The man's side of it!

My brother Tim came over today to help me put a new roof on our utility shed. Actually he did all the work and I just assisted him. The shed is attached to our house and our hot water heater is in there. We have a problem with our water softener and need to have it serviced. Unfortunately it is in the crawlspace and I can't get in there (too big!). The salt tank is under there too and when it needs salt our son Billy has to go under the house to load it.

So since the water conditioning guy has to come out and do all kinds of work to the unit anyway I figured he could move the salt tank to the utility shed. Billy will be going away to college next year and I don't think our daughters will want to go into the dirty crawlspace. When the company came out to estimate the job the first thing the guy said was, "Do you have heat out there?" Nope, and it wasn't insulated either! So I had to get it ready for the guy to come. I pulled out all the shelves that were in there, Ran some electricity for a heater and a light, put up some insulation and noticed that the roof was leaking. Fortunately Tim used to do roofing, and agreed to come over and help.

The old shingles were torn off and then Tim noticed that the plywood underneath was all rotted and water soaked. Rats! I said. Tim and I drove to the local lumber yard and got the plywood. He measured the roof for what we needed and I cut the piece to fit. Then next came the tar paper and then the shingles. Tim did a very professional job and the roof looked like brand new. I acted as the gofer and handed him stuff while he was up on the roof doing all the work. I probably could have done it myself but I'm terribly afraid of heights.

What a blessing it is to have a big family. Every one of my brothers (I have four brothers and a sister) and sister have special talents and it's nice to be able to help and be helped by them.

Thanks Tim for all your help!