Cabin Roof Storm Damage

We’ve had some rough weather here in Michigan lately. The cabin ended up with a little roof damage after a tornado topped our little town and devastated it. Our home is on a hill, the house is tall, and it’s always windy but to top it off 911 confirmed a tornado that was tree top level but didn’t touch down.

Unfortunately it still did a lot of damage around our village and we were without power for several days. We are fortunate and have a generator that operates our entire home so the loss of power didn’t really effect us.

The cabin ended up with shingles blowing off the roof. I called our insurance company, made a claim, and set up an appointment to get an estimate. Of course just getting an estimate wasn’t going to be anything quick. There was so many towns with damage and no power that I was put on the schedule with a July 9th appointment.

I penciled it into my calendar and new I’d have to wait. The strangest thing happened; just days after I scheduled the appointment the repair company showed up to look at the damage. So much for a schedule. I have no idea how it happened so fast but it did and I was grateful. It meant our roof would be fixed sooner rather than later.

Luckily I’d saved one shingle knowing they’d need it for color reference and handed it off to the work crew. They showed up the next day with shingles that didn’t appear to me to be the correct color. So I figured maybe ours had faded with age and what they had was correct.

The two man crew put a ladder up to the front porch roof, crawled up it and placed a second ladder on the porch roof. One man tied off and let the second man drop over the roof to the back side to replace the lost shingle.

After all that they determined the shingles were the wrong color. I think I said that before all this took place but I guess they had to figure it out for themselves. Any who now they backtracked and got off the roof and said they’d try and find a closer match shingle.

I told them that I have a file box with every receipt and special order item we used to build the cabin and I was sure I could find the exact shingle that was on the house. So inside I went and after 3 minutes I had the recipes in my hand with the brand, color, and reference number.

Let’s just say they were pretty impressed with how organized I am. I had a good laugh, because anyone who knows me can back up that claim. I am organized and learned it all from my mama. After going through the process of getting back on the roof it only took them about an hour to have everything back in order. I’m so impressed the shingles were a perfect match and I can’t even tell where the new ones were added.

We ended up paying for the damage ourselves rather than turn it into the insurance company. I asked if there was a reduced rate if I paid cash on the spot. You won’t believe this, they took 1/3 the cost off for me paying with cash. Wow that was quite a savings. I was thinking a 5percent discount at best. I’m glad our cabin is complete once again.