…And Putting It Back Together.

Last summer I tore off a large section of original shingles on the second-floor exterior wall of the house. This section was punky from a blocked-up drain-spout (since unblocked), and missing roof flashing above (since installed).

Thinking that I would replace the shingles with alacrity, I simply tar-papered over the naked section.

Then time passed.

And passed.

And passed.

The tar-paper began to seem permanent. It turned from black to gray. The edges all curled up.

The delay was caused by several factors.

1) Just under the tar-papered section is where we jacked up the house and installed a steel beam in the ceiling of the living room. NOT having the wall shingles above would, I realized, make jacking up the house easier as the house would, ah, adjust better.

2) I had to research where to get replacement shingles. I thought this would be easy. It was not. At last I found shingles (scary expensive) but they were 3/4-inch narrower than I needed. So my brain shut down. It does that when confronted with Things I Do Not Wish To Be.

3) There seemed to always be something more vital to attend to STAT. Of course, with a huge old house there are always 3,867 things needing attending to STAT.

Then, while going through the huge pile of house bits stored carefully in the basement by the previous owner (thanks, Bob!!!!), I sorta kinda realized that maybe, maybe I actually HAD enough shingles already on hand to repair the naked section.

Then, the seemingly permanent nature of the tar-paper finally got to me. I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!

 

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Pretty house. With unpretty tar-paper.

 

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Day One of resurrection.

 

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Day Two. Day One and Day Two would have been one day if I were younger.

 

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Day Three.

 

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Day Four. And done!!!!!!! Whoee!!!!!!!!

 

 

It was a trick assuring that the curved NEW shingles perfectly kissed the OLD shingles. Even though I measured, and re-measured, it developed that I was off. So I had to custom-cut numerous curved shingles a bit wider so that they properly kissed the old shingles to the left.

Next is primer, and then paint!

Then a cocktail!

4 Comments

  1. Barb Sanford on March 26, 2015 at 7:51 pm

    You deserve a cocktail! And if you are ever here in Lincoln, Nebraska, I would happily buy you one.

  2. Lesley on March 27, 2015 at 1:31 pm

    Beautiful!

  3. Seth Hoffman on October 12, 2016 at 10:46 am

    I love the fancy-butt shingles! Your work looks great!

    • Ross on October 12, 2016 at 10:50 am

      Thank you!

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