A Saturday of Roofing

Last weekend we went down to my Grandma's house to help re-roof it with my family. It was really a ton of fun. I know that you probably think I am lying because you might think that roofing cannot be fun and the August heat, however, it was great. Shantel and I enjoyed being in the sun and working hard, most especially we enjoyed working with my family and serving my Grandma. I just want to share two awesome things about the day. Well....maybe three. First we drank a lot of gatorades. My sister Wendy came bringing them up to us and we drank at least 50 between 10 of us.

However, the first thing I really wanted to tell you about is my Dad and how amazing he is. He is the hardest worker I have ever known. He has been working the last couple weeks to get the roof ready so we could shingle it on Saturday. However, when they tore off the shingles they found that they had to replace all of the plywood. He had not planned on that but he got up at 5:30 AM for a week to get it done. Unfortunately the day before we were going to shingle the roof he sprained his ankle while working on the roof. Most people would just take the weekend off but not my Dad. He wanted to get the project done and would finish it no matter what. He could not really walk so Shantel got him a chair (only after being told she was not liable if he rolled off the roof) and he sat on it on top of the roof giving us directions. However, he had to move around to show us certain things and make sure some of the more technical parts were done correctly. I love my Dad and admire how hard he works.

That brings me to my second thing, my wife Shantel is amazing. She is such a hard worker. She spent the entire day up on the roof working just like the rest of us. It was so much fun to be up there working with her. The best part though is that she is the one who did all the most difficult work. The most technical work was around the chimney and valley. Well my Dad needed someone that could do the labor if he told them how to do it. So my Dad spent a good part of the morning giving her directions and she did all the cutting, placing and nailing of shingles. She was amazing and I am grateful for her.

Really my whole family was awesome. My brothers Jeff, Bruce and Mike worked super hard with me. My sister Amy also was on the roof the whole day working just as hard as everyone else. My sister Wendy kept the drinks coming and my mom got the food and made us lunch. Melissa would have helped I'm sure except she is very much pregnant, but she came over anyway just to be part of the fun. It was a real family project.

Here is my Dad sitting on his chair atop the roof.

Here is my Dad, he could not resist getting up and working despite the fact he could barely walk.


And...best for last. My beautiful wife working hard cutting some shingles to fit the "hip" of the roof. She was so awesome. She even looks so beautiful when she is working and sweating on the roof.