I just heard a guy on a Cops re-run talking about how some guys were trying to break into his house and he said: "There was three of 'em, and they were dressed like tinja nerdles."



The roof on this house is flat wood shingles, not shakes. It is 30 years old and every time it storms, pieces of it end up in the yard. For several years we have tried to get a bid on a new metal roof to replace them. One advantage of metal in this area is resistance to sparks from forest fires.

I decided to try once again and called yet another company. When the guy showed up, I said "You are the third guy to come give us an estimate. They poke around the roof for an hour, say they'll get back to us with the bid and we never hear from them again. We call and call and they won't even answer their phone.

"If you plan to do this, don't waste your time and my time, just tell me now that you don't want this job. And if you do take the measurements and then decide you don't want the job, please at least have the courage to tell us."

He said the reason probably is that our roof has a lot of angles, it's relatively steep, and the delivery trucks would not be able to make the sharp turn to get across our bridge. The estimators just gather the data, and then the owners decide they don't want to do the job.

I can understand all that, but you see all kinds of buildings in remote areas with new roofs. If they charge enough, they should be able to overcome any obstacle, and we are starting to get desperate.

Hallelujah! They called today and the company will do the job. Not cheap, but cheaper than what I'd feared. It'll be a lot of disruption and I'll probably have to give big discounts to the renters next door to make up for the last of peace and quiet, but we'll worry about that when it comes up.

If we'd been able to get this new roof last year, there would have been a $500 tax break, but can't look back.