Home Improvements

Our house was built in 1983. I have lived in it since 1986. The house was built by Bill Pope, a builder whose company builds primarily commercial buildings. Bill built the house for himself, but while building the house added on many extras and features and drove the cost higher than he had intended. So, after living in the house for three years, Bill decided to sell the house to cut his losses. "Overkill Bill", as he is known around town, typically builds structures which are over-engineered and over-built, as in the case of my house. For example, the footings are extra deep and wide and have steel reinforcing; the basement has eight feet of clearance throughout its 2000 square feet; the roofing was a 40 year shingle by Byrd, the best in the industry (now out of business); the windows, hardware and fixtures were top quality; etc. Because of the quality of the construction and materials, I have had to do very little maintenance or repairs to the house. The roof, exterior paint and one of the heat pumps are all original.

But alas, all good things must end. The roof was showing some serious damage on the south side. On the north side there was a serious crop of moss flourishing. It wasn't leaking yet, but no doubt it would be soon. Also, the paint was blistering, cracking and peeling in a number of places, particularly on the south side. I was beginning to see some water damage on the windows, the wood sash on the bay window was completely rotted, and sections of the garage doors were rotted. One section of gutter was leaking and hanging limp and water was running down the fascia behind the gutter. It was time to take action. With a little over two weeks before our next long trip and fair weather in the forecast, Dorcas and I tore into it. To make a very long story short, over the past two weeks Dorcas and I prepped, caulked and painted the exterior of the house, had a new roof installed, had 34' of new gutter installed and re-built the sill on the bay window. There was one section of eave on the west side of the house that I could not reach with my 24' extension ladder (thankfully!!!!). It turns out there was a professional painter working up the street on my neighbor's house. He gave me about five hours of time, at a very reasonable rate, and painted that high eave and a few other tough spots.

It was a very productive two weeks. The neighbors watched us working so long and so hard, they figured we were selling the house. Maybe we should sell it, but we aren't ready just quite yet. At least now we can travel and not worry about continuing water damage. I think when I have to do it again, I may hire that professional painter to do the whole job. Life is too short to scrape paint.