I was part of the crew that took on the porch roof repair project, which turned into the porch roof replacment project. Which we were unprepared for in so many important ways. We were frustrated not to have the right tools, or plans, or direction. And after the demolition of the old roof, I think we were all aware that we didn’t have a graceful way to back out and admit we couldn’t do it. By Friday night, we had made at least one false start and it was frustrating that we would have to come back on Saturday to finish the job.
Early Saturday morning, Rich Kelly came out to the job site and advised what to rip down and what to beef up. We spent some time as a team talking about where each board would go. I thought about what our friend Ken would say about not rushing, and the importance of thinking through each step. We listened to Morgan Miller’s crystalline insight into the length of a piece of plywood — .25 inches difference is serious when this is someone’s house. This was our community of Saints!
Four o’clock on Saturday and not only had we given up our day trip to Grace House on the Mountain, but the rest of the mission team (we thought) had already headed back to our dorms. Our immediate task was to cut out two, perfectly straight 3 inch wide, 8 foot long pieces of plywood to complete the roof deck. One way to do this is to nail a 2×4 to the plywood as a guide for a circular saw. A simple technique, but nothing seemed to cooperate. It seemed we nailed that 2×4 onto the plywood sheet about 25 times. That was a low point because we were really, really trying to get it right, and it looked like we were going to fail.
It was 5:30 before we had nailed in the deck and installed aluminum flashing. By six we had started putting down roof tar to anchor the asphalt roofing. We did not have the proper tool to get the roof tar up underneath the drip guard from the main roof, but thats not a problem if you use your hands to spread the tar. Like a bookend, Rich returned at 6:10 to focus everyone’s attention on finishing the job and cleaning up the job site. By 7:30 we had scrubbed off most of the tar on hands and arms with paint thinner and we headed home.
Going through the downs and ups of the job — and having everyone stick with it throughout — was really satisfying for me. We eventually got those 3 inch wide 8 foot long pieces of plywood cut perfectly straight. Everyone on the team had an experience that was a little different, but we all shared the experience of finishing what we started.
