DIY Roof

If you thought the chimney was hard work, the roof was tons more. But the whole family helped, which made the task so much easier. We started on a Saturday and everybody came. We had a crew on the roof and a cleaning crew on the ground (the kids helped a lot). The house already had a second roof on, so a third one would've been too much weight. We had to scrape it all off first in order to put a new roof on. 

We all had these dri-fit like Adidas orange shirts on. It was Keith's idea. I thought it was great! Nothing says teamwork and unity like matching outfits :)

Aston taking a break.

Saturday was a lot of hard work. We took a break Sunday and started again on Monday. This time it was only Demery, Brian, Blaine, Keith and some boys from church on the roof. I stayed on the ground and continued to clean up. 

On Tuesday, Blaine woke up feeling queasy. He got on the roof anyway, but was coming down every 15 minutes to go to the bathroom. He was getting dehydrated pretty fast. Next thing you know, I'm running to the bathroom every 15 minutes, too! We were both so sick that day. We felt bad for leaving all the work to everybody else, but there was no way we could've been any help at all! We were in bed the entire day.

This was all we ate that day. 

Thankfully, we woke up feeling much better the next day. We still felt a little weak from not eating much but at least we were able to eat! Blaine got up on the roof with the rest of the gang. It was a long day, but we were all determined to finish the roof. I finally got on the roof for the last 4 hours. We finished around 10:00 p.m. I was so tired and I wasn't even on the roof the whole time. These guys are pros.

The cherry picker we used to get on the roof. It was fun to ride.

Before it got dark on the last day

After the roof was done, Keith thought we'd take advantage of having the cherry picker and prune all the trees alongside the house. So Blaine and Brian did that the next day! 

With Brian's experience (he used to own a construction company), the roof came out really nice. I'm glad Blaine was able to learn yet another new skill. The Dawson Roofing Company got several offers to do some other roofs around the neighborhood, too. I'm not sure if Blaine and Brian will be doing it for sure, but they're considering it!

So the story behind the DIY roof is that with the money Blaine's parents saved from having us do it, they're buying tickets for everybody to spend Christmas together in Idaho this year. This has turned into a huge family reunion. All of the great grandkids, grandkids, and children of PopPop and Grandmom Dawson will be together to celebrate the Christmas holiday. This will be a surprise for PopPop and Grandmom. The whole family has never been together like this before. In total, we will be 48 people! I don't know how we will all fit, but I'm sure its going to be one memorable Christmas and tons of fun! So all of the sweat, achy backs, and sore days on the roof will be more than worth it!