Roof or Consequences

One of the last major updates to the exterior was the roof.

From day one I wanted to redo the exterior in steel. It’s modern, durable and (sometimes) low-cost. Unfortunately, 2007 saw greatly inflated steel prices because of the temporarily-surging Chinese economy and global demand. I didn’t want to put off my siding. Because of the changes and upgrades that were already being done, parts of the house were not sufficiently weatherproof for the winter. For practical reasons I decided to go with vinyl siding. I replaced the gutters and repaired the loose shingles and hoped that it’d be okay till I could return and figure out what to do with the roof. I was considering asphalt shingles and rolled roofing but was still hoping for steel, though I didn’t know how it could fit in my budget.

Well, what a difference a depression makes. I got an estimate in spring of ’09 that was about 60% of the estimates I’d gotten two years earlier. All of the sudden my steel roof seemed doable. Problem was that the original look depended upon vertical steel siding. I wasn’t sure I’d like how the steel roof would look against my more traditional siding. After some fussing with the color, I went for it and here is the result. Thanks to local Amish company Hershberger’s and foreman Levi Byler.

Here’s a shot of the original house for comparison.

And a couple more images on the Extremely Homey Makeover page.