Meet the New Roof
Posted on April 25, 2009 Posted by John Scalzi 43 Comments
Not the same as the old roof:
The new roof is made of dimensional shingles, which my wife tells me are better and more durable than regular shingles (these came with a 30-year warranty in any event). Krissy also got them in green to match the house trim. It looks very nice, I think. Hopefully this will be the end of all roof problems forever, or for at least 30 years, which is also fine.
(adjust straw hat)
yuuuup, that’s a good lookin’ roof ya got there.
*ptooee-TING!*
SkyCat appears to have done an ecellent job of supervising.
I’ve never seen a green roof before. It looks pretty awesome.
Nice lookin’ house!
Had anyone told Scalzi in 1982 that his House of the Future would protect him from the elements of the 21st Century with Dimensional Shingles, he’d have laughed in their faces.
Now though, in the dawn of this shining new century for Humanity, this technological marvel is not only available – but available in green.
Think on that next time you pooh-pooh the future, now won’t you?
*tamps pipe, smiling in that knowing, fatherly way*
That’s a handsome piece of Americana you got there.
Mr. Scalzi,
The new roof looks wounderful. I know that is a big load off your family’s mind. Like I said before, I had a new roof put on around Christmas time and I should be good to go for the next 30 years also or until another hurricane hits (God forbide!!)
I would like to bring up another matter that has come to my attention that I belive that you and my fellow blog readers can help with.
Last year the Hollywood Walk of Fame Committee voted down the request of the many fans of Walter Koenig their request for a star in his honor be placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He is the last cast member to so honored. The WOF Committee is meeting in June 2009 to vote on this year’s inductees and I would like to ask you and your readers to tell the committee that Walter Koenig should have a star. Letters should be sent to the following address:
Walk of Fame Committee
c/o Hollywood Chamber of Commerce
7018 Hollywood Boulevard, 2nd Floor
Hollywood, CA 90028
I would say to e-mail them but their web site says they do not accept e-mails to nominate a person for a star.
I started watching Star Trek in 1966 and my love for it got me intrested in the world of Science Fiction in general.
I hope that we can rectify this injustice and see that Mr. Koenig has his star. I gaint in the Science Fiction field such as yourself will add much needed gravatias to this effort. Now I will spend some time this afternoon reading some more of Anathem by Neal Stephenson (I’m up to page 313). I want to read all of the Hugo nominated books before I vote for the Hugo. I’ve read Zoe’s Tale and The Graveyard Book, only two more to go!!
Did you offer the roofers water?
What?!? Our precious fluids?!? For the HELP?!??!?
As it happens, we did indeed ask them if they would like anything to drink. They chose Diet Cokes. Which, to be clear, we then provided to them.
That is one awesome house. And the green looks great.
“dimensional shingles”
Hmm… Did you check the dimensional portal underneath?
I would kill a man for a porch. Now all I’ve got is a dirty central area and rats in the walls.
Looks like my roof. Not like my *house*, but like my roof. ;-)
Irene Delse:
Those would be interdimensional shingles. And I didn’t want to pay extra for those.
April 27th, 2039:
Krissy: John, I think the roof’s got a little leak.
John: Damn warranties always run out 10 minutes before you need ’em. Don’t anybody take any pride in workmanship any more?
Only thirty years? Hmmm….
Do you really want the hassle of re-installing Dimensional Shingles in 2039? The contractors will be based on the Moon (if you’re lucky) and further out-system (if the human race is lucky). The new shingles will be made of ProcessedMoonRock(TM) protected by the Lunar Trademark Office (Violaters will suck vacuum) (TM).
Too late, I know. But in 2040, I look forward to pointing out that I told you so.
What kind of tree is that on the left?
Just want to mention that a forward-thinking family, such as the esteemed Scalzi clan, would consider this a perfect time to consider adding a solar energy system to the roof of their compound, which, according to the supplied photo, does not suffer from a great deal of shading trees.
Photovoltaic systems have come along nicely, and can even provide excellent and near-instant backup power for part of your home, for those of us who need power to work….at home. The payback can be long if you live in an area which currently benefits from a high percentage of coal power – most of Ohio does – but current tax incentives do help.
Or, if your ho-er, compound – has baseboard hot water or underfloor heating, solar thermal systems can have a big impact on heating costs. We’ve come off the big peaks from last year now, but the cost for propane or heating oil will probably rise again, and the payback on these systems is shorter. Again, federal tax incentive.
It’s something I’ve been giving thought to, Robrobb, but it’s not fiscally practical at the moment.
On a practical note, if the roof matches the color of the lawn, there is a danger that the aliens will not notice the house. Oh, surely they have read Scalzi’s work, but try as they might, a visit may prove impossible. They could get fed up with looking for him and decide to just leave a fancy crop circle in the immediate area. Green grass canvas. House blends in with lawn. Grass-stomping artists, working from a distance that will give them a perspective on the whole design. I see a real problem here.
[Scotty]
It’s… green.
