Sunday, December 7, 2008

A New Bonnet for the Old Lady – Part II

The roofing job for the Laura Hawkins house continued on and off weather permitting. Here was the work in progress:


The worksite ...


A few final touches, and ...


Laura's crowing glory in now in place ...


A tourist's view of the job.


The rest of the roof is now in place.


Luckily, no one fell or suffered an injury. The only mishap was the loss of a $400 ladder taken from the worksite overnight. A few months earlier, another contractor had lost an entire slat of shingles on an area job, also in the dead of night. So, it pays to have insurance and it doubly pays to hire only insured contractors for expensive jobs like this. "This was one of the toughest roofing jobs we've had because of the pitch" said Mike. " Glad to have had you on the job, Mike.


Despite the incidents of property theft, help is on the way for our emerging and growing neighborhood. With more folks discovering Hannibal, neighborhood networks that look out for each other have expanded. In only one year alone, our neighborhood saw some forced evictions by the bank and new owners.


Property mishaps (which are generally par for the business) aside, we lucked out in a major way by dodging a freak hailstorm which hit Hannibal the month before our roofing job commenced. The storm created many claims for dented autos and damaged rooves in Hannibal. Our own roofing contractor, Mike turned down roughly 70 roofing jobs in this bonanza for roofing contractors in the area.


Here’s a U-Tube video showing the torrent. This was taken just west of the downtown area:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxDWkqXFjH0

In our neighborhood, a small river of these globules made its way down our street.


With the installation of a new roof, we reached another milestone in the reconstruction of this Victorian home back to its original state and purpose. Like most Victorian homes, it was there to protect a family from the harshness of the world. Strict rules were laid down for this, meaning the house was to be kept neat and clean and to be a place where peace was preserved and order and comfort kept up.


Afternoon tea was a popular pastime in the homes
of proper Victorian women.


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