Cruised home to a new roof!

There is nothing like cruising to the gold coast of Mexico and then coming home to a brand new roof. It's amazing what a difference that new roof makes when you take in the initial visual of the house.

Though the roof color remains pretty much the same, the first thing we noticed is the glaring absence of the chimney. Removing the fireplace is part of the remodeling project. And before you cry "Sacrilege!!," please keep in mind that we live in Houston, aka Hell's Little Waiting Room. The fireplace hasn't been used since the first Bush administration, and we have plans for all those bricks that are basically sucking up valuable square footage in the family room. You will see in later phase photographs that the fireplace is poorly situated in the room. With the exception of providing a mantle for holding the 3 holiday cards we get each year, we are hard pressed to build an argument to save the fireplace from extinction.

The second most noticeable feature of the new roof is the ridge venting that was installed. Again, since we live in a hot climate, an improved system of ventilating the attic can only be a good thing. Add to that the addition of the radiant barrier, which smiles at us in all its silver fabulousness from the garage ceiling, and we may actually realize an energy savings. Good for us, good for the environment. It's a win-win.

Last, though hardly least, we jumped for joy at the disappearance of all of the rain gutters. These aluminum torture devices shall darken our roof line no more. We can say goodbye to hours spent climbing on ladders and digging through wet leaves and tree gunk, and I can stop backing down the driveway and denting the gutter pipe that ran down the corner of the house. Yet another win-win.

So, faithful followers, Remodeling 1070 is off to a solid start. We will post some before, during and after pictures of the roof shortly. Then it's on to Phase II: picking out materials for and beginning the overhaul of the master bedroom, closets and bathrooms. This is the first phase that includes sharing the remaining bathroom with a teenage daughter.

I can now stop saying, "What's the point of having a stocked liquor cabinet?"