Green is one of our favorite colors here in Oysterville. With 80 to 100 inches of rain a year, we are surrounded by it. In fact, of all the northwest region, we 
Washingtonians probably take the greatest pride in our greenness. After all, we are the Evergreen State.
Even so, it was with some amazement that I glanced out my window yesterday and saw that the new roof at Tucker and Carol’s was a glistening shade of emerald green in the morning sunshine. Highly unusual here in the National Historic District! Here we have Design Guidelines that are very stringent as to materials and colors that can be used on the exteriors of buildings. Green roofs are not specified.
I had an idea about what was going on. Several weeks ago, the roofers had begun their work on the Wachsmuths’ new addition. They have completed all the steps up to but not including the cedar shingles. The battens that cover the roof in readiness for that final step are of pine and Tucker was a little concerned about that. My thought about the new green on his roof was that it related to those pine strips.
Sure enough! When I walked over to get a closer look, there was Tucker up on that steep-pitched roof applying a coat of copper naphthenate – a preservative recommended as a precautionary measure against rot in our wet weather. I joined Carol who was standing below on terra firma, worriedly monitoring Tucker’s progress. Even though he was rigged up with a safety harness and was being super-careful, we both felt much better when he came down for a lunch break.
He had not yet done the “difficult” side of the roof and was thinking out loud about how to adapt his very long-handled applicator. Or, perhaps, to fashion something so he could just sit on the roof ridge and reach the remaining side from above. “Even if I fell,” he said, “I wouldn’t fall far. I might break an arm or something but I wouldn’t kill myself.” It made my palms sweat just to listen to him!
The next time I sallied forth (in late afternoon), he was finished with both arms and both legs and neck all still intact. He said that neighbors Anne and Jim had been by, and from his perch on high, Tucker had asked Jim if he’d like to lend a hand. (Jim had a life-threatening fall from ladder a year or so ago; I wonder if he fully appreciated Tucker’s gallows-style humor…)
So, until the roofers return and top things off with cedar shingles, it’s ‘the wearin’ of the green’ in one little corner of Oysterville. It’s a cheerful contrast to the rest of our roofs, though I’m not sure how I’d feel about it on a permanent basis. I do know exactly how I felt about seeing Tucker on that roof – YIKES!
The color of roofs…Sydney: Do you remember the house down the hill from me in Santa Rosa? The owner(s) decided to use a red metal roof on their new home. From above, the afternoon sun blazed on the roof, nearly blinding those who scowled from above. Next, another owner builder decided on what she declared as an “earth color” – actually chalk rock for the color of her home and driveway. When I objected to both, I was given the role of post menopausal bitch! It seems to me, that for the most part, the O’Ville residents follow the rules….