the hail state

well, we had the roof guy out yesterday, and things didn't go quite as planned.  we showed him the flashing in the back, but as we had also asked for an estimate on the whole roof, he set up his ladder up front and started looking around.  i think he'd been up there less than a minute before he came down, knocked on the front door, and asked if we knew that we had hail damage.  um, i'm going to go with no on that one.  well, apparently we do.  the good news is that that's the kind of thing homeowner's insurance covers, so i'm going to call them in the morning and find out what we need to do to get that process started, getting an adjustor out and all that.  apparently in addition to the loose flashing, though, we had some loose nails higher up that were likely letting in water, so there's a large-ish area of the roof that might need some work done ... yikes.  we have our fingers crossed about insurance panning out, but nothing's guaranteed yet.  (did you know that colorado is one of the biggest states for hail damage?  california has earthquakes, oklahoma has tornadoes, and colorado has hail.  sweet.)

as the roofer was on top of the house, scott and i were inside talking, and found the situation quickly escalating.  we had him out to look at a piece of loose flashing, and it looks like we may need a whole new roof.  scott pulled out the piece of wood we had meant to cut down and paint to replace a missing slat in the front shutters, and i mentioned that you can actually buy new vinyl shutters for less than $40/pair at home depot.  we were discussing the merits of that when scott asked if the color match on paint would be close enough ... which led me to mention that we really need to get our trim re-painted at some point, as it's, well, ugly in general, and really peeling on the gutters ... oh, and by the way, the gutters leak, so we'll need to think about replacing them at some point.  and, by the way, the soffits are looking a little bit worn, so i'm not sure if we need to replace them or just sand them down and paint them.  in my mind, i'd been pondering these things for a while, but in scott's he knew we needed the flashing nailed down, and suddenly found himself looking at a new roof, new shutters, new gutters, getting the trim painted, and replacing soffit board.  he wasn't very excited about the possibilities.  (which i get.  i really don't love spending money on house projects.)  the roof guy happened to also mention all of those things when he came down to talk about next steps and give us an overview of the roof situation.  we'll see.  the talk with the insurance company needs to happen before we make any other plans.  and regardless of what happens with the roof, i'm going to be so nervous every time we have a hail storm - i remember this summer's hail storm (particularly because i was at home alone in the basement when it hit) and watching the news with people out in aurora shoveling hail off of their driveways like snow and lamenting broken windows.  i had no idea it might have actually done anything to our house!

anyway, so that was yesterday morning - after roof guy finished up, we bought me snow pants and headed up for night skiing.  it was fun!  i did six runs on the bunny slope before deciding i really needed to do a real run.  scott took me on a blue, which was much better than last year, but i still fell twice.  then i sat out for a while to watch kinley while mike and maura skiied together - kinley and i made like five trips up and down the stairs and the "ella" - elevator - then played in a water fountain for a few minutes, during which she got very wet, whoops, then hung out in the bathroom for literally like 15 minutes because she was enamored with the enormo handicap stall.  oh the things that can fascinate an almost-two year old, who knew!  they came back and found a change of clothes for their daughter, and scott took me back out for an illicit green run.  for whatever reason, the resort has the greens closed during night skiing, but since it's right next to the blue, scott found a little trail through a break in the trees that we could use to get onto the green ... for the most part, there was enough light from the giant full moon and the blue run right next to it, but there were a few spots that felt a little bit eerie.  i could see the overall slope of the hill and knew that i was moving down, but i couldn't specifically see the snow or the grade changes, so i just went down slowly, enjoying the stars and the quiet and the amazing view and hoping i didn't fall.  i liked the green much better than the blue.  we all stopped for pizza at hernando's in winter park on the way home, so we didn't get home until close to midnight ... needless to say, i've been a little sleepy today.

as it were, though, i need to stop typing and go do dishes.  we had small group over for dinner tonight, and even though i tried to do dishes as i went, we inevitably have a counter full.  (on the menu for tonight: hot & sweet drumsticks, normal italian breadcrumb drumsticks, herbed basmati rice, broccoli, and brownie squares for dessert.)

handyman

i love our new handyman service.  they were at the house for precisely 4 hours and 15 minutes on wednesday, and charged us for the exact time.  the one guy was able to do tile/drywall, plumbing, and electrical, and the few things that came up that he wasn't able to figure out immediately, he told me right away.  (like the flashing issue on our roof - he took a look, found that the board underneath is rotted, and suggested we call a roofer since they'll have to pull up some shingles and whatnot and would be able to do it all properly.)  plus, the guy was very professional-yet-friendly, prompt, and seemed to be working hard and quickly the whole time he was there - no standing around or taking his sweet time.  i was impressed, and happily put their little magnet on the fridge for the next time we need them.

