The Roof Over My Head

We've lived in our home for 18 years and are planning to sell it someday. So when I noticed a small circle of water damage in our son's old bedroom ceiling, I knew it was time to replace the roof.

We requested two estimates and no sooner signed a contract on December 4th, the snow and brutally cold weather arrived in PA. It figures.

*****
Finally there was a break in the weather and we had supplies delivered one foggy January morning.

A large dumpster appeared in our driveway blocking our garage door entrances too.

May I whine about how much I missed parking in my garage during all the snowy and icy mornings?

Snow crystals on my passenger side window.

I know.

I am a baby.

But defrosting my van before going to work was tiring. And the snow removal was awful!

*****
The roof was completed while Wonderful Husband and I were at work during the days. So we never heard the shingle removal and pounding.

And one night I came home and the dumpster was gone.

Hooray! We could park in the garages again!

*****
Fast forward to today....Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. when I heard two male voices outside then pounding as they removed the chunks of ice from the old gutters.

The old gutters were removed and replaced with pretty, pristine ones.

Voila! A job well done!

I am thankful for the roofers' and gutter guys' hard work during the brutally cold temperatures we have been experiencing in PA.

I am also thankful for the new roof over my head!

Have you done any home improvement projects lately?
Or do you have plans for any?

A Tree

We have lived in our home for 15 years. When we moved in, we had little "stick trees" and we chose where they would be placed on our property. It seemed like we chose wisely since 15 years ago we were in the midst of a drought and were watering the trees carefully in order for them to have a chance of surviving.

Fast forward 15 years and we have an ash tree that looks like it is trying to "climb in" to our home through the upstairs window!

It provides wonderful shade for this section of the house and (in my opinion) cuts down on our air conditioner running more than in past years. But I had to call a tree service to cut some of the branches so that they wouldn't damage the soffits and gutter.

The tree service owner was wonderful and running two weeks behind. So once I signed the contract I would be placed on their schedule.

Where do I sign?



They did a great job!

I left the house one morning for work and came home to the completed job.

I wish that would happen with laundry and dishes!

A girl can dream...



Maybe The Best Post Ever

I've written about the rough winter weather we've had in PA this year. Lots of snow, shoveling, Wonderful Husband using the snowblower...well, you get the picture.

I've also written about coming home from work and seeing that our mailbox had been knocked into the middle of our front yard. I don't know if it was hit by the snowplow or if the heavy snow smacked it hard enough to break the post but after 15 years, the wooden post finally "bit the dust."

Wonderful Husband knew he couldn't dig out the old post and install a new one since the ground was frozen solid with all the below 30 degree temps we'd had, so he did a temporary fix of bolting the broken post and of course more snow fell and the post was fully encased in snow for a couple weeks.

We experienced a slow thaw and were watching the mailbox lean more and more while the snow melted around it. And then the expected happened. We had strong, wind gusts for about 24 hours and when I looked out Saturday morning, this is what I saw:

So I told Wonderful Husband the news and then I left to meet a friend for breakfast. (That's how I roll. Give an update and off I go. Ha!)

When I came home I noticed our neighbor's mailbox had taken a tumble too. Here's the evidence:

No. I didn't go over to tell my neighbors. I don't like being the Bearer of Bad Tidings. :)

Darn wind.

So the reason the name of this post is "Maybe The Best Post Ever"? Keep looking:

Ta da! A post! So pretty! So strong! So hopeful that it will last 15 years like the last one!

And just so you don't think that Wonderful Husband stopped the job there:



Way to go Wonderful Husband! A job well done!

Bring on the mail!
Bring on Spring!
We're ready!

How did your outdoor stuff survive your winter weather?

Home Improvement/Garage Trim

After years of watching the trim around our garage doors rot, we hired someone to replace the rotten old wood with....plastic! Ta-Da!

I love the low maintenance spirit of the PVC (polyvinyl chloride) product! And was thinking about suggesting replacing much of the inside of our home with it until I Googled it and saw that there are those who don't recommend it being used in classrooms because of toxicity issues. So I'll stick with the garage trim only.

Isn't it pretty?