Trees!

The very first thing that had to be taken care of was the trees.  My parents planted a sunburst locust and what they thought was a mugo pine (NOT!) on each side of the walkway back in the 1960s.  Noone every trimmed them or cut them down and the leaves & pine needles were keeping the roof very moist.  Not a good thing.  

As you can see in the photo to the right, the tree was very skinny back in 1968.

Chimney

After the roof was replaced, it was time to repoint the chimney.  I had to wait for the mason, but luckily there was snow & ice shield up to the sides of the chimney and...it didn't rain much.  The chimney hadn't been repointed in years and there was moss growing on it.  The roof before it was replaced had so many pine needles on it I could have shoveled them off.

Roofers

I'm catching everyone up on what I did last summer (a little late, but it tells the whole story!)  Here are some shots of the roofers replacing the roof that hadn't been replaced in 50 years.  It had 3 layers on the left side of the chimney and 2 layers on the right side, plus skylights - that leaked.  My roofer said it was the worst roof he'd done in 26 years.  Almost all the plywood had to be replaced and let's talk about carpenter ants!

Shingles

In the beginning.....

The photo above is home as it looked back in the early 60s.  My parents built this house in 1959-60 when I was a baby and we lived here until I was 11.  Then we moved over the hill into another house my parents built, an A-frame with a very 70's decor - but that is someone else's story.  This house to me has always been Home.  So many childhood experiences happened here - getting and losing my first tooth, learning how to ride a bike, playing dress-up, getting my first Barbie, then Ken, then Barbie's friend Midge.  (I still have them!)  Painful times too like when our beloved boxer Princess got hit by a car and my Dad burying her in the back yard.  These are the things you never forget and they all happened here.  Sooooo.......after moving on, growing up, getting married, having children, going to college and then going back to college, and well, living....the house had passed through a number of hands.  Some were good, and some were not so good.  One owner redid the kitchen and built a humongous deck out the back.  I hated that deck, still do, but its still there.  41 years later and - I'm back!!  Yep, its finally mine and its like it was waiting for me all along.  Welcome home!

The house had sat empty for over 2 years and before that it had had some neglect over the years.  One of the problem areas was the roof (just 1 of many) and leaking around the chimney.  The leaks ruined the ceiling.  That wouldn't be too bad for more modern houses, but this house has a swirled PLASTER ceiling.  I love it, but....we had to remove the area around the chimney.  Well, that was what I originally had planned, but after realizing it would be hard to just fix the sections that had damage because of the plaster swirls - it all came down.  That way I could put in newer, energy efficient insulation.  I'm getting ahead of myself...first I had to get a new roof.  I chose Owens Corning 30 year architectural shingles in merlot because the house has redwood siding.  Of course, you can't tell now because someone at sometime in the past painted (!!!) the redwood.  I have aspirations of removing the paint, and with that thought in mind I chose a complimentary roof.