This is turning into the year of major capital improvements.  I knew these things were coming up, but hadn't planned to do them all this year.  (And I'm not doing *everything* this year, just a major chunk of what I've planned to do.

So I already posted about the front door replacement, which is the only really visible change.  The back door was replaced the following week.  It's just a plain white door replacing another plain white door, so it didn't make for a compelling reason to post.

Then in mid-September, the downstairs windows were replaced.  Again, not a stunning visual change from the old windows, so not a reason to post.

But while I was musing on the doors and windows, I decided to check on when I had last done the roof.  The last work on the roof was a coating with a 10-year guarantee.  I thought it was done about 9 years ago, but it turns out it was done 11 years ago, so I had the roof inspected.

The first person who came out to look at the roof actually went up on top of the roof.  He is one of only two contractors who went up there themselves.  Everyone else uses a drone these days.

Because my main roof is a flat roof and the house is a twin, with the two roofs connected, the contractor posted the photos he took to a website for me to share with my neighbor, and he indicated that he would only be willing to do the project if we *both* signed on, becauses that was the only way to 100% guarantee no leaks at the join between the properties.  

I talked to my neighbor, and she's not on board for a full tear off and replacement right now.  Her roof was recoated just 5 years ago, but she will be getting it recoated again.

The initial inspector also told me that the chimney needed work and that I should get a chimney specialist to give me a quote on that.

So the past couple of weeks have been a flurry of getting quotes, three each for the roof and the chimney.  I had a couple more appointments scheduled, but I made my decision and signed my contracts today.

It was very helpful to have the photos from the one roofer.  I uploaded them to AI and Ai tagged the roof as really needing a full tear off and replacement.  It pointed out particular photographs and pointed to particular evidence in those photos.  If a roofer had said just said that to me, there's always the worry that they are saying you need a full replacment rather than a repair because it is in their self-interest, but with the AI commentary on the photos, I was persuaded that the full tear off was needed this year.  I also used AI to compare the various contractor quotes, which was helpful in making my decision.  The chimney replacement is scheduled for the 30th of this month, and the roof replacement should occur sometime in November--I'll probably have a date in hand for that tomorrow.

This has all gone on during one of my busy periods at work and in the midst of our penultimate software conversion, so it's been mentally very taxing and I find myself absolutely drained at night.  Fortunately the next two weeks are very light on meetings, so I'll have a chance to catch up, get ahead, and master the final two software conversions before the year-end onslaught of meetings begins.

My mortgage balance (21 years in on a 30 year mortgage, but I've been pre-paying some) is now at $15k.  The HELOC balance is currently $21k and the upcoming roof and chimney will double that.  We get our annual bonus the end of January, so hopefully I'll be able to get that down by a significant fraction in a few months.  So there's more debt back on my balance sheet after 8 months with just the mortgage, but at least it's all home-related debt which will add to what I am able to get for the house when I sell it in 6 or 7 years.