My husband and I are self-proclaimed do-it-yourselfers. We have a history that involves fixer-upper older homes with the desire to learn and take pride in having accomplished a well-done project ourselves. From tiling, painting and building our own enclosed back porch – our construction jobs have been many!
This positive attitude changed when Hurricane Charley hit. Our older asphalt roof came off in so many pieces, that they were found 8 houses down. We still had a roof, which, is a lot more than I could say for the people in Charlotte Harbor, FL.. So, we told our insurance company to wait on stopping by and pay attention to those that really needed their attention.
3 months later, the insurance estimator told us that only the front half of the house needed to be done; get an estimate on half a roof – and they would give us $2,000. Since a roofer will never do half a roof – the cost for a new roof was $10,000 for our 1 ½ story, 1400 sq ft home.
My husband and I looked at each other – and began doing the research. Roofing materials alone were impossible to find due to the hurricane. 8 weeks later – we were ready to roll up our sleeves and start the project ourselves.
To begin with, I am terribly afraid of heights. So, I took off my glasses, climbed on the roof and we began the project. Electric nail guns, asphalt cutters for the custom edge pieces and the ‘black tar’ goo that was needed to seal the peaks. We spent every weekend for 3 months. For the 2nd story portion, we got an electronic ‘lift’ – and it did help a bit – when carrying the 50 lb wrapped bags of asphalt roofing materials.
It was a long, horrible, hot and terrible project. It took every minute of every weekend; and we both were having nightmares where we could hear the pop-pop-pop of the nail gun.
When we were done, we had professional roofers check the job – and they marveled at the excellence and care that we took.
The moral of this story is – that we learned our lesson. If I had to do this over again – we would take a loan out to pay a roofing company. It took hours and hours to finish; all of our free time, and we realized that there is a reason why people hire professionals!
We may still paint and tile our own home – but, we measure the amount of time it will take and balance that against the cost of hiring someone.
Our time is valuable. We have learned the lesson the hard way.
You are a Pharmacist – specializing in customer and patient service. Your time is valuable as you have so little free time.
When considering any technology, including a web presence or Loyalty program for your pharmacy – Don’t try to do it yourself. In most cases, it will take long involved hours and days of your time and, will probably not look professional.
You want products that reflect the high standards that you take pride in.
Karen Sulprizio
Email Me or Call Me: 1-866-312-8324
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