Our Builder is Back

Not to deal with anything in this house – but to tend to the poor Buffalo. The phrase “it’s always something” floated by as I stood at the window in the big house, looking at tarpaper covering the roof of the Buffalo with a wound in its flank.

We haven’t seen our house builders much since this house was finished – it’s been so trouble free – but we talk about them often. In this house our main builder guy would know all the secrets from crawl space to tricky framing around skylights.

But the Buffalo predates him – and us.

Winged ants like messengers of doom alerted us to trouble. In the cascading way of home repair involving moisture, observation of a little spot of mold in a closet led to an investigation of the closet wall and ceiling, and the discovery of a previous roof underneath. Inexplicably covered with plastic, the older, hidden roof trapped moisture and trouble.

It’s been fun to see our builder again (we both allowed how we have fond memories of this house building), and a great pleasure to watch him tackle the Buffalo’s woes and line out a cure. Builders organize, solve problems, and make something where there was nothing – do that creative work I’m always on about in here. The builder and his guys performed miracles in a few days.

They tore off all the old roofing and sheeting, found the extent of the dry rot in a wall, and made repairs. A discussion of the seemingly contradictory term “dry rot” led to some Wikipedia research on my part while the workers dismantled the infected area. It’s a historical usage, dating back to the distinction between decay of “dry wood” in buildings, as opposed to decay of living or felled trees “wet wood.” (Further complicating the term is the fact that “dry rot” needs moisture.)

But no moisture now. After consults with bug guy and roofer and rocker and insulator the mini housebuilding project is almost finished

Since there is always something, it might be useless to long for the moments when there isn’t something (that might even be dangerous), but it’s delightful when a job is completed so satisfactorily (a disappeared mess, no garden damage) – and the Buffalo’s hide nearly restored.