The Siding Project

     About a year ago now, it hailed.  

    Then began the lengthy process of notifying the insurance company, scheduling with the adjuster, waiting to see how much the company would pay, if anything.

      The roof was okay.  The metal roof suffered a bit of “cosmetic damage” the adjuster said.  Before the company would pay anything, the roof had to suffer damage so severe that it would leak.  That was okay.  After all, hail--proofing the roof was one reason to put the metal roof up in the first place. 

     The poor old vinyl siding took in the shorts yet again.  It would be the fourth application for the north and west sides of the house since the vinyl first covered the old cedar in the 1980’s.

In July, a check for some $30K arrived. 

      I was somewhat taken aback at the size of the check.  Until I started looking for a siding contractor.  It was also time to hail—proof the siding.  Vinyl wasn’t going to do it.  I also decided that this project, though not as daunting as the roof project, was one I wouldn’t try to do myself.

      Then began the task of finding a contractor that would do the job.  The first one I contacted would not send a crew out so far in the boonies to do a siding job.  They would, however, send out a crew to replace the rain gutter system. 

      Finally, one company sent out a salesman from Colorado Springs.  He measured and took photos.  His estimate, arriving a couple of days later, was over $50K.  A bit much, I thought.  We dickered for a while. 

     They offered a vinyl product that was supposed to be more hail—tolerant, but the price was very little less than the James Hardie product.  I wasn’t willing to pay that amount, so I kept on looking.

     The rain gutter guy was local.  When he came to measure for that job, he recommended a local contractor.  By the time the local siding guy came out, looked, estimated, we were into Fall.  He said he could get started in December, and he did get started.

      I made a down payment in December to cover the cost of materials.  But the job wasn’t done until January.  Still, all right, except for income tax purposes.  I had the insurance check in July, but I didn’t spend it all in 2018, so I had an augmented income without the expenses.  Oh well, the accountant said.  You will show a loss next year.

      The project went over estimate, too.  That was because the contractor didn’t plan to remove the old cedar siding, just the vinyl.  When he got to the cedar, he decided it needed to come off, too.  I concurred. 

      Then there were the south windows upstairs that Paul replaced 30 years ago.  Why he put in the undersized windows I’ll never know, but the time to change them was now, if ever we were going to do it.

      More shopping, this time window—shopping.  I tried a Loveland outfit, but after our initial conversation via telephone, I could never get a hold of the guy again.  They didn’t answer the office phone, nor the cell phone number he gave me.

     On impulse, I stopped at Lowe’s.  They had Pella windows on sale.  I ordered.  They arrived while we were tripping to Denmark, Ireland, and Iceland.  I took on the old south porch window by myself.

      I enlisted help for the upstairs ones.  The big job happened on a couple of nice days in November.

      It would be several months later before the inside work would be done.

     The siding job got mostly done in January.  The crew dodged a couple of stormy patches.  They have a few details to complete.  Spring weather and their schedule haven’t coincided yet.

      We’re good, until it hails again.