Roofers and Door

Yesterday the roofers began, even though it was raining on them, off and on, a tad. Today they made a lot of progress. They have the plywood and roll paper up on two portions of the roof. They had to tarp the other side of the portion showing in the picture due to running out of time today and it is supposed to rain tomorrow. This October freaky rainy weather is playing heck with the roof project.

The guy in the woodsy camo hunting jacket is Rick the Roofer and in charge of the youngsters up on the roof. He is 50, and according to his work crew, can do EVERYTHING in the world of home improvement. He cut all the branches off the tree that was touching the house so I did not need a tree trimmer after all, and even cut down the ugly evergreen that was overgrown and right next to the back porch. I have learned that all you have to do is say, "Rick, can you...........?", and he will say, "Sure thing," and he will "get er' done." Rick says that he has been doing home improvement since he was 15 years old and can do it all. Good enough for me. I am keeping Rick's number on speed dial.

While the roofers roofed, my favorite and only brother in law pulled the Franklin fireplace out of the kitchen. I thought it was a wood burner but he discovered it was a gas fireplace. Thus, I had to shut off the gas, which I wasn't using yet anyway, and then cap off the pipe after he yanked the fireplace out of there. One of the youngsters who was on the ground and in charge of hauling the shingles to the dumpster was kind enough to help my 72 year old brother in law get the fireplace out of the house and in his truck. My brother in law is going to find someone out in the wilds of southern Missouri who may be in need of such an object d' warmth so that it does not go to waste. Removal of the fireplace has made the kitchen appear much roomier already.

After my brother in law left for home around 2 p.m., my sister helped me pull the dropped ceiling out of the sunroom. Also, after yanking that out we discovered a glued on tile ceiling, a plaster ceiling and some funky styrofoam insulation that had to be yanked out.

OH, and my sis and bro brought a set of their scaffolding which we set up in the dining room. After my sister leaves and I am alone, I will work on cleaning the walls in the dining room and fixing slight cracks, holes etc., in the plaster. The scaffolding will be such a BIG help. My sis and bro in law are the greatest.

OHHHH... and before I call it a day......here is a picture of the front door before I spruced it up. (I did this weeks ago, and was actually my first act of love for "The Beast." Well, I DID put that brass plate behind the top lock before taking the "before" picture.

The door is actually pretty cool because it is super thick and all REAL wood. The screen door was pretty funky due to it being ugly silver aluminum (as screen doors have a tendency to be), and pretty pocked from age. I took the screen door down, cleaned it, sanded it, and painted it with Rustoleum "Hammered" Black. The "hammered" paint gives it a pretty cool nubby look. I liked it so much I painted the door trim and the front door with it, too. I don't think the front door is as nubby as it should be, but eventually I am going to put another coat on the front door and the trim around the outside. I also replaced the doorknob and dead bolt with black ones and used brass trim behind them which makes me happy.

As a final touch I used Gallery Glass Art Paint, and gave the glass in the door a little stained glass effect.

Ta Da!