The Roof

Over the past few years we have said we needed to replace the shingles on our roof, but until this year we just said we will, but maybe next year. We realized that if we didn't fix the roof this summer before John went back to BYU Idaho, it would be many years before we had Dad, Lee, John and James here and available to work on the roof.



When we realized that we only had 2 weeks before John would go up to college, we decided that now was the time. First, (on Monday August 25th) Rick, Lee and John bought a sheet of sheetrock to fix the ceiling in the kitchen where the water from the swamp cooler had saturated the insulation in the atic and fell onto the kitchen table and floor.





Then we quickly ordered the materials for shingling the roof. Later that day, (August 26th), they delivered the big dumpster that we would scrape all the old shingles into. That evening and on the 27th, Dad, John, Lee and James started to scrape off the old shingles. As they scraped off the old shingles and exposed the plywood, they could see the places where the plywood had started to rot.


They cut a foot and a half of plywood off the south edge of the roof and replaced that as well as a large area where the swamp cooler had let water run down the roof. They finished scraping them on the 28th and started to do some repairs on the ply wood below.



On Friday evening, we again looked at the weather forcast. It said that we were in for "Big Changes" in the weather. It had been dry all the month of Auugust. Now a storm was coming Saturday evening and we could expect rain, heavy in spots on Sunday. Rick began to make calls asking for any assistance that was available.

In the morning of Saturday, the 30th, Mike and Brandon and Isaac showed up at 6:30 am to work. By 8:00, Tom Lindhart, a Neighbor/Johns young mens Leader, came and gave us some professional instruction. At about 10:00 I showed up and they were 1/2 done with the front side, then Mike and Isaac had to leave as well as our Neighbor. We had 2 nail guns, Brandon and John took turns using one and Lee used the other, Marie and I would lay shingles for Lee, and whoever wasn't using the other nail gun was laying shingles for whoever was using it. When Brandon had to leave (at 1:00) John used the nail gun and Marie laid shingles for him. During this time Dad was cutting shingles for the edges. Eventually JP and his friend Clark came up on the roof to help. We worked till about 5:00 about then I got ready to leave and Mike Isaac and Gordon showed up with James to help.

Everyone worked all day Saturday as much as they could. The wind started blowing lightly in the early afternoon. A few times it caught the roofing felt and tore it. About 10:00 at night they finished putting the last shingles on and carried the supplies off the roof.

The next day, just as forcasted, it rained hard. We were very grateful for all the people who helped us reshingle our roof.