Today I made a decision on the carriage house roof. We’ll be removing the old roofing materials ourselves and building the subroof. Then a professional roofing company will install a metal imitation shake shingle roof. It will be the second truly major expense of this project, on par with the boiler and heating system repairs. And, we’ll be doing it in the next month.

Brian was critical of letting this become a major expense. A simple asphalt roof would likely be only a third of the price because we could do it ourselves. While I was extremely reticent to commit so much money to one project, I want to take the long term view of repairs whenever possible.

While a cheaper asphalt roof would last maybe 15 years, this metal roof is the last roof I’ll ever need to put on that building. It has a 40-year transferrable warranty, and a lifetime warranty from the company for as long as I own the home. That makes it one of the very few truly permanent repairs I can make to the Sullivan House.

Plus… giving it an original shake shingle design is going to look sexy as hell.