A Visit to Trish's Roof

Having a flat roof can be very nice - and it can also be a royal pain in the neck! In the buildings we are constructing on our property, there will be no flat roofs. This might give you some idea about how our thoughts and feelings run on this subject!

Having a flat concrete roof in this part of the world guarantees that our house will retain heat like an oven. During the hot months of the year, there is no way to keep our house cool. In the evening, when the outside air is cooling, our house remains hot, as the heat absorbed into the concrete roof continues to affect the air inside the house. Additionally, flat roofs tend to leak. According to Allen, there is no such thing as a flat roof that doesn't leak. Our roof had a few leaks when we moved in two years ago, and more recently there hasn't been a room in the house without a leak!

The nice things about having a flat roof? Well, it's a wonderful place to hang laundry to dry. It can be a nice place to sit in the evenings, when the house is hot. We were not able to use this roof as living space, because the landlord had piles of construction materials stored up there, but the younger children enjoyed playing house up there. The dogs like to go up there, and bark down at passersby on the street. We like to think that helps convince potential thieves that ours is not a house to rob!

Here are a few pictures of our roof, as it appears today. The piles of lumber and other construction materials have been removed, the bodega/shack has been torn down, and the surface has been prepared for the application of a new layer of concrete.





For the past week, the workers have been opening up all of the cracks on the roof, in preparation for the repair job. It has been challenging to homeschool while people were banging with sledge hammers on concrete above our heads! Just in the most recent couple of days, the men have been attaching the grid of rebar, and spraying some blue substance over the concrete. This has involved a gentle tapping, which is a huge improvement over the banging. Soon, they'll be pouring a thin new layer of concrete.

By the way - we have not yet found a house to move into. I'm sure, once the workers have the roof repaired, they are going to want to start repairing the walls and ceilings inside, where there has been water damage. That means we really need to get out of this house! We're keeping on top of the packing, but we're still looking for a house. Hopefully we will find something soon.