Sunday, September 18, 2011

My faith in mankind has been restored!

I know the title of this post is quite dramatic, and perhaps I should have qualified it by saying that I had really just lost my faith in contractors, but once you read my story, you will understand where I am coming from. 

We live in a 1930s house with lots of character, but also lots of old home issues.  So, it was no surprise when soon after we moved in nine years ago, we had to hire a roofer.  It did surprise us when they discovered that there had never been a tear-off and they had to remove 3 layers of shingles and the original shakes.  With all of the labor and materials, the roof cost us $10,000.  It was a huge bill, but we comforted ourselves with the fact that we wouldn't have to do it again for 20 to 25 years or so.

The next contractor we hired was a painter to paint the exterior of the house.  This experience was a nightmare and truly illustrated the principle of "t'ain't nothing easy".  (If this isn't familiar to you, please read my July 1st post.)  The people we hired took weeks to accomplish very little and made a huge mess.  I ended up having to take them to court to try to recover the deposit we had given them.  Even though I won in court, I have still never received any money from them.  

Fast forward 8 years and we are back to dealing with the roof...after having several shingles fall off, noting evidence of a water leak in the ceiling of our library, and some odd lifting of several areas of shingles, we found out that the roofer eight years ago did not put any ventilation in the roof and the resulting trapped humidity and heat caused some of the shingles to delaminate and the plywood to warp and pull the nails from the roof.  The nails themselves were just straight nails rather than screws or threaded nails, so they pulled out easily.  In addition, there was no water and ice guard (even though its installation was included in the quote we received) which led to the leak.  All of this resulted in us having to have the roof redone with a price tag of almost $10,000 for the second time in 8 years.

With this explanation, you can probably understand why I was more than a little gun shy about hiring another contractor.  We had been burned twice and I was afraid that it would happen again, but something had to be done, so I said a prayer and started doing research and making calls.  Ultimately, we took a leap of faith and began working with Anthony Roofing.  I am so glad we did! 

Jack has been our primary contact.  He came out and looked at the roof and suggested that we may have an insurance claim because of the water damage.  When the insurance adjuster came, Jack was here and went up on the roof with him to look at everything.  Thanks to his suggestion, we received several thousand dollars from our insurance company.  Before the work began, Jack came to our house and sat down with us to review all of the details of the job.  He stayed in constant contact with us as the work was going on and was at the house much of the time.  Plus, when they were just about finished, Jack walked around the house with us so that we could take a good look to see if anything didn't meet our expectations.  When I expressed a bit of concern about some shingles around one of the dormers that didn't look the same as the others, Jack had the issue corrected right away.  He even called the next day to see if we had noticed anything else that we weren't satisfied with.  He is truly concerned that we are 100% satisfied.  Tony, the owner of Anthony Roofing, has the motto, "I roof each house as if it were my own."  We truly felt like this was the case.

So, the title of this post, while overstated, is basically true.  Jack and the other employees of Anthony Roofing have helped us feel so much more confident that there are good people out there who will do good work.  I thank God for leading us to this company and, thereby, helping me to release some of the negativity that had remained in my heart and mind following our previous experiences!

Sunday, September 11, 2011

God Bless America!

It has been a while since my last post.  My friends who work in higher education will understand why.  August and the beginning of September is our busiest time of year.  Between trainings, hall openings, new student orientation, Week of Welcome and all of the other events and activities that fill this six weeks or so, merely sitting still for a few minutes begins to feel like a luxury, but I couldn't let this important day go by without recording a thought or two.

The tenth anniversary of 9/11/2001 has brought with it opportunities to relive the tragedy of that day, but also chances to be reminded of the many heroes who put the urgent needs of others before even their own lives.  The stories of their bravery and selflessness are numerous...the valiant passengers of Flight 93, the fire fighters and police officers who rushed in to rescue people from the World Trade Center, the medical professionals who worked tirelessly to treat the wounded, the thousands of people who traveled to New York to help with the rescue and recovery efforts...and the list goes on.

We must never forget the sacrifices made by these courageous individuals.  Their examples should inspire us daily.  While we may never be called to give our lives to save another, we can make the lives of others better through our words and actions.  We must also remember that freedom isn't free, but comes at a cost that some are called to pay so that all of us can enjoy the benefits.  We must be grateful to our American heroes and thank God for His grace and love while we pray for peace in our country and around the world.

May God bless America!