Silver Maples

Silver Maples grow from the tip...I learned that from Greg.  Around our house are Silver Maples which are 50 feet tall, not particulary tame. They don't grow very straight, they shoot out branches in cragy arms and dead branches hang in the canopy.  But still...they are so tall that they give one hope.  We have a cottonwood on the east side of the house that is as tall.  Hoping to save these old trees inspite of the lack of wisdom about it.  They are too close  to the house and over the years it's become easy jump for squirells to hop over to the roof.  So anyway, with that sentiment of  Greg went about trimming them up and away from the house...might as well with this man lift rented for the month...aka aticulating boom lift.  What a handy tool for those high up projects. And we have more than a few of those projects.  

A Vision, A Block of Marble, A Pile of Bricks

A couple weeks back I posted five or so pictures of the house on Facebook to begin to tell this story of the roof.  Betty Hanson, Saginaw journalist emeritus and friend from St. Stephen, made me laugh and then think.  She commented on one particularly stark picture of the house taken last April....shudder.  And she shared the Michelangelo story and said..."that's quite some block you have there.."  So this roof...is like that block of marble in which Michelangelo saw David.  It has massive potential.

We, and I say that with full propers given to Greg who is really doing all this work, I am just the journalist and part time ground crew, started actual work on labor day weekend.  This after months of research, estimates, bids, consults, buying, renting and building permits.  O, and three months of Greg working five tens in Detroit squirreling away the money...lots of money.

The roof has six faces, four on the front house, two on the back house, it is about 2400 square feet and has three chimneys and two wickedly constructed gutters joining the back house to the front house.  The gutters are the problem...the east one leaks and the ceiling on the second floor has collapsed leaking through to the first floor where the bucket is next to my washer.  I suppose if it wasn't for the leak that we might have gone on another ten years living under this mossy mess.

We bought 100 bundles of shingles, 80 sheets of plywood and rented a lift for Greg to work from...starting with trimming the trees around the house to raise the canopy away from the roof.  Labor Day weekend Greg started the project with trimming the trees.