..the roof saga continues....

OK. A recap for those who are visiting for the first time... I have been told by a gentleman cleaning out my gutters that my roof is in need of repair so I begin the process of getting roofers over to give me a bid.

So the first "bidder" climbs up on the roof and begins his inspection and measurements. Before I know it he is espousing all kinds of grave problems that he sees while up there...rotting wood, loose shingles, leaking...yada yada yada. His bid comes in at $11,500 with a time estimate of the job taking approximately 3 full days.

Once I got over the shock and the realization that he was dead serious, I decided to get some more opinions...and, hopefully, lower bids.

I call several highly recommended roofers and the second one "arrives" the next day. Now I emphasize the word "arrives" because he never actually got up on my roof...in fact, he never even got out of his car! Instead he called to tell me that he had driven by my house and felt that the roof was too steep for him to get up on. He apologized and said that he and his 'crew' (he and his son!) could not do this big of a job for me. I must tell you that my house is just your typical split level and I never really thought of it as having a really steep roof. It made me wonder if this gentleman had possibly selected the wrong profession...especially if he had a fear of heights or getting up on roofs... : O

Anyway, the third "bidder" arrives full of enthusiasm and positive energy as he makes his way up to my roof. He says that he will need about 20 minutes up there to see all that he has to see...so I head back into the house and let him do his thing.

I hear him moving around up there while I am inside hoping and praying for a better (and cheaper!) report. Suddenly he is at my door with a look on his face like a little kid who has some bad news to tell his mom.

Interestingly enough, he says that my roof is pretty sound underneath the old, loose shingles (what happened to the "rotting wood", etc.?). Since there are already two layers of shingles on it (the law prevents him from putting a third layer on it), his crew would have to remove all of the shingles...and, I he said, I must "realize that it is a large area to be reshingled". At this point, I began to do my deep-breathing exercises in preparation for his bid.

It didn't help....he quickly handed me a business card where he had written his estimate as though he didn't want to have to have to actually say the numbers out loud....he was only a couple hundred dollars less than the first bid. He estimated that the job would take two weeks to complete.

At this point I am wondering if we are still talking about the same roof that bidder #1 climbed up on??!

Totally confused, I have now put calls in to a few other roofers for a bid on the job....

Stay tuned!