Sprick Roofing started tearing off the old shingle roof on Tuesday (7/31). They're finding a lot of damaged beams, but we expected that. Brian spent yesterday rebuilding the valley above the "sunroom" while I finished stripping the front door. I can't imagine tearing off old shingles on a 95 degree day with the dust & dirt present in such an old roof. The roofers were black with dirt by the time they quit for the day. They're pleasant guys: friendly and very hard-working. They started laying new shingles on the west side yesterday. Several neighbors stopped by to say how happy they are that the new roof is finally happening, and that we chose to replace it with cedar shingles. I can't wait to see how it looks when it's finished!
We were on the August 14 agenda for the Historic Resources Commission until the City planning department discovered a code that throws a huge monkey wrench into our parking lot plans. It seems that not only are we required to have access to our parking lot off the alley, but we must also widen the alley by 3 feet, and pave it at our expense! That kills our plans for a nice landscaped buffer zone between the alley and our parking lot. Now it will just be asphalt. Nothing green! It also has us, the City Forester, and the arborists I've talked to worried about the old walnut tree. The tree is up against the existing alley, and our concern is that the paving will kill the tree. We're trying to come up with alternate plans, but there's apparently no way to get around paving it all. We'd hate to see that tree die as it is not only very attractive, but also should reduce our cooling cost in summer. Stay tuned for developments!
