A while back, I opined that it was time to get the retaining walls in my lower yard replaced, and pondered doing it myself vs. hiring somebody who knows what they’re doing to take care of it.
I opted for the latter, and had a number of people come out to take a look and give me some estimates. While they were here, I also asked each of them to give me an estimate on rebuilding my deck. One guy, basically a handyman who came highly recommended, stood out with his estimates for both the walls and the deck, and so I hired him to replace the deck. I didn’t have the money to do both, the deck was a bit cheaper, and I wanted to get something done that I’d be able to SEE right away.
So, as of May 23rd, I have a new deck. Not only is it not falling over. Not only does it not have a horrible paint job. Not only does it not have those stupid built-in benches that some decks have. Not only is it not attached to the side of my house (it’s attached to the foundation). But also – it’s 8 feet longer than my old one was. It’s a really nice deck. The guy was able to re-use a lot of my old deck (most of the supports, for example, were fine – they just needed to be set in concrete), got everything leveled up, extended it to the end of my house (where it logically should have gone to begin with), and built a new set of steps there. It looks amazing, and – now that I’ve put up a screen house on it that my neighbor calls, “The Bourbon Barn,” I’m spending just about every morning out there drinking coffee and watering the lawn, and just about every every evening drinking bourbon and reading. In short, I’m using the deck, which – honestly – I really haven’t done in 20 years.
At the same time that I was getting estimates for the walls and deck, I was working with a roofer and State Farm (again) to try to get my roof replaced. I first put in a claim with State Farm in about 2008 because water was leaking into my master bath. It was declined. Since then, I’ve tried two more times to get my roof replaced, and State Farm turned me down both times. A few months ago, I replaced my front door, and saw water literally pouring out of the front wall of the house once the door was removed. I took the opportunity to rip up a large section of my water-damaged foyer floor. I also vowed that State Farm was going to replace the roof THIS QUARTER or I’d be insurance shopping.
State Farm sent a guy out to look at the roof. He found a few large holes. I also showed him the foyer floor, the garage ceiling and walls (evident water damage to both), and he went on his way. And about two weeks later, miracle of miracles, State Farm agreed to replace the roof.
That is being done today. The roofing crew was onsite by about 6:20 this morning. It is now 3:40 in the afternoon, and I believe that they’re finishing up on the ridge vents and getting ready to start cleaning up. After 12 years, I’ve got a new roof. It looks amazing, and – assuming that I don’t have water in my foyer after the next heavy rain – I can now begin focusing on replacing the floors in the house. I’ve wanted to do this for years, but could not until I got the leaks taken care of for good.
What about the retaining walls? Well, they’re on the docket, too. While I’ve been doing all this other stuff, I’ve also been in the process of refinancing the house and pulling some money out to do all of these improvements. I’m now in the final stages of that project – waiting for the mortgage company to give me a closing date. They’re at the point of verifying my employment and insurance, and I’m fairly sure that I’ll be able to close within a week or two. As soon as that happens and the money is in my account, I’ll get one more estimate on the retaining walls and then pull the trigger on that project. The floors downstairs will come next. Then upstairs. Then I start looking at the kitchen.
Solutions. I’m getting them.