Today was a banner day in a lot of ways.
We have a roof that was partially replaced on a rental. The bad side required immediate attention, but the other side got put off until the following year. We have the shingles for it. The fellow was supposed to return to do it. You can guess what happened next.
Nothing.
That's what happened next.
Anyways, Tim made up his mind to get that done this summer. He talked to people but could not seem to get anyone to commit to taking the job. He didn't feel comfortable with a vague 'yeah...we can get to that at some point, I'll be in touch.'
This morning, headed to Grand Valley, he suddenly did a quick turn into a parking lot and turned around. I was a little puzzled until I saw a team of Amish roofers. He jumped out of the car and spoke with a fellow. It was hard to tell how things were going, but Tim got back into the car in a happy mood.
"He's Andy Byler. He said that he is looking for work. I told him about 606. He says that he'll be finished with this job by 3, and then he is going to another job that should be finished by 5. He'll meet me down there after that." It reminded me of the joke: 'If we really wanted to build a wall down south, just hire a team of Amish. They'd have it finished by lunchtime.' (Note: This in no way implies support for a wall on our southern border. It was a stupid idea and a massive waste of money.)
Anyway, we continued on down to Grand Valley. We got the rest of the insulation in the basement done, which was very good news. We can return one bag of R30, which will get us $89 back. We have enough R15 left to insulate the inner wall of the cold room in the north side of the basement. We will use that to store potatoes and apples and squash and the like, just a small space with wooden shelves.
While we were finishing up, my brother in law stopped in. He'd been out digging leeks and wanted to know did we want some. "Sure," I said. He looked around the basement ceiling. "I still don't get why your inspector is requiring that. Our inspector didn't require us to do that."
It is odd. It seems like our last inspector had things that he considered important. for example, metal plates hammered into the studs to protect the electrical wires when we put up the walls. This new inspector said, "Nah. You didn't need to do that." The bathroom window was fine by the previous inspector, but this guy didn't like it. We might fall and put our hand through it. I guess that that wouldn't happen in the bedroom or the livingroom or the pantry. Just the bathroom. It just kind of seems like that might just be OUR problem if such a strange thing happened. But, we got the safety film he required, and we did the window.
Tomorrow, we'll finish up the other thing we have to do, and hopefully next week, get another inspection to proceed on to the next step in the process.
I came home and cleaned leeks and cut them up and made a nice pot of potato-leek soup. Tim walked down to meet the roofing team. He assured Tim that it would be a small, quick job. "We can get this done in one day." This morning, they were free Friday. Of course Friday, they are calling for rain. And Saturday. Sunday. Monday. Tuesday is supposed to be partly cloudy with a 40% chance of rain, so maybe... But it is supposed to resume raining on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
So...it all depends on the weather, but they will do it the first day without rain, and that it will be done the same day. Tim, for his part, promised to be on site to do their running, provide food and drinks, and any tools they might need. They don't own power tools, but they don't mind borrowing them.
Tim came home confident that this job has been put in the right hands and we had soup.
More exciting progress. It seems Amish are very handy people to have around.
ReplyDeleteThey are helpful. We try to make sure that we reciprocate, always.
DeleteRoofing is a big challenge. Too many roofer are not good on the business end of things.
ReplyDeleteSo many people call themselves 'contractors', when what they are, really, are people who might be skilled in home repairs, but have absolutely NO business acumen at all.
DeleteMust be awfully hard to make a living as a roofer, being so completely at the mercy of the weather…. I sure hope they have other ways to earn!
ReplyDeleteOh, they can and they do. That's one of the things about them. They are very adaptable.
DeletePotato and leek soup. My favourite.
ReplyDeleteIt was nice.
DeleteFingers crossed for no rain 🤞
ReplyDeleteQuite oddly, they've been calling for rain right along, but we are not getting as much as they have said, so perhaps the situation is over estimated here, as well.
DeleteDefinitely the right hands..and it is good dealing direct with a human being...
ReplyDeleteEspecially a human being who does not toss around his words carelessly. Our experience with contractors is that they are not at all reliable. They give you an estimate, they tell you when they will be back, and then they don't come back. It really is aggravating. Tim was prepared to do the work himself.
DeleteI guess the reason for the bathroom window rule is that the floor in there could be wet and slippy?
