Tim left at about 11:30 a.m. He will be back tomorrow morning at 7 a.m.  Before he left we had a very cordial, mutually satisfactory conference.  He reported that he had inspected the gutter at the front of the house and found it to be so badly rotted that the could do nothing unless it was removed. He asserted that the gutter was not nailed to the fascia, but to the ends of the rafters, that he had examined these rafter ends and found them to be sufficiently sound to accept nails and to support lumber needed to close the openings created by removing the gutter. He assured my that the roof shingles, the roof sheathing and the rafters did not require replacement or repair. He proposed to fashion on the ground a grid of 2x4 lumber which he would then hoist onto his scaffolding and nail to the ends of the rafters. He estimated that such repais on the front of the house would require 5 to 7 working days (labor costs $2000.00 to $2800.00) He promised me that during the construction process, he would protect the inside of the house against rain, and that he would not accept other work until this work on our roof was completed. He would ot install gutters at this time, but would leave the eaves with a vertical edge to which a fiberglass (or metal) gutter might later be attached. Extrapolating from what Tim assured me, I estimate that the total labor costs for the definitive repair of the roof on the west, north and east sides of the old section of the house will not exceed $10,000,- a sum which I believe to be a very favorable investment for us.

I hope that you are well and are not having too difficult a day.