New roof

New metal roofing gets applied to our garage. (iPhone photo by BobbaLew.)

—31 years ago, when my wife and I designed our house (the one I currently live in — my wife died eight years ago)…..
……I did a gigantic Spec-Book that turned off at least one of our four bidders.
Another was turned off by architect requirements regarding our treated-wood-foundation. (“Sure, replace the foundation in 10 years.”)
Only two remained interested, one of whom remodeled our kitchen in Rochester, and built a few houses on his own — including his own house.
The other guy did energy-efficient housing, what we were interested in.
That kitchen remodeler ended up being our contractor.
(“Which will it be?” I asked. “Ford-man or Chevy-man?” Our kitchen remodeler drove a Ford pickup. The other guy drove a Chevy pickup. I’m a Chevy man myself, but I needed someone willing to take risks.)
As finished our house had 30-year shingles. I don’t remember if we specified that, but the contractor was driven to “do-it-right.”
His angle was to build per what he built for himself.
If his house had 30-year shingles, our house would also have 30-year shingles.
I don’t think you can get 30-year shingles anymore. They may no longer be legal = too much asphalt.
My roof is now 30 years old. I probably could bend another year out of it, but I wanted a metal roof.
30 years ago our roof woulda been white = less a heat sink. Now I go for marketability = “barn red.”
Our contractor was always mad at his wife, and also his overly-confident son; who flattened some of his shrubbery with a dump-truck.
But he always tried to please me.
I think he appreciated how much research my wife and I had done. He never built “superinsulated” before, so we became a team.
My Magic-Marker® marks are I still on the inside of an exterior-shell corner. They were for “double-wall construction,” which he was not familiar with.
The shell-walls of my house are a foot thick. Eight inches of blown-fiberglass are inside the exterior wall. 4-inch fiberglass bats are in the interior wall, behind a 10-mill vapor barrier. (10-mill is extreme. We had to UPS it from Minnesota.)
“You could heat that house with lightbulbs,” my contractor joked. But I do have a small furnace.
The layout of my sewer-lines is by ME. The contractor advised, but it’s my layout.
I also liked the way he finished his home’s exterior. “I want similar soffit overhangs,” I told him.
He was going to build separate soffit-structure independent of the shell.
“You don’t have to do that,” I suggested. “Just use the roof-trusses for soffit support.”
He took my suggestion.
The roof lines are also mine: our architect ran with ‘em. I’d made a model, and my wife loved it.
My neighbor once admired my roof lines. “They’re mine,” I declared; “extremely simple.”
We also went about our house-build in an unconventional way. Usually a contractor owns and builds a house on-his-own, then sells to whoever he’s building it for, or otherwise.
My wife and I saved a huge sum, so we payed the contractor as he built. In other words, we owned what he built, instead of him.
So now our house has a metal roof. Not as attractive as shingles, but I bet it outlasts me.

Almost done (front is done, back isn’t). (iPhone photo by BobbaLew.)