Things that have been happening, 1

One neighbor’s house.

 

Reasons I haven’t been blogging. We had a serious hailstorm last month: golf-ball sized hail rained down for about ten minutes. I didn’t take a picture of it as I had just been wildly ill after a restaurant meal — fluids coming out both ends — and after wiping off and flopping onto my bed, I could not muster the energy or equilibrium to make it to a window. But the result of the hail is that the entire neighborhood (in the greater sense — about a quarter of the township was hit) is being completely re-roofed and otherwise repaired from hail damage.

It will take the whole summer and into the fall to get all the houses fixed. It’s also a challenge at the moment to get any body work done on a car, as the restoration people are busy replacing dented vehicle panels and glass. In the middle of all of this, I bought my elder niece’s car from her (there’ll be a separate post about the reason for that soon) and it took three weeks for me to get the broken windshield replaced due to a shortage of parts.

 

Another neighbor’s house. You can’t see it in this picture, but the entire side of the house toward the left of the photo will have to be re-sided as the hail put dents and holes in the vinyl siding. My neighbor was quite relieved, as he had just changed his insurance coverage in some way that will pay for the matching of the siding color.

 

If they start ripping the old roof off in the early morning, and they don’t find any problems in the layers below, they’re usually done putting the new one on in about 10-12 hours. They are really adding to the energy of the neighborhood, as now we hear norteño music outside during the day. This is one of the pleasant synergies between Mexicans moving here and the existing local population, as it sounds a lot like polka, which is very popular among the elder generations around here. The sounds of the staple guns keep us lively, too. “The shingoleros will be here tomorrow!” my neighbor said to me the other day. I’m not sure if that term is politically correct. Techador (roofer) was the word I knew. I was hoping we’d get a temporary taco truck, too, but the techadores pack their own lunches. They sit down together at noon on the lawns and eat them.

 

Techadores in action. Both my grandfathers, and my father and uncle as teens, did this work off and on. I’m always nervous because every relative I have who’s done this for money has fallen off at least once.

This house is getting a new roof (92 percent damage to the shingles), which is helpful as this one was fifteen years old. The insurance adjuster didn’t go up on the roof — just sent a drone over the house. (Dad would have had. a. cow.) The whole south/east side of the house will be re-sided. All of the gutters will be replaced, and the deck railing is being replaced and the whole thing resurfaced. I am going to add a bit of money to the insurance payout and have the deck covered with Trex, which even HL agrees is a better choice than wood.

All’s well that ends well — the damage is not structural, and the insurance will cover the repairs. HL and a family friend are going to do the whole thing, which means that I will have to wait. We’ve picked out the materials, and there are supply chain issues with some of them. But our friend is known for doing excellent work — he’s a contractor who you have to know, he doesn’t advertise — and it’s nice to have HL making sure that the work is done correctly. The neighborhood has been accosted by storm chasers / roof scammers.

So anyway, that has taken up some time, but perhaps more significantly, emotional energy. This aspect of home ownership fills me with low-level dread. But the roof they are about to put on could possibly outlast me. LOL.

To be continued …

~ by Servetus on June 5, 2022.