Cabin reroofing project

Last weekend we headed up to our cabin in Midway, UT to reroof it. We bought the cabin 1 1/2  yrs ago and have slowly worked on projects to “fix” it up. We got it for a screaming deal of $65,000. So we were ok with all the work it was going to need.

We put the roof off last year because it wasn’t leaking yet. Well this spring it started to leak in a few spots with the melting snow. So it became a priority for this year. A few months ago, I started looking for shingles on KSL.com (local online classifieds). We needed about 750 square ft of shingles….retail for this amount of shingles was about $800. I got what I needed for $400 off KSL.com. I had to match two different shingles to get enough, but you have to look really hard to tell. When it was all said and done, we had half a bundle of shingles left!

We got up there about noon on Friday and Heber and I started stripping the original roof that was 30 plus years old (built in 1978). There was only one layer of shingles so they came up pretty easy.

See how old those shingles were???

We pushed all the shingles off the egde for the boys to pick up and load in the sled. Once they loaded the sled they hauled it down to the trailer and dumped it. You can see the black sled in the foreground of the picture.

The boys got $.50 cents each per sled full. They made 20 trips total and earned $10 each for their hard work. The boys brought their friend Spencer up to help too. I was so proud of how hard they worked. They really contributed and made a difference.

Once the shingles were stripped, Heber made a run to Home Depot to buy plywood, nails, tar paper, flashing, etc. While he did this I stripped all the tar paper and pulled all the nails from the whole roof. Let’s just say I was really ready for bed that night.

We had to replace 5 sheets of plywood…their was some water damage and dry rot to some of the pieces. Here’s Logan sitting on the top of the ladder. I told them no kids were allowed on the roof. They got as close as they could.

Our friend Jared came up to help us out.

Here are the kids checking out the progress on the burm behind the cabin.

Heber’s brother John came up to help as well.  Yeah for extra help! The second day when they laid the roof…I spent the day cooking and cleaning and driving to the store for more water. We went through 4 cases of water in two days. It was warm up there on the roof.

Here’s Carter checking out the progress from the ladder too.

Heber and the boys had to haul the 75 lb. bundles up on to the roof.

Half way done. While they were laying the roof, I had the opporturnity to drive the trailer full of old shingles to the dump with the boys. I was a little nervous about how it was going to all work out. I got it all backed in ok and then the guy tells me no one under the age of 12 is allowed on the deck….uhhh all my helpers were 11 and under. There was no way I could shovel out the whole trailer by myself. Once he saw what was in my trailer, he said they could help…but they had to stay away from the edge.

It took us about 30 minutes in a hot dirty enclosed trailer to get all the shingles out. I could feel sweat dripping everywhere. I was pretty proud of myself. I was a little intimidated, but I did it.

Here is Jared and Heber putting on the flashing right before dark on the second day. They finished right at dark, and we cleaned up in the dark. It was a long day for those boys.

Here’s the new roof in the light the next day. Total we spent about $750 to reroof the cabin….not too bad.

Our “fixer upper” cabin….the stairs are still on our to do list.

Here are the boys with Uncle John the next morning. They talked him into taking them for a four wheeler ride before we headed home.