We made our offer with that in mind and just hoped we could get a couple more years out of the original roof. Now, we knew that there had been issues with water leaking in the attic since the home inspector found it but we had the previous owners replace the flashing around the chimney as advised by the inspector.
Then we had a stormy day in March and found water damage on the ceiling in the living room. We called in a great guy who looked around and felt like new shingles would solve the problem. Within a few weeks, his crew was spending the entire day on the roof and giving me a headache (note: if you're having your house re-shingled, don't plan on staying in the house or at least have Tylenol handy).
The original shingles were a lighter multi-color with some green but we went with a much darker and more dimensional shingle. This really changed the look of the house (especially because the design of our house shows so much of the roof).
We were sittin' pretty with our new roof until another spring storm rolled through. A new water spot showed up beside the first one in the living room. We called the roofer and he came to check things out again. He found the dormer window upstairs had a gap under the ledge that when the rain fell at the perfect angle, it would come in the house. This was an easy fix with about 10 minutes and some caulk. Update: we are still having issues with leaking when we have a bad storm. We are hoping new siding will fix the problem completely. One of the perks of being a homeowner is there is always a new problem/project to complete. :)
We were a little bummed that our new roof didn't help the leak. But, in the end, we have a new roof that will last for a long time and has added value to our home! We were also excited to check another major upgrade off our list. We still have a few more projects that we will do over the next couple of years that will continue to improve our nest.
It may surprise some of you how many things we've done to this house in under four years but we've done it all as we are able to pay cash for each project. We purchased a home on the low end of our budget so we have been able to afford these nice upgrades. If we had purchased another home we liked, none of these projects would have been possible so quickly.
In the 3 years that have passed since we did this project, we've done several small things and gotten a new HVAC unit. That's not really a blog worthy project but it was a major upgrade! We are saving up for our next projects which are new siding (our little green nest isn't too green right now) and new energy efficient windows. The siding will be a major undertaking and blog worthy project so I'll try to update the blog when that time rolls around. Or a few years after. Be patient with me. ;)
