Saturday, November 17, 2007

Problems and Opportunities....

One of the platitudes that I hate is: "Problems are just opportunities in work clothes."

I don't know - it just sounds a bit hokey to me.

While we were in VT making some decisions about the cabin I noticed that a planned deck off the master bedroom seemed to be a potential problem. The deck is at the confluence of two roofs and there is a valley that directs the run off from the roof right onto the deck that is over the dining room.

Having spent more than a couple of winters in New England and Cleveland I know the power of water freezing and thawing. It looked to me like there was a real problem with the deck. I spoke with the contractor and he agreed - but that was what the plans showed and he built it just the way the plans showed. All well and good.

Now I had looked at the plans again and again and had seen the location of the deck and never thought a thing of it - until I was standing on it and looking at the roof. Then I saw the problem. The builder saw the problem. So what were we going to do?


A deck in Vermont has limited usefulness. You can't use it much in May or June because the black flies will eat you alive. In July the mosquitoes are pretty bad too. Your best time of year for the deck are the lazy warm days of August when the flies are practically all gone and the 'skeeters don't come out till after dark.

So I looked at my builder and asked if we could extend the roof over the deck and make it a screened porch off the master bedroom. This would give us more useable outdoor space and would allow the rain, snow and ice to fall straight to the ground. He and the rest of the carpenters thought I was on to something and they did some calculations and well... VoilĂ !

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