a story » roof

Hoa Boy

admin — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:50:45 +0000

Our first tenants moved out at the end of November, and a new tenant moved in on December 1st. He seemed fairly normal and his previous landlord gave a good reference. I trusted him. On the 1st he said he wasn’t able to get to the bank that day, but would pay his rent the following day. We signed the tenancy agreement. It’s now Dec. 10 and he hasn’t paid his rent yet. We gave him a 10-day notice to pay rent but he hasn’t been home for three days, so it’s not until today does he have five days to pay rent — and Friday is likely his payday. While we need the money, I really just want him to move out. I don’t trust him, obviously, because he’s lied about a few things. Like smoking. We specifically asked in our ad for non-smokers, because even when someone smokes on the patio, we can smell it inside our house and outside as well. It severely inhibits our enjoyment of our yard. As well, there are all these red flags coming up, like the fact that he doesn’t use cheques and doesn’t have a bank card. Something about “fraud” with his bank account.

I am not happy. In fact, I’m quite stressed about the situation. We are good people and great landlords, and we certainly don’t deserve this. And there doesn’t seem to be an easy way out, apart from him not paying rent in the next five days. And even then, we will have to take action in order to recoup our monetary losses. Can you believe there is no legal way to evict a tenant for knowingly providing false information at time of rental? That’s absurd. Even if he pays his rent in five days, there isn’t a way for us to evict him legally. Argh! I’m furious!

In other news, our new roof isn’t leaking, yah! However, the roofers took down a broken gutter and we haven’t been able to find anyone to install a new one. So, there is too much water rolling down the lower roof when it rains, and we have to place tarps and plastic around our front stairs. Otherwise the water seeps into the suite bathroom and wall in the bedroom closet. Sigh. We’ve called every single company in the Yellow Pages, and not one will do our gutters, for a variety of reasons.

Owning an old home is stressful.

On and on…

admin — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:30:20 +0000

It’s week four and they are still working on our roof. On and on it goes, but finally there is a light at the end of this tunnel. Hopefully they will be finished for the weekend, although I am not sure that will happen. We’re getting pretty frustrated, but happy that they’ve been finally working hard this week. The other weeks? Not so much. One week it rained three days and they didn’t work at all. They don’t work weekends. One guy went on a walkabout and didn’t show up until Thursday. So now we know why they were the cheapest, and this is a solid case of “you get what you pay for.”

But the roof is looking good and I’m happy it’s almost done. No worrying about the roof this winter. And we’re having the chimney chase repaired too, so we can use the wood stove when we need it. Yah!

Raisin’ the Roof

admin — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:13:26 +0000

We wavered on and off for a couple of months about whether or not to have the roof reshingled. We finally decided to go for it and hired the local guy for a reasonable price. The roof was in really bad shape, so I’m glad we’re having it done. One of the gutters was falling off (rotten fascia board). There were four layers of shingles, one from 1915 (some shingles still have the paper label on the bottom). We’re not sure, but it could be the first roof ever for the house! (Or perhaps it was the second. It would help to know what year the house was built.) But that means all those shingles are really, really old. And grungy. Oh, and stinky too. It’s gross.

Our yard is a mess. I can hardly wait for this to be over… The new shingles and chimney will look awesome!

In other Insane News, we had two privacy screens built. One is on the side yard by the hammock so we don’t have to look at our neighbour’s vehicles while relaxing. See those jasmine vines? I planted them and they’ve already started climbing the trellis.

The other trellis is at the back of the property to block the little bit of traffic we can see and hear.Â This one is crazy. It’s 10 feet high and I think almost 30 feet long. Ty and I painted it black since it will take a while for the vines to fill up all that space. We love the new screens. We thought it would be hilarious to hang up some canvas on the trellis and play an old movie in our backyard. We’d invite all the neighbours and serve popcorn and punch. We’ll see if that actually happens, but it’s a fun idea.

The shed is just on the left side of the photo. (The new backyard swing? It’s just over on the right on the screen. Weee!) I’m going to paint the shed soon, so I’ll post a better photo of it all soon. There’s 13 feet between the neighbour’s fence and our screen. Once the vines are grown in a bit, we’ll use that space for a compost and storage. I also have plans to make a Secret Garden back there. Oh gilly!