The "Some Minor Repairs" Story

It was an ordinary day. Making the final touches on the house to make sure that it will pass the third house inspection tomorrow. After we sold our house that we lived in for 29 years on Janet Ave. in Grandview Heights, the buyer, a former student of mine, hired a house inspector to go over the house to make sure that everything was sound. Everything passed except in our 75 year old garage, which was not attached to the house, you could look up through a small crack in the peak of the slate roof. I'm sure it was like that for probably all of the 75 years it was there, but it bothered the new buyer. My corvette that I housed in the garage never got a mark on it or never had any stains from water dripping through the crack, so I never realized it was there. Hey, the inspector really did a thorough job! Well, I had an Amish guy who worked on slate roofs come to the house to check it out. He told me I could have part of the roof rebuilt or he could just caulk it so that nothing would leak through it. Since the difference in cost was about $500, I chose the caulking. On the second visit from the inspector, with the buyer tagging along, they looked up and saw the crack was still there. D#*m, the guy used clear caulking, I thought to myself. I apologized and asked them to come back at the end of the week. I would make sure the problem was solved. The next day, after I got home from school, I put my extension ladder up the slope of the roof and, with a can of black paint and a brush, crawled to the top of the peak. Ten minutes later I was back down and the daylight was gone. I just painted over the clear caulking with the paint and it was ready to go. At the end of the week it passed inspection and we were ready for our journey to our new home. The "Beach House." It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.