on that note, i found a roofing company through the same referral list online, and they're coming out to do a free estimate on the roof repair (and a roof replacement, since our inspector guessed we had about 5 more years out of our roof when we moved in almost 2 years ago - this way we'll know what we need to save) on saturday.  another company i called did not do estimates on repairs, they just wanted to charge $250 for the trip fee/first hour, then $95/hr after that.  maybe that's reasonable (yikes), but i have a hard time paying that much money not knowing what the final bill is going to be.

as this is friday (hoorah!), tonight is date night.  what fun and exciting plans do we have, you ask?  shopping for snowpants for me.  sounds thrilling, i know.  scott had bought me a pair of snowpants for christmas that came up approximately three inches past my bellybutton, which is just too much in my book so we returned them.  apparently snow pants for women who are short, actually have curves, AND don't want to spend $100+ on a pair of seasonal pants are hard to find - go figure, right?  tomorrow is night skiing, though, and scott told me i'm not allowed to wear his old fleece-lined wind pants as snow pants anymore (which makes sense since they're really not that insulatory, even with my long underwear underneath), so shopping it is.  with maybe some tivo'd lost afterward since we never finished watching last season and the new season starts on tuesday!

pride of ownership

when we were looking for houses, one of the big things i'd see on house ads was "pride of ownership" - it makes sense, where renters may be willing to let things slide, owners are going to take care of the home better because it is their investment, their property, their future.  and, dare i say, because as the owner you're going to live in the neighborhood long term and don't want to be known as the slacker neighbor who leaves their shutters broken and bushes scraggly and untrimmed.

on that note, i called a handyman service today - they're coming tomorrow morning.  my list of things we need to have fixed, not necessarily all tomorrow:

• patch drywall/tile in master shower where our plumber had to cut in to replace the leaky handle
• fix our leaking sink (scott clogged the pipe with potato peels that our garbage disposal didn't like, and in the process of  undoing the trap and all that, we discovered that a seal under the non-disposal side of the sink seems to be leaking)
• a piece of flashing on our roof needs to be nailed down, and the area needs to be checked out for water damage (fingers crossed)
• our shutter slat needs to be replaced because we are those slacker neighbors who haven't fixed their broken shutter since they moved in 18 months ago and i'm tired of feeling guilty whenever i see the front of our house.  this one we can probably do ourselves, we just need to do it.
• our gutters might need a few small patches where they're leaky - or we may just need to replace them with something newer that doesn't leak and doesn't need to be repainted
• we want to get estimates on what it would cost to add a few extra outdoor lights on the back of our house (1 next to the garage back door, 1 on the patio for night grilling purposes) and to get an exhaust fan installed in our master bathroom
• oh, and we need to do a radon test to see what the radon level is - when we had our place inspected, they said the level was moderately high, but recommended retesting before we do any remediation.  (apparently radon is the leading cause of lung cancer for non-smokers!)

yikes.  i think tomorrow i'm just going to have the handyman do tasks 1-3, and estimates on the lights/fan.  i'm pretty sure pride of ownership is actually a nicer way of saying "i pay too much to keep this place up that i'd darned well better have some pride in it."

the handyman said it'll take him about 4-6 hours tomorrow, so i'm just taking the whole day off of work.  i've needed to get an eye checkup for a few months now, but put it off because we need to find a new eye doctor near our house - i was able to find a place near us that takes our insurance and has an opening tomorrow afternoon!  i was very proud of myself for economizing my day off.

late night and future fun

poor scott worked 15.5 hours yesterday.  8am to 11:30pm.  not fun.  he's actually been working long hours for the past few weeks, but i've been trying to adapt my schedule to it and hang out with girlfriends in the evenings so i'm not sitting alone at home.  it has been nice - i got together with girls a few times last week, and had goo and miranda over to watch "post grad" (which was awful, but really so bad it's funny) and have dinner on tuesday.  last night was my first night with scott working super late and no outside plans for myself, so after watching tv and sitting on my butt for a while, i actually managed to motivate myself to do the dishes, clean the kitchen, put away laundry, and wipe down the bathroom vanity.  i was pretty proud of myself, not going to lie.

