Gutter Leaf Filters Installed

Last Monday we had an appointment with LeafGuard to get all new gutters. We had them on a previous house and really liked them. But it turns out they're larger than standard k-gutters and they need a 6"'wide board to mount to. 

When the installers started talking about cutting off our roof tails, that turned into a big NOPE. We spent about an hour talking about other options (to cutting the wood), but ultimately there was no solution found. We were really disappointed but I was entirely unwilling to deface this house.

So, I went searching for a plan B. There are not a lot of other options available in Portland, Oregon. Ultimately, the one we went for was Leaf Filter. They came out and installed the screens last Wednesday. Allegedly, if our gutters clog up, they'll come out and clean them. Time will tell.

This is the only photo the installers took for me.

They cleaned out and used some of the existing gutters and installed a couple of new ones when we needed to relocate the downspouts. We abandoned the rain chains and had them install downspouts on all the gutters. The rain chains didn't work out because when it snowed they'd get too heavy and fall down. Sometime soon we'll need to add piping to direct the rainwater into our rain gardens. 

New Interlock Roof

Obviously, I've fallen out of the habit of posting regularly. Our new Interlock roof install was finished about a week ago. We are quite happy with how it turned out. Conveniently the roofer sent before-after photos.

We had them install a drain between the two front dormers. In the rain, it tended to turn into a waterfall and it was ruining the wood brackets.

Garage Top View

Shed Top View

They installed new T&G under the rotted front eaves and repaired a rotted rafter tail.

The company advertises this as a lifetime roof. I really hope it is, this time.

Garage Roofed

I started this blog post last Friday, but I kept getting distracted and didn't post it. I wasted most of last Friday watching them put the new roof on the garage. 

The roof pieces really do all lock together and it was fascinating to watch them.  

I'm sort of torn about what I think of the crew. They appear to do good work, but they seem a little flaky. They work weird hours and took a four-day weekend. I'm ready for this to be finished.

This is a photo of the repair of the rotted roof tail up front. They actually replaced some of the wood because it was too far gone.

The foreman sent me some photos of the roofing in progress up on top of the house.

Hopefully they'll finish up sometime this week.

Interlock Roof Finally Started

Dealing with Interlock Roofing has been a bit ridiculous. We actually ordered the new roof late last summer and they told us they probably wouldn't get to our project until spring. They don't install roofs during rainy weather. Yeah, okay, I understood that. 

They finally called us in early May and said they were planning to put on our roof sometime in May or June. We had a discussion about the tongue & groove I said I would be providing, and I ordered it that week and it was delivered two days later and I told them it was here, waiting for them. And then it sat. 

There was no communication of any sort until June 28 (the Wednesday before the 4th of July). We were told they would probably be starting the next afternoon (Thursday) but if not then, they would certainly start on the Friday before the holiday weekend. Yeah, they didn't start then either. Again, no communication revising the start date. Finally, I called on late Friday afternoon and was told the crew showed up and decided not to start before the holiday. I was given the impression they just delayed the project until after the holiday and would start the first day after.

Well, no, not that either. Finally, last week⏤on July 11⏤they showed up unannounced at our door and said they wanted to deliver materials. That was the second day of the fence install. LOL They loaded up the driveway in front of the garage.

Again, you would think their start was imminent. But no. Finally, on Friday I called the company again. I told him how unimpressed I was with their communication. He promised they would start on Monday.

Well, Monday afternoon someone did show up; I think the project foreman. We reviewed the project with him and he figured out the additional supplies he would need and left again. Today, finally they started tear off. 

Since I don't have a drone, I can't post progress photos. They removed the shingles from the backside of the house and they laid new tongue & groove over our little back patio. I didn't take a before photo, it used to be a big plywood patch where the old chimney used to be and a mish mash of various sizes of tongue and groove; presumably whatever the prior owner had lying around. This looks much better.

We had an appointment to have the new gutters installed tomorrow. Yeah, I had to delay that one. 

