Thursday, November 16, 2006

This Old House

This old house leaked with yesterday’s downpours. While I’m thankful to still have a roof over my head, it is now a roof that must be repaired. And I need a roofer. Do you know of one?

I don’t think I’ve written about the house before. She’s an older beauty, with high ceilings to reflect the era (early 1930s) when she came to life. Nearly four years ago, we bought her from two professors who had bought her from the Greenhaws. Now, if you are familiar with Montgomery you probably recognize this name. Sally was a judge in Montgomery for many years, and Wayne is a former newspaperman and author of many books about the South and Alabama.

The house will be way too big for us after Scott leaves for college next year, and she’ll go on the market again. We’ve enjoyed her though. She has, as they say, character and charm like an aging Southern grand dame.

But where’s Angie when you need her?

7 comments:

Don said...

Gee, Sheila, I wish I could remember the name of the man who did our last roofing job because he was slow with only one helper, but a lot less expensive than others who gave an estimate, and he did a great job.

I might suggest a couple of things: [1] ask around among people whose opinions you respect for recommendations [2] go to the al.com Montgomery Forum @ http://www.al.com/forums/montgomery/ and enter a post asking readers of the forum for their recommendations.

An honest roofing contractor I know is Representative Mike Ball but unfortunately he‘s in Madison, AL. How many other representatives have you heard of who actually work on roofs, or how many have you heard of who are honest, for that matter?

Sheila said...

Don, thanks. I'll check there. I really do wish we'd get an Angie's List. I've even thought about starting a Sheila's List. Ha.

You know we have a devil of a time finding people since my husband is not handy, and finally a colleague of my husband got her handyman-type husband to help us. He's good and honest but has a full-time job.

When a tree fell on our fence this summer, we got a wonderful company, Central Alabama Fence to fix it. And a tree guy named Chris got right over the same morning to remove the giant tree. I just feel like these guys deserve a big old pat on the back, because they help make up for the guys who say, "I'll be by on such and such day." And I never see hide nor hair of them again.

Tim said...

If it'd help, I'd send you a list of trustworthy contractors from here, but eh . . . of course that wouldn't help. The last group of Norwegians that went to the U.S. en masse were held up in Arkansas by FEMA and Homeland Security (hurricane).

Unknown said...

Shiela, Glad to hear that you weathered the storm! I thought of you and Rosemary when I heard the news.

Sheila said...

Thanks Janey. It was pretty bad but not as bad as North Carolina. We, at least, had warning sirens and the local tv stations were right on top of the situation with information.

Anonymous said...

Warning sirens? What good do they do for the 10% of the population that is deaf or hard-of-hearing?

I was incensed a year or two ago when the Mayor announced, with great pride, the siren system. No concern was given for this population.

Sheila said...

Jay, thank goodness you are around to point out stuff like this. It seems like when we lived in Illinois that there was a system to warn deaf folks via a kind of reverse 911 system. What do you think would be a good solution to notify people like yourself?