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Oh not much

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By Natalie
 I went back to work on the 17th so have blissfully quiet surroundings.
We started with three carpenters fixing the rot. Basically, they started on the porch and have worked their way around our house fixing any rotten wood they find. Along the way, they've found -literally - 400 lbs of squirrel nests. Squirrels ate through the crown molding and made nests in the eaves. At one point, these were fixed with metal soffits. We've replaced those with wood and are encouraging the squirrels to stay very far away from our roof and attic.
We then added to the fun a set of roofers who are working on the total restoration of our slate roof. It was not leaking, it had been patched and tweaked over the years, but it had maybe 10 yrs left on it - and those 10 yrs would be full of $1,800 repairs when slates blew off (yes), the metal flashings finally gave way (yes), and the rot from water running in at weird angles. We decided to go ahead and do it now while we still have access to the state tax credit program. Total bill for the roof should be around $95,000 of which we will get back ~$28,000 in state tax credits.
When the roof if finished the tern metal will be replaced with zinc, the lower porch roof will be zinc, and the slates will be reinstalled on all the other portions of the roof.
 
 

Oh yes, we also had some masons out to repoint the chimneys. Bricks had started falling onto the slate, birds were swooping and nesting, and there was a tree starting to grow. Imagine our surprise when they showed up Saturday to pick the mortar loose. Those were fun sounds to wake up to. 
 
Last week on most days we had 10+ people at the house working, sawing, picking their nose, etc.
 
 
And gratuitous pictures of a fat, happy, smiling baby. Margot is a darling and a half. This is from my maternity leave when the three of us (Madeline was in school) drove to Greensboro to check out their arch salvage shop. Fincastle's burgers afterwards FTW.
 
 
As it's now raining and a holiday we have some beautiful tarps over the roof. This should hopefully keep the water out until the slates are reinstalled. Hopefully. Waking up at 5am to place vessels under leaks in an attic is no fun - just ask Harris.
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Comments

  1. Mike SpringDecember 3, 2014 at 1:07 AM

    Margot is precious!!

    You seem to have 2 very similar pictures of the house, roof and ladders but one is little bit farther away (across the street maybe?)

    Again Margot is precious! Your Mom commented the other day she looks a lot like you did at that age.

    ReplyDelete
  2. NatalieDecember 3, 2014 at 9:04 AM

    It's the cheek jowls :)

    ReplyDelete

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