If a Tree Falls…
The famous question: If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a sound? Well, we don't know about sound, but we do know it makes a mess and causes damage.
If you missed our news last weekend, a very large tree from the neighbor's house fell onto Star Cottage Studio. It was a huge oak (that also hit a locust tree on the way down). And it made a mess!
Thankfully, this time we were able to reach out to the owners of the house and they jumped into action with us to help clear it and work things out. They showed up that same day and we got right to trimming and cutting away branches and clearing as much as we could from the roof before the rain. Unfortunately, the roof is sloped too much to have gotten everything, so we had to start removing from below to see what we could accomplish that way.
Then the rain came. We did as much work as we could, but were still not nearly finished, so we had to put the tools away and made a plan to come back the next day.
That following day, we were able to get the largest part of the tree off of the roof by carefully cutting it slowly and using a rope to pull it away from the building as it fell. We were trying to be as careful as possible not to smash out the windows below as the trunk fell. Thankfully, we were successful, and then we had a huge mess on the ground to clean up. We were really lucky that the neighbor's son was able to join us that day with his truck, and it took about 6-10 truck loads (we lost count) to clear everything out.
After a few days work, the mess was nearly all cleared up. The only thing we were unable to do was check the roof because we didn't have a ladder tall enough to reach easily. There was still debris there, and we couldn't tell if anything punctured the metal roofing or not. We didn't see any water damage from the night before, but we couldn't be sure.
Thankfully, the next evening, we got a message from our neighbor saying that he had gotten a ladder and he was on his way over. The ladder was able to reach, and, unfortunately we found a large limb that had punched through one of the metal panels on the roof. Again, our friend sprung into action (he's much more knowledgeable about these things), and ran to the hardware store to get a patch. He came back just after dark with the patches and flashlights. Because William was tall enough to reach, he climbed the ladder and put down the patches on the roof. While this isn't a permanent fix, it will help keep the water out of the building until we're able to source and replace the roofing panel.
We are so thankful that our neighbors were super helpful and really jumped in to make this experience the best it could have been despite what happened. It was also great to get to know them better and feel like we're getting a little more incorporated into the community where our studio is.
As many of you know, we had just picked up primer, paint, a spray painting gun, and more to start work on the exterior of the building and were hoping to use the holiday weekend to get some of that work done. This completely changed our plans. But, now that much of that has been solved, we're hoping the nice weather that we're having will stick around long enough for us to get some painting done.
If you'd like to help us with our projects at Star Cottage Studio, we're currently running a fundraiser here: https://gofund.me/1692967d5
We've also developed an Inspiration Kit to help with the future costs of repairing the roof panel. If you'd like to grab one of those, you can here while supplies last: https://www.allegorygallery.com/products/allegory-gallery-inspiration-kit-54
And, if you're interested in more photos, visit our social media pages on Facebook to see even more of this story!