A Roof Over Our Heads - Knitting in the Park

Sleeping soundly again during the rain thanks to a new roof.

Sleeping during a rainstorm is one of my absolutely joys – even sitting on a covered porch or next to an open window during a shower is bliss. Our little ranch home has a roof that hangs our over our walls/windows by about 2 feet which makes it possible for us to have our windows open without worrying about the rain coming in. The marble windowsills are a plus too.

When we bought the house, we knew it was going to need a new roof. This was seconded by our home inspector. What we didn’t know or plan on, was having to replace that roof during our first year of being in the house. The house had the original roof which meant no waterproof barrier to protect the boards to which the shingles are nailed, and no drip edge, to make sure that the water goes into the gutters. The underlayment, or the boards that lay under the shingles, was rotten all around the outside edge of the house, and the water was actually coming down between the roof and the gutters.

This caused a problem with our front porch, which has cracks in the floor/grout and allowed the water to come down into our garage, causing our basement doorframe to finish rotting and swell so badly that we couldn’t get it open. Nothing like a fire and flood hazard to light a fire under your rear, am I right?

So a new roof it was! And after only being in our house for about 6 months. Chris, my husband, goes a bit extreme when getting quotes, but it was definitely needed with the roof because it seemed like the prices were all over the place. In the end, we went with a company that was recommended to us. We could see their work, and they were priced lower than just about everyone else we talked to. Hudspath Construction was amazing. In a little less than five days, they had the rotten underlayment cut out and replaced, new shingles on the roof (old roofs apparently have staples which take longer to remove, new soffit, fascia and gutters, and it all works wonderfully! They don’t have a website yet so if you need a roofer send me a message and I can get send you their phone number.

While we waited for the roofers to order the supplies and make the trek out to our humble abode, we started working on the new door. A fire rated fiberglass door was going to be a little steep for all that were had to do to the house – or so we thought. It ended up being less than we imagined which was a pleasant surprise. It only took trips to two different Lowe’s, which Murphy was totally fine with. We actually take him to the one close to our house every time we go and the employees all know him by name now. It’s kind of embarrassing but also awesome. More stores need to allow dogs.

So we pulled the old door off, to learn that the frame, went about 6 inches into the poured concrete of our house and had crumbled. So while I vacuumed that out, Chris assessed the frame. Between the former resident’s paint job and the moisture, pulling the frame off caused a good bit of our plaster wall to come with it.

Replacing a door in a house built in 1959

We also learned that back in the day they didn’t like drilling into brick or concrete, instead, they made a bigger hole and filled it with wooden shims, which is what they used to anchor the screws/nails.

It took about a full day, working with shims and everything else that we needed to get the door soundly, and squarely in place, but we did it! Now we just need to figure out what we are going to do for the trim, which might take a bit, because we are still figuring out what we will do in the basement down the road. Whatever we do now, will have to match what we end up doing then.

I work from home, so I was here for all of the pounding and the noise…and so was my husband, who was trying to sleep as he was on night shift. But it was all worth it. The guys who worked on the house were so nice. They were also pretty impressed that the pickup truck in the driveway was mine.

We severely underestimated how much curb appeal white soffit, gutters and a new roof would add. It was rough stomaching the new roof and the time it took to make sure that it was done right – by the end of the week I was absolutely delirious. But it was so worth it. I would highly recommend Hudspath and his guys to anyone in the Pittsburgh area. No one else can touch their work, their prices, or the way they took care of us.