So the hope was that once we moved to Utah, we would return to Florida every six weeks or so to check on the house and enjoy it! We quickly realized though that summers are NOT the time to leave Utah. Cool mornings with warm dry days are a far cry from the wet, hot, and humid summers of Florida. Having said that, going months without making sure the air conditioners are still working, the roof is still attached, and the home is still in ok shape is not smart. So when the boys' friend Noah offered to check on the house and bring in a few pieces of outdoor furniture before a hurricane was scheduled to arrive that night, we weren't expecting to hear back with any surprises. Well, what a surprise we got. Sadly as he was walking through the home to flush toilets, he found that Sage's bathroom had experienced a pretty significant roof leak with damage to the ceiling and walls. This just hours BEFORE the big storm had even arrived. Jack then had him place our big recycling trash in the bathroom to catch all the rain that was sure to come in the next few hours and we made plans to catch a flight out the following week since the airport was closing due to the storm.
What a sad day it was to walk in and see the damage that had not only affected Sage's bathroom but had also worked its way down to our pool bath. Thankfully everything else appeared ok and the jet skis were still on the lift...which after a big storm is always a relief!
Of course finding an available roofer in Florida after a big storm isn't easy. And the bummer is while the storm was big and did a lot of damage in the Orlando area, the damage to our roof had clearly taken place either during an earlier storm or over the course of some time. It's just unfortunate that we didn't learn about it until we were in the midst of another storm. So with two weeks in Florida we were off to the races to try to get this taken care of.
Here you can see where Jack cut a hole in the bathroom ceiling so we could try to look into the attic to see where the water was entering in at. The second photo is of the pool bath mirror. When Noah did his walk thru he didn't realize the leak had worked its way down the walls and through the vents and fixtures of the pool bath. His quote was "I just thought it was a dirty bathroom mirror..." lol! Excuse me this isn't a guys dorm bathroom...
After countless calls to roofers I finally was able to find someone through a recommendation from another roofer who we had been referred to but was unable to make it out. While it was a relief he could come by to assess the damage I couldn't help but wonder why he wasn't busy like all the other roofers I had called?!? I couldn't find any reviews for him or even a company website but after some research did find a business license. My mind was eased though after meeting him at one of his other job sites in downtown Windermere that happened to be a very nice new construction custom home. I appreciated that he could tell I was a bit concerned that there was next to no information online about his business (unlike all the others that I called) so he drove me by several other homes in the area to see the work he had done. In the end it was a blessing that our paths crossed and he was able to fix our roof. Time will tell if the job was done correctly but we are going to assume it is fixed!
After getting that dealt with it was nice to relax in our happy space. By dealt with I mean just the roof part. All the drywall and paint repairs would have to wait for our next visit!
