Tag Archives: roof

LIVE

the roof pitch

dog and pony show

Roof shopping.. Who-du-thunk it’d be this tedious.

In shopping for bids – I filled out one of those “info cards” for a company called Thomas Construction.. They’re the largest company in town and figured it’d be informative to get a price from the “big guys” to compare with the “Pop & Son” outfit who gave us the first price.

A rep from Thomas called and set up a time to come over….

I thought it’d be like the last bid.. Some woofy guy in work boots would show up in a big panel truck, jump out, walk around the house, talk a little and get back with us later with a price.

Well…. not so…

The doorbell rang… There in my doorway stood a man holding binder boxes resembling an extra from The Sopranos.

He proceeded to do his “schtick”… which.. actually – was sorta refreshing to see salesmanship these days. It harkened back to the age of door-to-door salesmen who probably knocked on this very same door in the 50’s selling vacuum cleaners and cookware.

“Vinny” (as we’ll refer to him) went through his 3-ring binder presentation complete with Power Point Graphics and photo of the Three Stooges (comic relief).

He generated a price right there on the spot… $17,000 for a roof using their “exclusive lifetime shingles” and various repair work to the trim wood, new gutters, etc.

After I got up off the floor I told him that was a wee bit more than I was expecting.

It was then when the charm of the whole “Salesmanship” thing wore off… Vinny started doing the hard pressure sell thing which invariably turns me off… I sent him on his way with no contract in hand.

He’s since called back and offered a “traditional” shingled roof at a price more down to earth… I told him I’d put him back in the consideration stack.

Now – somebody else from the company has called saying that they’re wanting to do a a couple of jobs at cost do stir up some work for the first part of the season and would like to come out with the “boss” and talk about it with me.

This is either true or a second-tier sales tactic. I suppose the proof is in the pudding and we’ll find out soon.

MEANWHILE, I talked to Chad’s mom who said they just put a metal roof on their house and garage for $7K.

Kevin – though a deft coordinator is a lousy haggler so this “project” has sorta been handed off to me. ughhh… I wish I could just wave a wand and this would all be done.

I’m not blogging… I’m lamenting the occasional headaches of home ownership.

LIVE

the roof, the roof, the roof is…

Kevin cruising, urr.. I mean “watching” the roofer

The insurance adjuster says we’ve got defective shingles and a sloppy install and our only course of action would be to send in some samples of the shingles to the manufacture and ask for some cash towards a new roof.

The good news is homeowners will cover the damage on the inside which means a whole new ceiling in the living room. (and maybe a couple other places). Yippie – now I can stop bending my head trying to figure out how to discretely run wires for the surround sound.

Mr. Insurance recommended a roofer who came out to inspect the roof and give recommendations.

Apparently asking for compensation from the shingle manufacture would be a waste of time since the previous owners didn’t leave any documentation about the last roof install… so this will be coming out of our pockets.

Roofer guy was full in good insight and information.

For example…. What’s the biggest problem with owning a California Modern Ranch?

WE’RE NOT IN CALIFORNIA

The venting, insulation and roof pitch doesn’t like Missouri’s harsh weather extremes.

Fifty-one years later after the house was built – they’ve got new types of moisture barrier stuff and other new-wave materials which will solve these problems.

We quizzed him about a metal roof which he admitted, (making that titillated grunt noise guys make when they see a really tricked out car or a girl in a bikini holding automatic riffles), “heheh.. those are cool.”…. but then warned us that we’d better be ready to lay down 20K for it.

(sigh).. next option.

If I was into this blogging thing – I should figure out how to pull out just entries about the house and organize them as part of an online “journal scrapook” thing about the home’s restoration, history and other stuff. (I’m sure it’ll prove valuable in the future if we ever sell).

LIVE, photography, WORK

hanging in the kitchen

filet for five hundred

The guy the home warranty people sent out seems to think our roof is shot and needs to be replaced. The rub? – That’s not covered by the home warranty – only repairs. Suddenly I feel like tracking down my real estate agent and sticking both feet up her ass for giving me the hard sell to buy the fucking warranty in the first place. (This is the second instance where the warranty’s “fine print” has screwed us – the first thing was the AC unit going out a month after we moved in).

So… We’re researching “Metal Roofing Solutions” .

The biggest part of the day was spent meeting with the ballroom client to review the shots and some concepts I’ve been working on.

What’s important to note is that this was the first “real” photo gig I’ve done for a client. (i.e. – The assignment was to go and take photos! Not snap things on the fly whenever they struck me or I needed content for a campaign pitch or doing favors for friends and/or pet clients).

I was a nervous wreck… Both taking the shots AND showing them.

It was a huge party and they were fully staffed that night… I’d never really spent any time in a professional kitchen in full swing before.

I tried not to rubber-neck the bearish boys running around in their “little chef’s outfits” and keep focused on the task at hand: Capture images of food and staff.

I went into “transparent mode” and within a half an hour nobody seemed to notice me.

I’ve got a whole new respect for mass-cooking. I’d be hard pressed to whip up multi-course surf and turf dinner for a few friends, let alone five hundred people. It was like being in a control room for a TV show.. The head chef kept an eye on clock and would regularly bark out commands… “Alright folks – we go salads in five!”.

The moral of the story is I got about 15 useable images we can use in ads and on the web, the client was stupid thrilled and I’m getting more confident about adding photography to our menu of services.

I’m sure if I had a blog or something where I could experiment with my abandoned discipline for months prior, it would have helped me get over the constant, nagging, neurotic insecurity that I suck.

 

high end desserts