Update, they sent me some photos:

Projects This Summer

We haven't been posting lately because we haven't been doing any house-related projects. But, starting next week, we're finally kicking off some projects. Starting on Tuesday, we are finally getting our Interlock Roof installed. Given the astronomical cost of their roofs, it's rather surprising their backlog is so long. I'm sure LeafGuard Gutters will be happy to finally get our job off their books.

This past winter, our fence fell over in high winds. (I really wish I'd remembered to take a photo.) Right now, it's propped up with boards and our neighbor is anxious about getting it replaced. I wanted a fence that looked like this but we got a quote for it and it was more than $20,000! LOL This fence is apparently $86/linear foot.

So, instead we decided to compromise and get something less expensive. The most-visible parts will have lattice, the rest won't and we decided to skip the expense of post caps. It will be about half the cost of the other. If we weren't already spending so much on the roof and gutters, we probably would get the more expensive fence, but there are limits on how much we can absorb in a year.

Lots of New Projects

I really should be posting more frequently. We have been doing stuff. Or at least we have been hiring people to do stuff. LOL

Shortly after my last post, we discovered our roof has to be replaced. The shingles are fine, but they didn't install them correctly and there are areas with no plywood underlayment. It is VERY FRUSTRATING as I spent a long time trying to find a reputable roofer to do the installation. But since it has been more than 10 years since the installation we can't actually go after the roofer, in the unlikely event they are still in business. (Apparently, many of them set up a business, work for 10 years, then shut down the business so they don't have to deal with installation issues. Then they start up a new business with a new name. And repeat the pattern. It's really dishonest and I don't understand how they continue to get away with it.)  Rather than let it continue to rot out the roof framework we made the difficult decision to just replace the roof again.

Anyway, we decided to get an Interlock Metal Roof. The company has been in business for a really long time and I can't find bad reviews or evidence of dishonesty. With any luck, their claims that you never need another roof are true. We probably won't be here long enough to have to worry about it in any case. Unfortunately, it's late enough in the season that we may have to wait until spring before they'll be able to put it on. (They don't install roofs when it's raining.)

We also are buying LeafGuard Gutters. We had them long ago when we lived in Forest Grove and we really liked that we never had to clean them so we're getting them again. They'll be installed after the new roof is put on so we have to deal with the bad rain situation for another winter.

We also hired Conserva Irrigation to install drip irrigation for us. We've been wanting to put it in ourselves for the past several years, but it is clear we just are not motivated to do it. The new system will be installed to code and there will be a controller and we should be able to program it to run on a schedule, unlike the original plan to just attach it to hoses to make it work. They'll be starting that work in a couple of weeks.

Finally, I hope the last thing, we hired Pride and Joy Landscape, to help us get the yard back into shape.  They took away two trailers full of yard waste and everything is looking much tidier. But, I'll be honest, they did remove several plants I would have preferred they leave, but that is my fault for not marking them better, or doing a better job communicating which plants I wanted to save. After the irrigation is put in, they're going to come back out and help us spread mulch for the winter. And I'll probably move some plants around into better locations once we'll be able to water them more easily.

Before the clean up, it was hard to see but we could no longer find the path,
and many plants were growing over each other.

The columnar apple tree in front of the house had gotten a little out of control
and it was also full of wisteria vines.

I don't have a good before photo of this bed. Generally, the plants
reached the bottom branches of the apple tree and the apple tree
had many lower branches so this space is opened up quite a lot now.

So, yeah, that's a lot of upcoming work. We're spending way too much money on this house again. I haven't even added it all up and I'm sure I don't want to. But at least Jeff is working again so it won't all be coming out of savings.

Cleaning the House Exterior

We have waited too long to deal with some exterior house maintenance issues. The gutters with screens on top didn't really do the job for us. They'd probably be better if your house wasn't surrounded by tall trees. The leaves just sat on top of the screens and in heavy rains the water backed up onto the roof and over the past 10 years, it's done some damage to the roof structure. I am not going to crawl up there and take a bunch of photos, but you can see this area easily from the ground.