ReplyDeleteI suppose that is the thinking, but my question is about over reach. We are sensible people. We chose a flooring that would not be slippery if it gets wet. What about the basement stairs? People fall down basement stairs a lot more often than we fall through windows. Of course we will have railings, but will he insist upon the no skid treads be applied? How far does he have the authority to go to determine what we need to do to keep ourselves safe? And why should his authority over ride our own decisions on how we are going to achieve the same end?
DeleteIn the UK there are rules about needing toughened glass in all windows below a certain height, so that children cannot get cuts from broken glass from them.
DeleteIt would be interesting to know the height, Will. I would also be interested to know what constitutes 'toughened' lass. All our windows are new and presumably would meet the current safety standards. I am so curious about this but I feel as if I should not risk irritating the inspector.
DeleteIt's strange that the Amish won't own power tools but have no objection to borrowing them. Is that a blurring of the boundaries, or is there some other reason?
ReplyDeleteThere is a wide variation of thoughts within the Amish community. Some of them do have power tools that they simply keep hidden away. Another pulled out his cell phone to put in the contact information for a friend. They were surprised. He just matter of factly said, "I run a business. They can't expect me to do that without a phone." One even had a computer upstairs that provided computer print out of quantity of building supplies needed. So, I guess that I don't understand it either, but like all things religious, as long as it does not negatively impact me or my life, I consider it between them and their God. It doesn't have to make sense to me.
DeleteI don't suppose they know of a team of Aussie Amish fencers looking for work, do they?
ReplyDeleteLOL. Out in Monto, or the 'Big Smoke'?
DeleteYour BiL came by and you took a leek. Trying here -- very trying, I guess. 😊
ReplyDeleteMany leeks were taken!
DeleteThat's great how things are working out for you.
ReplyDeleteWith all of those different inspectors giving their specific requirements, at least you know your home will be very, very safe!?!
It is just one inspector. The fellow that we started with was great. We liked him a lot. His replacement is just as pleasant, really. Just different things from the first guy.
DeleteHere it is the crews of men from south of the border that Trump wanted to wall up that get the work done. They go hard at it from early morning light until after five, stopping only for lunch and then sometimes a quick nap wherever they happen to be when they finish eating.
ReplyDeleteHe likes to hire the same sorts at Mar-a-Lago.
DeleteI wonder if he ever pays them.
DeleteAmish are similar where I live too. They don't own power tools because they don't have electricity to charge batteries or run air compressors. But they will borrow them if working for you. I have yet to see one of ours with a cellphone but many that run businesses have a phone shack set out by the road where they can retrieve phone messages or place calls. The one where I get raw lumber from will return calls maybe once a week so if you want to save a trip, you have to plan it weeks in advance. Since it is only about 30 miles away, I just roll the dice and go out without calling anymore. About 50% of the time, he is out and about and the mill is closed down so I come back empty handed. I just chalk it down as the experience of dealing with the Amish.
ReplyDeleteLevi has 3 older sons. Andy handles sales when Levi is away. Amos and Reuben are his helpers. Andy will be 15 this year.
DeleteSounds like you are really moving along! Good job to get the Amish to do the roof. They do good work.
ReplyDeleteWe have quite a few balls in the air at the moment. Getting this taken care of will be a big relief.
DeleteAwesome. It sounds like you are going to get a new roof weather permitting and I hope the weather is permitting so it can happen.
ReplyDeleteIt can't rain forever!
DeleteIn that very interesting post and apart from being reminded that the Amish don't use power-anything (in theory) I was fascinated by a teeny weeny difference in our language that I've never come across before. We eat leek and potato soup. It's a funny old world, Dud.
ReplyDeleteHa! Now that you mention it, leeks and potatoes would be right, if you do it alphabetically....but then we would need to correct 'fish and chips!'
DeleteWe don't have Amish here, but we do have Hutterites, the main difference being that Hutterites live commununally and there is no private property. I'm so glad that Tim was able to get someone to replace the roof.
ReplyDeleteI just had our furnace and ducts cleaned this morning, I'm hoping there will be less dust in the house, so now I'm spring cleaning in an effort to avoid filling in my pension papers:)
Red talked about Hutterites a couple weeks ago. That was new to me and I wandered of to have look at that group. Interesting. So they cleaned your duct work?
DeleteAndy Byler sounds great, sometimes things just work out well. (Though not always!!)
ReplyDeleteIt was certainly a lucky break for us!
DeleteGreat news about the roof! Your comments about the inspector make me wonder how much of the job is about building codes, and how much is just some kind of vague internal intuition about what constitutes a danger.
ReplyDelete