They did what??

The weather finally turned warm enough I could start putting shingles on houses. 2 years ago we did 18 roofs. I don't remember how many we did last year but it was a lot less. This year as of now we are looking at 4 houses and 2 garages and that is quite enough.

I started on the one the city wants fixed. We purchased it in November. I am told the tarp has been on this roof for 4 years and all of a sudden the city wants the roof fixed. I can't figure out why. It is a landmark now. If you say the house with the blue trap on the roof everyone knows which house you are talking about. I think the city should put it on their website as a tourist attraction.

Now don't be sharing this with any city inspectors but this roof is definitely third on my list to get done. I did do the front addition one morning this week just so it looks like I am working on it. 

I pulled the tarp off and found shingles with at least 5 years of wear left. I have no idea why the tarp was put on the roof. What I do know, is once they ran nails through the roof to hold the tarp on, it now needs a new roof. I am continually surprised by the actions of others.Why would you nail a tarp down over a perfectly good roof? Mental illness is the only answer I can come up with.

After getting a start on the tarped roof I moved on to another house we purchased in November. We are using the garage to store supplies and when it rains, it was raining inside as well as outside. I was thinking it was taking me a long time to get this garage done when I measured it instead of calculating off the county website. 

Instead of being a 560 square foot garage it is 896 square feet. Plus a steep pitch adds more feet. As of this afternoon it is almost finished (the garage door still needs to be painted) but I was ready to quit and went home instead.

 I think I am going to have to order more shingles as the stack has shrunk a lot and I still have the house to do.

I am hoping to start on the house by Monday afternoon. I don't know if you can see it on this picture but all the tabs of the shingles are gone. The nails are all visible. I have no idea why this roof is not leaking, but it isn't. It will be leaking soon though and I will feel a lot better once the new roof is on. 

On the cold days this week I got the old kitchen cabinets tore out of the house I am working on. When you watch those house flipper shows on TV they always take a sledge hammer to remove the cabinets. That might make great TV for a lot of people but it leaves me yelling at the TV, "those cabinets are screwed to the wall, use a driver to remove the screws and carry them out you morons." It may not impact the house flippers on the TV but it does leave me feeling smug and superior. That's goal.

This afternoon as I was getting ready to call it quits for the week, I got a call from a tenant. "We have a smoke detector that is chirping. I think it's the one in the south bedroom." 

Now, sure, I was tempted to answer, "hey, thanks for the update, I bet you will have a much better night's sleep once you REPLACE THE BATTERY."

But that is not what I said, Oh, no, I said, "I will bring you a battery as soon as I leave this house." We buy 9 volt batteries by the case.

We also buy double AA batteries buy the case. The double AAs go in carbon monoxide detectors. Even though the tenants are supposed to change the batteries in the detectors, I don't want be responsible for someone not having warning if a fire happens. 

Sometimes it is best to stuff my primal urges down deep, act with compassion and do the right thing.

I do wonder sometimes if others look at what I do and think what a moron. This week I found a good roof under a tarp, Oh boy explain that one. I carried out kitchen cabinets in one piece instead of hitting them to splinters with a sledge hammer  even though the sledge hammer approach makes more entertaining TV. Whoever measured a garage for the county tax base came up a little short on size. A tenant thinks I should run over immediately to give them batteries for a smoke detector. 

I can see the shortcomings in others but I don't think I want a list of what others may see as my shortcomings. I don't think I want my hearing to be good enough to hear others muttering "What a moron" as they walk away from a conversation with me.

Judge not that you be not judged for with what judgement you judge you shall be judged. Oops, I may need a do over this week.