[/Scotty]
Somebody had to say it.
That’s a mighty pretty roof, and a mighty pretty house.
Your new roof looks FAB!
Beautiful home, great photo.
Jeff @20,
Kodi looks like the sort of dog that has no tolerance for any geometric turf tomfoolery on her human’s property, regardless of the trespasser’s planetary origin.
Sorry, man…30 years’ warranty is about the best you’ll find for a roof. Most building materials have far shorter warranty periods. Though their functional lives may be longer than the warranty period, very few building materials can last indefinitely; monolithic natural stone is about as close as you could get (see, for example, the Egyptian Pyramids – though the dry air probably helps immensely, too), but even that, too, will (eventually) succumb to the ravages of time. OTOH, most materials (properly protected / weatherproofed) will last sufficiently long, such that they should give good service during the course of our (relatively) short lives in the houses we inhabit.
Also, while we’re considering economically infeasible re-roofing options, you _could_ always go for a REAL green roof, with sod and all. Of course, they’re somewhat impractical for single family dwellings…
Janice @ 21:
Data said that, not Scotty.
“It is…”
*looks at bottle*
“It is…”
*removes cork, sniffs, blinks*
“It is … green.”
*Scotty shrugs, holds out glass*
Take that, wrong person on the Internet! Ha! Take it! Take my knowledge and know that you were wrong! Ha ha ha! I have proven my superior knowledge! And stuff!
And now I feel alone and sad. I’ll be over there.
MarkHb at #27
Sorry to tell you that Scotty did say “its green” first. He said it in the ST:TOS episode “By Any Other Name” which aired on Feb. 23, 1968. He told it to the alien right before he drank him under the tabel. Data said it also on the ST:TNG episode with Scotty.
Only three weeks till the new Star Trek movie!!!!!
Long Live and Prosper!!!
Yep, that’s definitely a photo. Of a house.
The house and its new tophat look lovely. Nice abode indeed!
@Charles K. Bradley
Live long and prosper, even.
Beautiful house. The roof complements it quite nicely. You need more trees, though. I am sure someone in Ohio could tell you which types are native, because native means the least hassle.
a reply to Christopher Turkel: The tree to the left looks suspiciously like an Eastern Redbud. Its the right time of year for it to bloom, the right shape and size. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Redbud
Pretty tree. Given how my apartment complex treats the ones here, it is also quite hardy.
It’s a crab apple, actually.
> Krissy also got them in green to match the house trim.
I swear, it’s a female conspiracy to destroy the world. The wife and I were are Target yesterday, and we needed a new mat for the front porch.
Being a sensible man, I wanted something that actually CLEANS your shoes off before entering the house. My wife wanted the door mat with the “Roman pattern”, because it MATCHES the front door (but had IMHO poor shoe cleaning ability).
You can guess how this turned out.
Christian:
I sympathize. That said, Krissy, whose job as an insurance adjuster requires her to know quite a bit about roofs and roofing, got shingles that aside from being green were almost manifestly more hardy than the previous roof. So I can’t complain overly, even were I inclined to, which I am not. Because now I have a pretty roof, you see.
The green roof is smart. It’s like camo from Google Earth. “House? No there’s no house here just lots of grass. Now stay off my lawn!”
Actually I’m not that paranoid but it was the first thing I thought of.
J #26 – a copper roof lasts a whole lot longer than 30 years. Say about 100 years. Of course it would cost more than the house may have…… But it would be pretty!
The next roof should be yellow or purple. Just to match with the flowers.
I saw the picture and thought, is it green? and then read the text and sure ’nuff, my monitor was not miscalibrated.
That looks awesome.
What I hate about choosing house fixtures and the like is that my wife will choose something that I’m sure will look awful, and I will tell her so. But then she will start to argue and in emergencies even put that sad face, you know, and I will cave and go ‘whatever’.
And then when it is in place it will just look great and she will not say I told you so and I hate that…
Check something with Krissy for me? Did she mean to make the house look like Green Gables? Because it’s awesome.
Ryber@30,
According to Susan Sackett in her book Lettres to Star Trek, The term was supposed to be “long live and prosper which was correct Vulcan grammer. However, somewhere along the way, the phrase was changed to “live long and prosper” whic is correct Earth (English) grammer. I don’t think it can be changed now. Ms. Sackett signed my copy of her book using the proper Vulcan grammer.
Now, Bow down to my superior Star Trek knowledge!!!!!!
As an Arizonan, any color comp-shingle roof other than very light grey seems disturbingly out of place.
Got to admit it looks pretty good though.
Scalzi: Hired professionals to roof his house.
Me: drafted my father, brother-in-law, and various friends to help me roof my house.
Scalzi: Sat at his computer, played with is daughter, and snapped photos while his house was re-roofed.
Me: got vertigo, sunburnt, laughed at, ruined a pair of pants, and wasted two vacation days.
Scalzi: has his house roofed.
Me: has half a roof.
Scalzi wins.