Random Thoughts 18: The Year of Fire
- Thread starter CloneLawman
- Start date
...Mavis got acquainted with the Drifting Cowboys Band. The effect on all our lives was quite profound on the night Hank Williams came to town.
Roofing crew is working again today. No weekends for these guys. Specialty crew from Florida doing the fancy cedar roof on one of the nearby ritzy houses. Custom stuff with rounded edges at soffits and wavey patterns on the roof lines. Been at it for a couple of weeks now. Bet this is a $100K roof.
Think I prefer functional (and cheaper). Once it's in place, who really looks at roofs? Or maybe that's a short person thing...
It's a big ole rambling English Tudor. The funky roof is sort of the defining feature of the house. Well, that and English telephone booth in the front garden! I've only seen two or three roofs like it in the Twin Cities in the 40 plus years I've lived here. This is the second replacement I've seen on it. Can't imagine the hail damaged it THAT much. First one was after a fire. That crew, from Colorado, had equipment on site to custom steam/bend the shingles.
Observation, I have not seen a single non-Hispanic roofing crew in the hood yet. Every house is getting a new roof after the golf ball ball sized hail so I've seen dozens of crews last fall and this spring already. Some of the guys are just laborers but the guys working the custom shingle job are real craftsmen. Pretty impressed with their work.
Looking at roofs is more of a male thing. How it’s more common for women to notice certain parts of a kitchen or bathroom? men notice roof things.
I would estimate 65% of the houses in this town and the close-by rural homes like ours have had their roofs replaced in the past year after a very damaging hail storm that lingered (I put a picture on here with our deck buried in several inches of hailstones the size of golf balls).
The Guatemalan guys that did our roof were amazing. We have a LOT of roof between the house/garage, the shop, the gazebo and the storage shed. The main crew was here for two days, strip down to replacement. Then a few came back for the finishing touches the third day. They flew across the roof like crazy.
Our church just got a new roof in march, steel shingles so sealing was not a concern. It is at minimum a 12/12 pitch. These guys would just grab onto a rope that was hanging from the top peak and run up and down loosely hanging onto it. I probably would have been gassed out climbing it one time.
Just did my taxes and I didn't even have to pay in even with unemployment last year.
A couple of the neighbor kids have been working on roofing crews the last couple of years. They've said the crews they worked with were about half Mexican/Other Latino and about half ex-con.
I use smoked hamhocks in my pinto beans, along with a lot of other good stuff like cayenne, tobasco, bay leaves, garlic, onions, black pepper...
When the beans are done the meat is falling off the bones, so we remove the bones & excess fat and eat the meat with the beans. Mmmmmmm...
Why did you do them so early? You still have another 27 hours.
Okay, so I was WAY off on the fancy shake wave roof cost. Chatted with neighbors who are getting their regular cedar shake roof done. $180K! JFC. I mean it's a BIG house but won't have dreamed it would be that expensive 
Means the fancy one is more likely $300K or more.
Means the fancy one is more likely $300K or more.
