Wednesday, January 26, 2011

ANGRY and Arnold Schwarzenegger

Forgive me folks, this is not exactly a Winnipeg related rant. Well, it is and it isn't - it involves snow, so I suppose it's Winnipeg related in that way...I will also throw in something random regarding Arnie's visit if you stick with me to the end.

I live in a lovely 1 1/2 storey home. I also happen to own an almost-identical-to-my-own-home, rental property.  Last year, I paid a BBB rated ("A" level rating) company to replace the roofs on both homes, due to leaking issues. I was very specific as to where the leaking was and very specific as to the reason that I was replacing the roof(s).

Well, last fall, the roof on the rental started leaking during a rain storm. Ok, not exactly no problem, but sh*t happens, we're all human, maybe it was a very simple error that needed to be corrected. I called the company and they seemingly fixed the problem - not without the head of their roofing team being a complete condescending jerk to me, but seemingly fixed in any case.

Enter yesterday's balmy temperatures and bursts of sunshine (I still don't like you Environment Canada - what good is a nice day on a work day??). I was doing my best to enjoy what I could of the unusually warm day until I got the call. When you have a rental, and your tenant calls, it's almost never a good thing. The call went something like this, "uh, yeah, the living room ceiling is dripping, I have buckets all over the place". Insert several choice curse words from me *here*.

Now, of course this phone call came at pretty much EXACTLY the moment that the office of the company I had hired to do the roofing was shutting down for the day. So, after finishing up at my full-time job, off I went to my part-time job, not exactly in a great mood to say the least. I finally get home, after a nice 13 hour work day, shout a hello to the roommate and think about a nice hot shower to wash the angry off. I'm delayed though, because she needs to show me something.  Oh yes, that would be the two buckets under the drip in MY living room.

After a tossing and turning filled night, I called the company first thing this morning - after all, I have a 5 year warranty on the workmanship.  Lucky me, that same jerk of a head roofer is still with them and he told me it was my fault. Yup, my fault. After all, what did I expect, I have a 1 1/2 storey home and it's because of the ice damming. Well, Mr. Snarky Roofing Man, one of the two houses has no ice damming (it's insulated, see also, insulated) so why is it leaking?

Further to it being my fault, can you believe that I have also allowed there to be SNOW on my roof? In winter? The nerve of me. Now, to make me seem slight less irrational and ranting, let the record show that I am fully aware that over time, ice damming will shorten the longevity of my roof (which is why I was replacing a ~17 year old roof in the first place, I doubt I will ever get the 25-35 years out of a roof, no matter what the shingles are rated).

According to his logic, every single house with snow on the roof (with or without ice damming) would experience leaking on a regular basis. Which would mean, that my roofs have OBVIOUSLY leaked every year for the last 80 years (which clearly they haven't) and I certainly can't expect something like a NEW ROOF to stop a problem like this. Obviously.

Thank you for those who read all the way to the end of my rant. Now for what you've all been waiting for:
"Politicians are afraid to fail, that's why they vote 'no' all the time. It's easier. That's why they're girly-men. If you cry, you're not a girly-man. If you fail, you are not a girly-man. But if you are afraid to fail, you're a girly-man," he said.

Ok, so I clearly just took a quote out of the Winnipeg Free Press, but it's a pretty funny one if you read it aloud in your best Arnold voice. Now I'm going to go and re-read a few favourites from Winnipeg Cat to cheer myself up. Oh, and I think I will rename Mr. Snarky Roofing Man, Mr. GIRLY-Snarky Roofing Man.

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