Our house was built in 1830 and moved to its current location around 1880. I’m not sure when the back porch was turned into an enclosed room, but it had been long enough that leaks were forming on our ceiling. Last winter, the ice build up led to water dripping inside our windows! Patches just didn’t do the job, so we finally decided to pull the thing apart.

Several weeks ago, my dad and mom came up to help out. Dad and I pulled up some of the old wood which had rotted and become home to some rather large black ants. Uggh. At the end of the day we had framed in new 2×10’s, a new facia board, and several layers of plywood.

Since then, I have installed a layer of rubberized Ice Guard to cover most of the roof. But yesterday several wet spots on the celing proved that more needed to be done. So, Mike Haselow came over last night and we used up the rest of the roll. Two things were against us: (1) the 30 lb. tar paper was soaked, and (2) we ran out of Ice Guard. What to do? Here’s what we did. The back of Ice Guard is sticky and is covered with clear plastic strips of material which are removed before installation. So … “Hey Katie! Bring up some of that clear stuff!” Sure enough, it held out the water during last night’s rain.

Today, Mike and I installed two rolls of rubberized roll roofing, a few shingles, and vinyl facia covers. Besides getting goopy with roofing cement and having to wash it off with gasoline (another reason I don’t smoke), things turned out fairly well — even if I do say so myself. Thank you to all who helped with the roof: Dad, Mike, Sharon, Jefferson, Katie, and Trenton. It probably would not have gotten done without each of you. I’m thankful also that the Lord held back the rain during construction in answer to our prayers.