And Then Came Michael - 5 Steps Back

14 October 2018

Anguish. Anguish with a good dose of heart ache, and a little dash of regret. Yeah, that's how I feel.

On Thursday, October 11th, Tropical storm Michael came through the Carolinas and blew over a sugar maple tree that has been standing next to the house possibly since before it was even built, but at least since the late 1800's. We should be able to get a ring count by the end of the coming week.


Michael also blew over a large white pine that is probably 40 to 50 years old. It didn't hit the house but knocked down the electrical power line.


There is some damage to the house, but none of it is structural. We are very fortunate. There are people and places all along the lower eastern seaboard after two storms that are much worse off. Neither of us got hurt. We weren't living in the house any way. None of our belongings or furniture in the house got damaged. Everything is wood in that part of the house. No insulation, no drywall, no plaster. The tree didn't hit the chimney. It didn't break ANY of the windows (amazing!). And it didn't damage our porch rocker.


The tree DID poke several holes in the roof and clipped the north west corner of the roof off.


And caved in the porch roof on the same corner.


The other tree pulled the power line down, which broke our temporary electric pole setup.


So, step one: Make the trees go away without causing any more serious damage to the house.

Step two: Protect the house from water damage and get the electricity restored.

Step three: Repair the porch roof (necessary to work from to fix the roof on the second floor).

Step four: Repair the roof and gable trim on the second floor.

Step five: Repair/redo the Silver Glo radiant barrier we had recently finished in the attic.

Then we'll be back to where we were on the 10th. *sigh*

The regret is that we didn't have the tree taken down before this happened. Something we had talked about several times before but never prioritized.

On the bright side, we do have builders insurance on the house. So we should be getting a helping hand. We have already started talking with some tree removal companies after making sure that they have access to an actual crane (or two).







Comments