Monday, May 11, 2009

Back up a tad

Okay Okay Okay! I have learned my lesson! Don't skip over the deliberation of a decision when constructing a narrative. Several lovely bloggy commenters have urged a metal roof, rather than the shingle roof we're planning on. So.... I will back on up and relate our thinking on shingle vs. metal.

When The Husband first started conceiving this crazy craziness, he would often shoot out questions at me seemingly at random. For example:
"Hey, Bob -- doesn't Little G. look cute half way up that gigantic
tree? Oh! How adorable -- he appears to be stuck."
"Hmmm? Yeah - so what kind of stain do you want to put on the
logs? Or do you just want to do a clear coat?"
"What logs are you talking about?"
"Oh - didn't I mention it? I'm building us a log house."

So when he came to the topic of a roof, I assumed shingles and he assumed metal. I tried to get support for shingles everywhere, including ChildhoodBestFriend AmandaTheArchitect. No dice. Metal, metal, everywhere. So, I caved. And then, a miracle occurred. I warmed to the idea of metal. Yeah, metal. Sure, why not? Drumming rain gently carrying me off to sleep.... one roof in my lifetime.... goes on quicker than shingles.... I'm in.

And then The Husband asks me what color shingles I want. EH? Squeeze Me? Turns out, he had started thinking about the issue some more and not just assuming that metal was the better option for us. So. Here are
Bob the Log Builder's Reasons for Choosing Shingles in this one instance:
  1. The log house will still settle a bit and a metal roof won't take that well at all.
  2. Metal is much more expensive as an up-front investment, and - contrary to what you may have assumed about our choice to build our own log house - we have ZERO disposable income. This is the North Country, after all.
  3. Ice build-up on a steep-pitched metal roof is no joke when it comes zooming down at four gazillion miles per hour, right on your head or your car. Until we have lived in the home and can work out where we'll be leaving our cars in the winter, and how to avoid our children being sliced in half by a sheet of ice, it's shingles for us.
  4. We may still decide to put in skylights at some point, which is much easier to do in a shingled roof. We'll have to see how dungeon-like the house is first.
  5. He always gives his wife her way, because she is a lovely princess and deserves all the happiness in the world. You're still reading? Wow. Just kidding. It don't go down like that 'round here.

So. Shingles it is. Er... the roofing material, not the illness. Just in case you were looking for some public health advice. Or something.

3 comments:

Cedar ... said...

ohhh,... hadn't thought of the ice sliding down off the metal. A friend over in Vermontville has that problem. Makes a huge ice pile right where she needs to walk. Talk about putting the porch stairs in the wrong place! She'll get beaned on the head one of these days. Yep,... shingles!

a Tonggu Momma said...

I was totally looking for health advice... so... what about the swine flu? heh.

Crafty Brooklyn Army Wife said...

We were metal roof bound until we read your blog this morning. Your Husband brought up very valid points and we have now changed our mind to a shingle roof too.

Your blog is very inciteful for log home building and everything else ;-)

Thank you for your advice!!

Alisha