The roof is almost done. They will be back tomorrow to finish the gutter work, clean up and take away the dumpster and trailer. However when they leave I will still have a HUGE whole in my house. No, I am not exaggerating as I am prone to do. I will provide proof of the largeness of the hole tomorrow.
I believe I have mentioned the leak that we had in our roof/wall that led to water coming into our kitchen and into the floor of Sam's room. Well, as part of the new roof we asked the roofer to open up the section of the exterior wall that had been hit with water the most to put in additional flashing and cover the exterior wall with more waterproofing (this stuff they put on roofs called ice and water shield). When he pulled the siding off and started to look at the water damage it was much more extensive then we all thought could be possible. Whole 2x4s, sub-flooring, and insulation was completely rotten. They also pulled a fairly large bee hive out of the wall. Where there are bees there is likely to be damage from the tunnels they can create in wood. So the wood that wasn't rotten was chewed apart by bees! The rotting went all the way to the outer side of the drywall in Sam's room. The exterior half of that half-inch thick drywall was wet and rotting. This means that there is a fourth of an inch of drywall that is not rotten protecting my sleeping child from the outside!!
When I got home from work at noon today the roofer pulled me aside to talk me through all the damage. He said that this was much more rotting then what could have occurred in the last couple of years that we have noticed the leak. He thinks the water damage has been accumulating for at least 10 years! He said that I should probably contact the insurance company to see if the work would be covered because the labor, materials and expense of repairing all the damage would be extensive; oh wait I MEAN EXPENSIVE!
I tried very hard today to not let this whole thing upset me too much. As my dad would say, Shit happens! I chose instead to laugh it off so that I wouldn't cry. I am choosing to be glad that we found this now and not when the damage was much worse, when mold got into Sam's room or when the whole house caved in! Okay, that might have been an exaggeration!
Anyway, I am pissed that we have to spend more money on this stupid house on projects that do not make life easier or more fun (like a new beautiful, convenient kitchen). But I am praying that the insurance company will cover most of it.
So be on the lookout for pictures of the hole tomorrow. Unless it rains tomorrow, which since we now have a huge hole in our house I think it would be really awesome if it would rain!!
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