river cottage gets a new roof
Chad gave new meaning to the term Labor Day after deciding to tackle the part of the roof that needed replacing on our new old house upstate. I thought he was nuts when he announced his intentions for the weekend — how could one man do this by himself? But sure enough, he got it done! It took a few trips to Lowes to gather all the raw materials — roofing shingles are insanely heavy — which cost about $350 total (including knee pads). The job was definitely hot, and smelly and exhausting, and I don’t think he’ll be volunteering for such a task again any time soon. But in the end he saved us at least $1000 by doing it himself, which is great because last week we had a surprise cost thrown a us — about $2000 for new water filter to take the excessive sulfur and yucky rotten egg smell out of our water. We had noticed it vaguely during the inspection, but it’s not till you’re taking a shower in the stuff that you realize how gross it is. Ah, the joys of home owning! (I’ll get to some decor stuff later, much more fun!) — Angela M.
September 4th, 2007 at 8:27 am
Ugh, everytime I read your posts about the cottage I get so jealous
We live close enough to a few rivers and we go often but I would absolutely die for a gorgeous little cottage, out in the sticks, by a river. Can’t wait to see how you’ve decorated…
September 4th, 2007 at 10:01 am
[...] inducing post over at Shelterrific this morning, concerning the work they’re doing on their newly-acquired river cottage, I stumbled over to Flickr and found some great houses. I think I’ve said it before but the [...]
September 4th, 2007 at 11:48 am
note to self….. hire high schol kid to help me lift the heavy stuff next time
September 4th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Does the town have any intention of running water pipes down to your area any time soon?
September 4th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
I have to admit I’m extremely jealous of your cottage as well. Just a thought regarding the rotten egg smell in your water, if your new filter doesn’t get rid of the problem check your hot water heater….that is if it’s the hot water is what smells.
A few years ago I was living in New Brunswick and the house i was in had a well. The problem there was hard water…too many minerals. The hot water heater was “oldish” and the heating element had been buried in “sludge” a thorough cleaning cleared up the problem.
I hope your filter works because cleaning out the water heater is not a fun job. Best of luck.
Hugh
ps nice job on the roof…looks great
September 5th, 2007 at 3:03 am
My parents had a lot of egg-smell/sulfur in the well water at our cottage, but they flushed the system with bleach and that pretty much took care of it. Google “Shock Chlorination”.
September 6th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
Friends of mine are long time Columbia County residents
Ancramdale and Gallitan and have never been able to rid the water of the rotten egg smell. It is sulfur in the water!
They use lots of lavender bath salts and dring poland spring in gallon jugs.
Don’t spend too much trying to rid yourselves of it, ask the neighbors (even if they are 1/4 mile away?)
Holly D