Blog 3789 – 03.27.2026
Up On The Roof
One of the first task of renovating the old farm house on our homesite in Bon Wier, Texas is the roof. There are a large number of things on the list to be done before the structure will be livable again. After all it has not been lived in since 2013 when the previous title holder Aton “Jack” Mitchell passed.
After Jack died someone broke in to the place, ransacked it, broke out several windows, and even stole all the copper wiring out of the walls. In trying to clean up the broken glass and remove all the liter so I could see whether repairs were even feasible I fell through the floor in the rear older trailer in the back.
Jack had joined two single wide trailers to make them into a ranch house or farm house. The front newer trailer consists of two large room with a hallway in between and each of the two large rooms in addition to windows in front and on one end has a window cut through to the back trailer. There is also a walk through door in the hallway to the back trailer. The front trailer is in the best condition while the back trailer will need by far the most work inside and out.
The back trailer has a large room in the middle that served as the kitchen, dinning room, and den with a small bed room with closet on both ends and a large bathroom and small laundry room/utility room between the large central room and the south end bedroom. The flooring in the older rear trailer was constructed with pressed wood chip particle board that is badly deteriorated throughout so I began taking it out to replace it entirely with sheet insulation topped with plywood.
I figure on redoing the dividing walls and doorways maybe even the outer walls with two by fours with insulation in the walls, essentially building a new house within the metal shell of the old trailer and then covering the outside of it with wood sheeting to match the front and painting it all a darker shade of blue and the trim white. I have already given this project a lot of thought. I even hope to have two large fireplaces with stone or brick chimneys on both ends of the front of the house and large long porches front and back. Later after I have constructed the porches, I want to contract a metal roof, but first I want to change the over hanging roof to one with a single crown.
If the thought of a seventy-five year old man up on a roof sounds crazy to you, believe me I understand. And trust me when I say that cautions like “Be careful” are totally unnecessary. I am very mindful of each step I take up and down the ladder and while on the roof. I am taking my time and I suspect this project alone, doing it myself, will take quite awhile. Securely screwing or nailing the two by fours at the top then adding wood to close in the open spaces, then tar papering with new shingles will take me the better part of the spring and summer I suspect. And even then that will not happen unless I am able to return to spending several days a week there instead of the half days I have been spending the last couple of months.
I hope with the warmer weather that my wife will again be agreeable to staying several nights a week in our RV camper which is a stone’s throw from the project.
The song “Up On The Roof” comes to mind as I contemplate the next stage of this adventure.
Your friend and fellow traveler,
David James White
James Taylor – Up on the Roof (Audio)
theencouragingword 