There’s a reason why New England architecture features steeply pitched roofs.
I’ve been appreciative of the wisdom of our early builders lately, as the 50+ inches of snow that has fallen in Boston so far this year has been a sort of permanent coating on our roof. We even had a dog walker stop to ask where we bought our roof rake.
Right now, there are ice dams lining the gutters on the house…even after spending about six hours over the past two days raking snow off the roof.
- Winslow Crocker House, Yarmouth, Mass. Typical New England Colonial with the massive central chimney, steeply pitched roof (enough to characterize as a half story qualifies as steeply pitched to me), and natural siding with painted trim. I wish our roof was this steep. I also wish that we shingled our house this way, but I was thoroughly unsuccessful in that.
A steeper pitch to the canvas covering the boat would also be nice. My brother and I spent a nice afternoon wrestling icebergs off the top of that. (And by the way, this activity confirmed that the majority of an iceberg is underwater. If you can’t figure that out by looking at ice in a drink, then I recommend trying to grab and lift an iceberg out of a pool of water on top of a boat. You can’t do it without getting soaked.)
So, this whole ice-dam prevention is turning into sort of an obsession for me; which is really pathetic because it means that I’m literally spending time watching snow melt. But sometimes it just reminds me that sometimes the best solutions are the most simple.
Also, we’ve gotten about six inches of new snow in the last 8 hours. I’m anxious to get out and shovel off the roof.
