Monday, January 13, 2014

RMFIH '14 - Raise the Roof


We're going to bring today's RMFIH '14 even closer to home. In fact, we're going to bring it right next door.

Jim and Dot have needed a new roof on their house for, well,  for years, but they didn't tell anyone. They just didn't know how they would pay for it, or how they would get it done. Over the last year, it has become impossible to hide the fact that every time it rains, the house leaks like a sieve. Granted, we live in a desert, and we don't get a lot of rain, but when it comes, it comes with a vengeance.

For the last four months, the roof has been covered by a big blue tarp held down with old tires and bricks. If there was ever any doubt that we're a bunch of red-necks, we pretty much dispelled it forever.

After spending months, worrying about it, and talking about it and thinking about it, Friday Brian and Jim got up on the roof and started lifting shingles to see just how bad it was.... It was really, really bad. So Brian calls me at work to ask if I could get anyone from the office to help. We knew it was last minute, and all these guys have young families, with obligations of their own, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.

I hadn't heard back from anyone by the time I left for home, so we assumed we were on our own.

Around six o'clock, JD Called to let me know he and two other guys would be there at eight a.m. to help out, and maybe a few more would be able to come. They could only stay until noon, but they would be there.

Hooray!

At eight o'clock sharp, JD's truck rolled in and six guys came piling out. They got right down to business and climbed up on the old rotted roof. It was like we had set six little whirlwinds loose up there. They managed to accomplish in three and half hours what it would have taken us all weekend to do. The roof was completely striped, the old rotted sheeting was torn off, trusses that needed shoring up were repaired and most of the sheeting had been replaced.

As they drove away at noon, Brian and I looked at each other with the same thought in our heads: Thank God they could only stay until noon, we were exhausted!

The roof isn't quite done yet, but we never would have gotten nearly this far without help.

Thanks JD, Josh, Kyle, Matt, Manny and Rich!



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