House Update – Roof Demo & Rebuild

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The progress on the house has continued. The roof was fully taken off and rebuilt. I would be absolutely lying if I said it went over smoothly and without flaws. However, improper building issues and other problems and damages that occurred during the process, are being addressed.

This whole process taken a toll on my husband and I because it’s just down right stressful. Dealing with house stuff along with real life – work, family, etc is challenging. Plus, we have high expectations and want things done right and with quality at the forefront. We have always always always done our own work so letting someone else “in” is very hard. We are perfectionists, and if we messed something up or cut something too short, etc along the way…we would redo it. We really never settled for less than perfect. We also researched everything and anything from quality to best price. So in general, not having this control is very hard, and I’ll gladly admit it. Think of it this way – you or someone you love is going in for a major medical procedure. You are likely going to ask 10 billion questions, want to find out all of the risks, the facts, the costs, the medical staff qualifications, etc of every last detail. Well, this is how I feel about my house. It’s just who I am. …and if this is not your personality type, then I will give you a very warm internet hug right here and tell you to not waste your time on the rest of this post. ha!

For those of you who stuck around… lol…

Our 134 year old house has had many owners in its time – we are the 13th. It’s also been very lovingly updated and renovated many times prior to us. However, both my husband and I feel that everyone who did the work prior to us, did it out of an extreme love for the house. I mean there’s almost no way anyone would want to take on a 100+ year old house and not have some kind of profound love for old homes.

While we move forward with the rebuild, my unending (but growing thinner) love for the house has always been my main focus. I love the house, but I also want to honor it – I mean after-all, we all walked away completely unharmed after the lightning strike and fire...and my son was sleeping in the room that was hit. And I want to honor the people who had lived there before us. I’ve always felt so differently about this house. With our last 3 homes we owned, we were the 2nd owner for all for them. We completely renovated the homes and made them definitely a “Stephanie & Clayton home” (just like all of the HGTV shows…you know which host did each house, there’s a style). When we sold them, I still thought of them as “our” house because we did so much work that totally turned the house around. With this house, I’ve always felt that we are just doing our time here. I’m living in a bedroom that so many other people lived in. To think of all the babies that likely were born in that room (and how many have died…although, only I know that info, my hubby gets too creeped out! lol) I would never want to dishonor the people who so lovingly lived at my house prior. (I’m weird, I know!) So as we rebuild, I want to ensure our house is properly put back together, not completely stripped of all it’s old charm, that we put time-period elements back in and that it will easily stand for another 134 years!

Roof Demo & Rebuild

The demo started at the back of the house, because that’s where the lightning hit.

This is the inside … yikes!

Once the back was off and rebuilt, they started tearing off the rest – this part was (and still is) so stressful, because the entire house was open! In the middle of a snowy winter!

Our poor yard is destroyed – which we knew would happen. After this whole thing is done, the yard will have to be professionally leveled and landscaped (including shrubbery that was run over).

Once the framing was up, the roof was covered with felt paper.

The inspector came to check out the roof and at this point we are waiting for things that weren’t done properly to be corrected. I’ve been told that in the next 4-5 weeks the shingles should be going on.

In The End

As aggravating and frustrating this whole project has been, I often times feel so stupid and selfish for even ever complaining or letting myself be so consumed with it. There are so many worse things that could have happened…and I have so many friends going through way worse situations than us – things that no matter what, can’t be treated, fixed or reversed. My heart breaks for them and in the midst of it breaking, I’m reminded that I’m so very lucky at the end of the day and am so very blessed and fortunate.

Updates:

Update #1: House Fire, Struck by Lightning

Update #2: Update

Update #3: Frustration

Update #4: The Beginning of Demo & A Few Hidden Surprises

Update #5: Demo of the Downstairs

Update #6:

Update #7: Silver Spoon

Update #8: Trick-Or-Treat; Victorian Style

Update #9: New Joists

Update #10: Roof

Update #11: Roof Demo

Update #12: Roof Demo & Rebuild