the roof story i promised months ago

In mid-march, we had some tornadoes in the area that brought a great deal of hail while we waited in the stairwell. Hail, I'm fine with. Tornadoes, notsomuch.


Since late spring, FIVE roofs on our street have been replaced in a three-house radius of ours. That's a lot. But, what we believed should have been a simple, "Contact your insurance, we'll meet them and you'll get an estimate if they agree" became a really big fat hairy mess. That initial look-over took place the night my hubby had his ER visit. Yup, it's been a long wait.

The first (older) insurance adjuster came to my door and said we had a steep roof and he'd need a steep-roof team to check it out later, but he'd do a preliminary look. Greeaat. When he was done and the contractor had gone, the adjuster came back to my door and said we didn't have roof damage, he'd gone ahead and climbed up there himself, and here was a (paltry) check for the dings and dents in the vents and screens. Huh??

A few phone calls later my husband said the adjuster claimed the contractor told him we didn't have any damage. Yeah, that didn't make any sense at all. Especially since the contractor's version of the story was still that we had damage and hey -- that's how he'd get paid! Weird. I seriously wonder if the adjuster had poor hearing. No joke. That, and if he went up on a roof partway -- since he was unable to go all the way -- he might have missed seeing a lot of things up there called DAMAGE.

Next step: get a completely new contractor and have a completely new adjuster assigned to our case. Uncool, people. The first contractor was no longer allowed to get the job and he'd been NICE and COMPETENT to boot.

I saw an ad, I called a roofing company and I got an estimate. The guy agreed there was damage and (theoretically) sent an estimate to the insurance company. Then he had to come back because the insurance company said they never got it and the new contractor had "misplaced" some measurements.

And so it went, all summer long. My favorite way this would play out is when the two separate appointments for the new contractor and adjuster had to meet up would not happen because the contractor failed to show. ARGH. There was a third time they couldn't meet because it was raining.

Meanwhile, roofs all around us were being replaced, one after the other. And here we sat feeling our lives spin out of control (for reasons other than the roof; that was just icing on top) all summer long. My husband actually had a very long chit-chat with the general manager of the roofing company a week after his surgery. It was already a day of too much talking, so he paid dearly for it. Poor man.

Today, they finally met up at the same time and yes, we need a new roof. That is the best news we've had for months and months. No kidding. One extra reason it is great is that the week we moved in our back porch got a major leak that has only gotten worse for the past two years--it leaks down through the ceiling fan out there (I had to remove the glass light cover since it used to fill up with water, and yet the light bulb continued to work -- so weird).

Anyhow, that's my roof story and I'm stickin' to it. Who knows how long it will take to get the thing done from here, BUT it's finally approved and that, my friends is a major relief.