not sure what his night tonight will look like, so i'm trying to brainstorm more semi-productive activities for myself.  maybe i'll finally get around to cutting the fabric for my picnic quilt.  speaking of, how cute is this quilt?  i love the circles on the edges of the squares.  all those round edges seem like they'd be a bit of a challenge, though, so i'm trying to limit myself to straight edges for now - i can work up to round.  and i guess i do have some jeans that need to be shortened too ... cutting fabric sounds more fun, though.  we'll see.

very exciting on the planning front - denver has an event called 5280 restaurant week every year.  (5280 being denver's official elevation in feet: 5280 feet = 1 mile.)  technically it's two weeks (feb 20-march 5), but a bunch of restaurants across the metro participate with a pre-fixed menu, usually three+ courses for $52.80/couple (or $26.40/individual).  some of the restaurants, you have to wonder who goes during 5280 since you'd likely spend less there on an average visit (like the overpriced gourmet pizza place we went to on saturday - each got a little pizza and a beverage and spent $30).  some of the restaurants, however, are smokin deals.  last year we went to a place called rodizio, which is a brazilian steakhouse, so they come around with giant skewers of fresh meats and cut a little bit of whatever you'd like off for you, all you can eat.  so we spent $52.80 on that, whereas normally it was like $35/person + $5/ea for salad bar (although i just checked their website and i think they've lowered their costs, as it's now only $33/person including salad bar).  this year, our small group is getting together and going to the restaurant kevin taylor, which is the only four star restaurant in denver, and as such is supposed to be absolutely amazing.  two of my coworkers have gone there with their spouses, one ended up hitting it at the tail end of 5280 last year and said it was amazing, the other went during a normal time and said they spent close to $200 on dinner, with just a glass of wine each.  crazy!  (just checked the menu, and the appetizer and entree together are about $49/person, plus a dessert ... all of which we will be enjoying for $52.80 total!)  anyway, we're doing that opening weekend of 5280, and since my birthday happens to fall the monday after the closing weekend of 5280, i managed to swing a second fancy dinner from it this year.  as we typically celebrate my birthday with some sort of cultural event (since we've been married: symphony, ballet, underwhelming lifehouse concert, and art museum/night out downtown), i was looking around to see if anything struck my fancy in the local theaters - no ballets or operas, and the denver theater company downtown was doing mary poppins which i don't think i'd be able to drag scott to if i tried.  then i remembered that littleton has a theater company downtown, and it turns out that they're doing "guys and dolls" that weekend - perfect!  not to mention, there's a fondue place a few blocks away that i've been wanting to go to since we moved here, and it's a part of 5280!

actually, now that i think about it, we actually have quite a bit of fun stuff coming up on our calendar: night skiing with friends next weekend, suns v. nuggets game with goo and the guy she's dating the week after that, a baby shower for a friend from grad school (fun for me, and fun for scott in that he doesn't have to go), restaurant kevin taylor, kinley's 2nd birthday party, another nuggets game on my boss's tickets, and then my birthday date!  whew.  i'm feeling much more content with staying home and cutting fabric now.  (although i do still feel bad for scott having to work such late nights.)

processing

the haiti earthquake was precisely a week ago today, and they're still finding bodies in the rubble.  apparently there are 72,000 confirmed deaths so far, but death toll estimates range from 100-150,000.  to put that in context, the 2004 tsunami in south asia killed 250,000, hurricane katrina killed 1,800.  the entirety of my hometown is 110,000 people. (!!!)  five years post-katrina, new orleans is still struggling to put itself back together; haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere.

the daily telegraph out of london had an interesting op-ed piece about differing responses by world superpowers to the the earthquake, and in essence commended america for quickly and decisively choosing to help this poverty stricken nation in its time of great need.  i think that i found it particularly interesting because my own first reaction to hearing that president obama had pledged $100m to the relief effort was, "do we have $100m to give?" - chiding my government for its debt rather than commending it for its call to action.  on facebook, when a friend posted a link to the telegraph's article, someone posted the quote by alexis de tocqueville, "america is great because she is good.  if america ceases to be good, america will cease to be great."  yes, "good" is a relative term and i don't know the context for de tocqueville making that statement, but still, i found it poignant.  doing good in the financial sense needs, i think, to be balanced with a good budget, but when we see a need we need to find out what we can do to help it - whether that help be by praying, giving, or going.  cnn.com says that just over $220m has been raised by nonprofit relief groups for the earthquake, and if you are able to give but have not yet done so, i heartily encourage you to do so.  america's goodness comes from her people as much as it does from her government.  there are plenty of organizations lobbying for your dollars right now, but i'll put in my two cents for compassion international.  haiti needs food, shelter, and hope in god right now, and compassion can help provide all three.