Up on the Roooof...
...but not down by the sea. ::sigh::
Its another roofing story. Thats right, the removal of old roofing from the house and replacing it with new roofing. As some of you know I re-roofed a few sections of my house last year. I know, I know, why not do the whole thing at once? Well the house has 5 major sections and three minor ones, so we did the sections that really needed it last year and had signed off on the others as being in good enough shape to last a few years.
But then the dripping started. It only showed up when I forgot the clean the gutter. That usually meant me making a note to hop up there when the rain stopped and clean out the gutters. But then that didn't matter. Rain was rain and there was a small drip that could be rounded up with a well placed small bowl.
My brother had it on his to do list to come help me, but that changed with his sudden death. Weeks passed and Dragon*Con got closer and the leak grew worse with all the rain we got leading up to it.
My parents came by one day just before Dragon*Con and then the rain started, and well lets just say that today they came by with tools, supplies, and some help.
We pulled up the shingles from the section that was leaking and found a layer of roofing felt, under the felt was a layer of Styrofoam insulation, then another layer of felt and then the cider boards that are the ceiling in my living room. The cause of the leak was a group of carpenter ants that moved in and dug out holes in the layers between the shingles and the cider. ::cringe::
For those of you that don't know my phobias, I hate swarming ants (bad childhood experience), Heights (this one can be mild if my footing is firm), and dogs larger than an average cat (no matter how sweet or tame them might be, I just would rather be someplace else).
So I am up about 40 to 45 feet on the roof with a bunch of large pissed off swarming ants. NO HAPPY!! Spraying them and sweeping their dead bodies away at least got me to a point I could relax and ignore the fact that I was still on a roof.
But then fun returned when we discovered that the ants had spread to one of the small sections of the roof. They had done the same thing, as on the main section but the water was not leaking through to a point I could see from inside the house. While my helper worked on the main section I went about pulling up the small section and dealing with a new set swarming ants and being up HIGH. Everything I did made my work space smaller, the ants swarm, and/or caused me to slip a few inches.
The carpenter ants, don't really bite often so even though I had a bunch on me at several points I was only bitten once or twice. While I logically knew I was pretty safe from what amounts to a pinch it did not help to calm the fears of past experiences with fire ants as a child. I could hear them moving around as I pounded and pulled at the boards that needed to be removed so I could get rid of them and the insulation they had made their home in.
Once all the ant infested boards and insulation were removed I spent a few minutes spraying the stragglers and trying to get to a point I could relax and not think about being up on the roof. It was not until I was able to crawl down from the roof that I was really able to relax. Even then it took a good long shower to get rid of the feelings I had something crawling on me. ::cringe::
I still need to go back up in the morning and finish the things we could not do because we ran out of daylight, but it will be a lot easier with out the ants.
Its another roofing story. Thats right, the removal of old roofing from the house and replacing it with new roofing. As some of you know I re-roofed a few sections of my house last year. I know, I know, why not do the whole thing at once? Well the house has 5 major sections and three minor ones, so we did the sections that really needed it last year and had signed off on the others as being in good enough shape to last a few years.
But then the dripping started. It only showed up when I forgot the clean the gutter. That usually meant me making a note to hop up there when the rain stopped and clean out the gutters. But then that didn't matter. Rain was rain and there was a small drip that could be rounded up with a well placed small bowl.
My brother had it on his to do list to come help me, but that changed with his sudden death. Weeks passed and Dragon*Con got closer and the leak grew worse with all the rain we got leading up to it.
My parents came by one day just before Dragon*Con and then the rain started, and well lets just say that today they came by with tools, supplies, and some help.
We pulled up the shingles from the section that was leaking and found a layer of roofing felt, under the felt was a layer of Styrofoam insulation, then another layer of felt and then the cider boards that are the ceiling in my living room. The cause of the leak was a group of carpenter ants that moved in and dug out holes in the layers between the shingles and the cider. ::cringe::
For those of you that don't know my phobias, I hate swarming ants (bad childhood experience), Heights (this one can be mild if my footing is firm), and dogs larger than an average cat (no matter how sweet or tame them might be, I just would rather be someplace else).
So I am up about 40 to 45 feet on the roof with a bunch of large pissed off swarming ants. NO HAPPY!! Spraying them and sweeping their dead bodies away at least got me to a point I could relax and ignore the fact that I was still on a roof.
But then fun returned when we discovered that the ants had spread to one of the small sections of the roof. They had done the same thing, as on the main section but the water was not leaking through to a point I could see from inside the house. While my helper worked on the main section I went about pulling up the small section and dealing with a new set swarming ants and being up HIGH. Everything I did made my work space smaller, the ants swarm, and/or caused me to slip a few inches.
The carpenter ants, don't really bite often so even though I had a bunch on me at several points I was only bitten once or twice. While I logically knew I was pretty safe from what amounts to a pinch it did not help to calm the fears of past experiences with fire ants as a child. I could hear them moving around as I pounded and pulled at the boards that needed to be removed so I could get rid of them and the insulation they had made their home in.
Once all the ant infested boards and insulation were removed I spent a few minutes spraying the stragglers and trying to get to a point I could relax and not think about being up on the roof. It was not until I was able to crawl down from the roof that I was really able to relax. Even then it took a good long shower to get rid of the feelings I had something crawling on me. ::cringe::
I still need to go back up in the morning and finish the things we could not do because we ran out of daylight, but it will be a lot easier with out the ants.