Jolly Roofing, not so jolly

They showed up bright and early on Friday morning, December 23rd, for what was supposed to be a 1-day roofing job. At least, we were told it'd take one day. They left at lunch-time and didn't return. Feeling some concern, we contacted our homeowners association president who gave us the roofers' phone number. We were told by the roofing company that the crew wouldn't be back that day. They didn't want to work on Christmas Eve, either, so would not be back until at least Monday.

Why, oh why, did they start a 1-day job and only work half a day before a 2-day holiday???

We were told someone would come out the next morning to make sure the roof had been secured against the rain. Sure enough, at 7:00 in the morning on Saturday (Christmas Eve) we got about 20 minutes of hammering noise up on the roof. So much for sleeping late on our Christmas break.

Monday morning, the crew was back, and we heard this exchange outside our bedroom window:

from the ground, a man yelled up asking, "so you think you'll finish today?"
from the roof came an affirmative response.

Sadly, at lunch-time the roofers left. They didn't return.

And then later, the sprinkling rain started. Even later, the rain picked up. The rain continued into the night.

The Husband thought he saw water in the attic and so started trying to contact folks, but the roofer wasn't answering his phone. Our homeowners association president came by wanting to look in our attic, saying she'd talked with some management company representative (from another complex) who'd dealt with roofing issues and that it might be condensation. We didn't let her come in. There are a number of reasons for that, including these:

1) I hadn't checked the attic myself, and I could double-check to see if the issue was condensation as well as (maybe better than) she could;

2) She talks about people. I do realize that some folks are just like that and discuss what they know about other people with whomever they're with, but we were loathe to let her tour our house. No hard feelings, but there you are.

She started saying, "So you're refusing to let me go into your attic. I just want to get that straight. You're refusing. I'm going to go call all the board members to let them know that you've made that decision to refuse to let me into your attic. I've been in their attic, and theirs, and theirs (pointing as she spoke) and you can call and ask them...."

Sheesh.

She finally actually left, and I went up into the attic and saw that the problem was indeed condensation. The Husband called her to let her know and got an answering machine. She did pick up after he said what I'd found.

We never did reach the roofer.

This morning the roofers were back. This is the exchange I heard on my patio while I was sitting in plain sight inside:

Roofer 1: "I just want to leave here and never come back."
Roofer 2: "I know that's right."

What I wanted to say was this: "You've had several opportunities to finish and go. It's not my fault you're still here." But I didn't.

They are gone now, and though they didn't say anything to us (they've never told us when they were leaving for the day) they did take their supplies off of the patio this time. We're assuming they are finished, here on the 5th day after starting what we were told would be a one-day job. Now I just need to get the patio furniture off my plants (Remember my new butterfly bushes? The coleus will probably be ok).

We've never had a roof inspected after it was finished before, but we're going to have that done this time. We're waiting for a recommendation from our homeowners insurance agent. I don't like the idea of roofers who are obviously not wanting to be here working on my roof, and I just want some assurance that their attitude isn't reflected in the job quality.

And this is my report on How I spent My Christmas Vacation, starring The Jolly Roofing Roofers.

Memphis