The joys of homeownership!!

If you follow my blog, you know that are in the midst of planning a remodel to kitchen because of a leaky roof. This morning we awoke at 7:15, the roofers were here to start on the garage roof, which we are also replacing because it wasn't fixed properly when we moved in 7 years ago and it still leaked with moderate rains.

At about 9am, the head roofer guy came to the front door and asked me to meet him out on the garage roof (there is a door that goes out Jack's bedroom onto the roof), there was something nasty! Uh oh!!

I opened up Jack's door and there were holes in the roof (they took all the rubber off already). That apparently is not a problem to fix at all, they just replace it with new plywood. The problem was the gigantico ants that took up residence in the wood plank closest the door and under the door. They were just eating that wood!! He picked up a handful of their dust that they leave after they are eating!! We knew we had an ant problem and we've been getting treated by Orkin every 4 months. The house has been ant free, but the garage roof is not. They hang out there because of the moisture.

I am seeing $$CHA-CHING$$ here!! So, what to do? The head roofer guy said the best bet would be to just totally close off that door and seal it in, pull off the siding, insulate it and replace the window! We don't have much siding on our house, it is 80% brick, but the siding that is there is this horrific yellow that we have hated forever!! When we decided to do the remodeling, we said we'd replace the siding anyway, but then decided to paint it instead since there wasn't much of it, save a few bucks, ya know!! So, this little problem sealed the deal for new siding! I chose Weatheredwood shingles with clay siding.

The morning was filled with phone calls for me! Calling Orkin to see if they could treat the ants while the roof was off, calling Chris to get the go ahead to seal off the door. He actually came home from lunch to check it all out! Then, most importantly, calling the bank to get more money! I have to say I have the nicest people working at my bank!!! She helped me greatly, researching to see what the best way for us was to go with our line of credit! She spent so much time on the phone with me, figuring numbers, getting info! She made it so I didn't have to go into the bank with 2 high energy kids to fill out a ton of paperwork! She did it all on the phone with me!! It's hard to find good service like that these days!! I also had to run to the township office 'cause guess who forgot to get a permit? Yep, us!! That's the last thing we were thinking of! So, that is almost taken care of now!!

ETA: Yes, they are ants, we had them "evaluated" last year. We thought we had termites but they are, in fact, carpenter ants!

I'm so glad I can sit now!! A busy day!! Macy's Bridge to Daisies program starts tonight and Chris and Jack are going to National Night Out.

Here are some pics of the damage and now the progress!! They will be back tomorrow to adhere the rubber. They probably won't get to the main roof tomorrow, but I pray that they don't find such problems there! He sait it's rare for that to happen up there because of the slope. Let's hope that's true!!

Do you know what though? I'm not stressed about this!! I actually feel good and am excited! I know we've got a great company working for us, top notch quality!! They busted their butts otu there today in this horrible humidity!! They put in a 10 hour day!!

The holes:



Ant problem:



The door coming down!



Sealed up!


Done for the day!


And here's a recent layout to brighten the day!!