their heads.  I tell John, "I'd like to see them write a sonata on their day off".

We have talked to at least 3 roofers so far.  One got the address wrong and looked at our neighbor's lovely slate roof, and called to ask why we wanted a change.  Another crawled through the eaves and gave us what is probably the most thorough estimate ever.  A third had seen our roof in the past and just updated his estimate to today's rates.  It's like a needle in the haystack - or like trying to find that elusive leak.  Will the roofer we hire take us to the cleaners?  Or will they just do the job and charge a decent price?

All this focus on the roof has made me care for this house all the more.  Many of you have heard me complain for years about how it doesn't suit us.  But get someone out here poking at all her weak spots, and I get kind of mother-y toward her.  This might be therapeutic after all!

Keyspan to the rescue

Aren't they beautiful??  We are the proud parents of two new Munchkin hot water boilers!

We have just come through our second major investment since purchasing this house.  The first was redoing our 2nd floor living room around 5 years ago.  This week, we had both hot water boilers replaced by Keyspan.  It was a 3-day event, with mud being tracked in and out of the house, and all manner of banging, clanging and freezing temperatures that you can imagine.  But in the end, we were able to move away from this:

You can see where the firewall was being burned through in the forefront.  This grey unit was installed in the 60's apparently, so I figure it served everyone pretty well.

It took alot of courage to put out the amount of money it took to get these boilers replaced. Knowing that our tenants were using space heaters for heat really sat poorly with us, not to mention the hundreds we spend monthly on our own heat.  So out with the old and in with the new.  It has made an immediate difference.  Or perhaps I just think it has - I compare to how long it took to get the house warm in the recent past.  Just yesterday, I actually had to turn the heat off and open a window, it was so warm.  We feel blessed that we were able to do such a good thing for our home.  Let's hope the inspiration to take care of other issues will remain for a while.

Here We Go...!

Time for a new blog - this one about our own home and how we are going about repairing and rehabbing it.  We have lived in this home for 9 years, having moved to Watertown, MA from a short stint in Acton, MA, and previous to that a sweet little house in Ossining, NY.  Working in the immediate vicinity made it impossible to pass up purchasing this 2-family home in a family-oriented neighborhood.  The street is wide and almost tree-lined: but Mayberry it is not.  Our neighbors are kind, generous and wonderful, and the crime is almost non-existent.  Our children can play all around and never have any problems.  There is a park across the street, and a school nearby to spread out and have fun.  

The house itself has been a monkey on my back for years.  I have always envisioned myself living in a dainty victorian or vast farmhouse in some quaint New England town.  As you can see from the picture, trooh (the roof over our heads) is neither of those.  However, for the most part, it keeps us warm (drafty windows challenge that) and dry (rain comes right down on us in 3 spots) and safe (no disputes there).  And being that we work in the neighborhood, it is a valuable investment for us.  And besides, our children adore it, even in its run-down state.  Kids are so great.

For years, we have tried to get our energy going to repair some of our house.  Lack of funds and experience has kept us slogging through the simpler plumbing, electrical and carpentry tasks without being able to hire out for the more involved jobs.  The roof has leaked for years, but re-roofing comes at a steep price for these tall victorians, and we have had to wait.  John and his father worked on and off for over 2 years to locate and fix the leaks to no avail.  The driveway needs to be replaced, yet my neighbor who shares it with us is determined to have it redone when he demolishes his home to build fancy townhouses (terminally pending approval by Town Hall).  The rock wall in front is beginning to lean forward.  Before long, we will have our own little avalanche of front yard into the street - hey! more landscaping space!  The front walkway is being carved into iceberg-shaped islands with each winter freeze, so that I now can look down into the earth holding the home intact.  The living room windows let in so much cold air - even covered in plastic - that we have to wear coats in there on the coldest winter days.  The boilers, just replaced this week, and the reason this blog was born, were so unsafe we had to shut one of them down and switch to space heaters.  There are several more projects, big and little, but I think I have captured most of what ails us here at 'trooh'.

I have published this blog to document our rehabbing attempts, trials and tribulations.  By publishing to our friendly community, it will hopefully keep us on track to keep slogging away at the small stuff, hire out for the big stuff, and possibly provide our friends with some comic relief at the same time.  And advice will always be welcome!