Anyway, we decided to buy LeafGuard Gutters. We had them at our last house and really liked them. And they have the feature that if they ever get clogged, they'll come and clean them for free. Though, I will say, OMG the salesman wasted so much of our time. He spent 3 hours selling us gutters when he could have done it in under an hour.  We already knew their benefits and that we wanted them, but they won't give you the price until they go through their lengthy pre-programmed spiel. They'll be installed sometime next month.

We also decided to hire folks to clean the exterior of the house. The roof, the exterior windows, and the siding. I am in the process of gathering estimates. I'd like to have everything done and installed by the time the rainy season starts in late-September or October.

Gutters Installed

After the pouring rain yesterday, and some slight water infiltration at the back of the basement, we were quite grateful when the gutter guys showed up this morning. At the recommendation of two other local blogs, we hired Great NW Gutters.

We only got one downspout installed, the rest of the gutters have rain chains. We may end up regretting the one on the back corner, though, because it is so tall. Time will tell. If it doesn't work well in winds, we'll have it replaced with a downspout.

The rain chains are Lotus flowers and were purchased from Overstock.com with a 10% off coupon. Compared to the prices at local stores, they were a bargain!

We provided the rain chains, but the gutter guys were nice enough to hang them for us. Now we have lots of work directing all this water into the rain gardens.

Progress on Roof

Jeff and Sharon were pretty excited at the prospect of a quiet four day weekend—then the roofers asked if they could work. Tough decision, but it's still raining and our roof has been covered in plastic for a couple weeks now. We were ready for the roof to get put on.

The correct color shingles were delivered on Friday morning.The roofers were out by Friday afternoon beginning the install, right up until the time it started pouring down bucketfulls—then they called it a day. Sharon was just as glad; it surely wasn't safe for them to be working in that weather. The weather today has proved to be much nicer. Mostly overcast with some occasional sun.

This afternoon they finally shingled a portion we could actually see! We've got a green roof!!As a reminder, this is the exterior inspiration photo we finally settled on. Of course, in 1912 the roof would surely have been cedar shingles. We're not going that route because we don't want to deal with the ongoing maintenance. We instead chose 50-year composite shingles recommended by Consumers Reports and hopefully won't have to do anything with the roof again while we live here.The roofers seem to be making good progress and may finish on Monday. Yes, they're working the holiday too! Sigh. We hope our neighbors don't get mad at us.

This last bit was added months later: Sharon discovered Sears was selling red and green-colored asphalt shingles in 1903. Here is an advertisement from their 1903 Modern Plumbing catalog. So, maybe our roof is a bit more period than we thought.

Wrong Color

A very large delivery truck came out this morning to deliver our new roofing shingles. It was a neat truck that could lift the pallets right up onto the roof.

But when Sharon went out to take pictures she noticed those packages said the shingles were black. We ordered green! So, they turned around and took the pallets back off the roof and headed back to their warehouse. They'll be back in a few days with the right color. We're glad we noticed today instead of after they started installing them!

We also got a delivery of very long siding pieces.

Paint Stripping Almost Done!

Jimmy is getting really close to finishing the dining room. He'll surely finish in the next couple of days. We're getting closer and closer to our goal of stained woodwork.

This week Craftsman Design has a subcontractor working on sheetrocking the house. He's doing a nice smooth-coated finish, to make it look like plaster; there will be no orange peel texture in this house! Though, it takes much more time to do it right. Also, CDR went through before the sheetrock was hung and made sure all the walls were plumb.

Today, the roofers finally started. The roof is too far up to get good pictures, but the house is getting that much uglier for a few days. I don't actually know when the new roof goes on; it sounds like there might be a delay and it might go on after the siding, at least on the front of the house, so the siding crew won't have to walk on the new shingles.
This is the low point as far as street appeal of our house.
They'll be having insulation blown in very soon!