Attic window trim

Since the new attic windows got installed last week, Professional Exteriors co-owner Brad Hildreth and a couple of his siding crew guys arrived yesterday to finish the metal window trim around them. They were evidently expecting me and my camera, as one quipped, “How’s my hair?”

Upstairs ceilings done

Workers finished plastering and painting the 2nd floor ceilings today — popcorn texture in the hallway and knock-down texture in the rooms. See my previous blog posts here and here about the damage and repairs.

For the past ten days, we’ve been sleeping on an air mattress in the basement, Gilly’s been sleeping in the living room, and the dining room table has mostly been a computer work station. It’ll be good to sleep in our own beds in our own rooms tonight… and work in our own offices tomorrow.

I must tip my blog hat again (see the previous one here) to adjuster Todd Hodapp and the people at Auto-Owners, our homeowners insurance company. They handled this additional claim quickly and competently. Interesting to see that they have an entry in the Wikipedia: “Although the name suggests only auto insurance is provided, it actually provides many lines of insurance ranging form [sic] property, liability, auto, garage, workers compensation, and life.” Must not have been written by the corporate PR department.

New porch screens

The guys who did our siding, Brad Hildreth and Mark Feldhacker from Professional Exteriors, arrived today to put up the new screen on the porch. Note the roofing crew from Midwest on our neighbor’s house, the Schnobrich’s.

Attic windows

A crew from Creative Home Solutions arrived today to install the new attic windows — a big improvement over the windows that were there previously.

Ceiling painting, plastering

Hwan Kim and his co-worker “Tino” took on the task of painting our living room ceiling, blasting the wallpaper and old plaster from the upstairs ceilings, and eventually, re-plastering the hallway ceiling and all the rooms on the second floor except for my office. A mess! They also repainted the porch and the external roof peaks and window trim.

Ceiling water damage

We noticed some discoloration of the ceilings in some of the second floor rooms a couple of weeks ago and wondered whether it was hailstorm related. Our insurance company, Auto Owners, sent out Charles Schaal, a representative from Rainbow International, to assess whether or not there was still moisture present anywhere using an infrared gizmo.

He didn’t find any existing moisture but found plenty of evidence of recent moisture. The insurance adjuster, Todd Hodapp, and Jon Cooper from Midwest Roofing, Siding & Windows, came out to take a look and a few days later, we were approved for ceiling repairs. Evidently, when the hailstorm broke the roof vents, the rain during that 10 am storm and the heavy rain later in the day from the 6 pm storm leaked into the attic and seaped its way into the second floor ceilings. So now we have a big repair job to contend with, since the old ceilings have wallpaper on them. Oy.

Gutter crew arrives, departs

Heinrich Schonheit (left), owner of Nürnberg Construction from Andover (“Seamless gutters, siding, soffit and fascia windows”) and his assistant Andy arrived promptly this morning and installed all the gutters and downspouts by 4 pm. Heinrich named his compay after his hometown of Nürnberg (Nuremburg), Germany. He moved to the US in 1986.

Storm repairs update

Robbie wrote up this summary of work done and work to come:

We watched Mark and Brad’s siding crew pack up on Monday the 2nd. The were very fastidious and tidy. Lee got a ladder out to go back up to a window that had paint on it from before we moved in, and scrape it off for me. We have never been able to get to it. He even did it with a smile on his face. These guys we very pleasant to have around. Having a team be in your yard — pounding on the walls, wrapping windows, no privacy — without getting on your nerves says a lot. We were sorry to see them leave but grateful for the silence. They did a great job and all had a sense of humor. Thanks Mark and Brad….. your team did a great job and we will certainly recommend you to others.

The siding crew had not been gone for more then a couple of hours when Mr Kim showed up and was walking up and down the street. Apparently he has the painting crew that will work on our house as well as the neighbors around us. He had a great smile and introduced himself. Said it would be a week or so before he got down here.

On Wednesday, John and Justin both called to let me know that the gutter guys would be here on Monday the 9th.

We are moving into some cold weather so the exterior painting is going to be tricky to work in, plus the neighbors all have painting work to be taken care of. Our new windows are scheduled to arrive sometime after the 20th. Pretty good timing since they are custom. We picked up a new front storm door at Menard’s and John said they would install it for us. This is turning out to be virtually painless.

John also said that Mark and Brad’s team will be back to put the new screen around the porch. The house is really looking nice and all these repairs will be a real great plus for someone interested in buying it. The outside stuff is pretty much all new, with good, transferable guarantees.

Siding’s finished

I took this group photo last Friday of the siding subcontractor crew, Professional Exteriors, as we handed over the co-signed check from our mortgage company. They finished at noon today, doing a nice job of cleaning up the yard… they were even hand-picking tiny scraps of materials from the flower beds. What a great group — skilled, fast, meticulous, and very personable.

L to R: Midwest’s Jon Cooper, and the crew from Professional Exteriors: Scott Greene, Lee Eden, James Jensen, Brad Hildreth, and Mark Feldhacker. Click to enlarge.

Next up: Midwest should be here tomorrow with a crew to work on the attic windows, as well as the screens on miscellaneous windows and the porch.

Attic windows

The hail damaged our attic windows, and — old house that we have — they’re more than a little unique. So Midwest’s Jon Cooper (left in left photo) brought in a windows expert, Tom Voigt from United Products, a wholesale distributor of roofing and siding products based in the Twin Cities. We think they’ve come up with a good plan, despite the fact that Tom left his PDA in his car and had to use a time-tested technique for taking notes (right photo). Click photos to enlarge.