The present of a new roof touches many

Tucked off a travel in a Greenwood area is a tiny orange house, a paint bark and — until this week — a plywood roof leaking.

The medium two-story structure has been home to 62-year-old Ruth Piper for 30 years.

Piper had been disturbed about a roof, generally when a rains came, so she’d propped adult a high ladder and climbed atop a residence to patch a holes — all to a sharp eyes of frightened neighbors.

Now they’ve given Piper, who lives on a bound income, a appreciated Christmas present of a new roof.

“We did it to assistance a neighbor,” pronounced one of a neighbor’s, Lance Mansfield. “It’s unequivocally cool.”

The story began several weeks ago when 4 endangered neighbors watched Piper, who never married and has no children, stand atop her roof to request connect to a many leaky areas. The roof had been shop-worn in a thunderstorm so Piper had lonesome it with tarps, though a tarps blew away, exposing a leaky plywood.

Piper pronounced a charge also knocked out most of her electricity and that she has no prohibited water.

At one point, Mansfield went on a roof himself to patch it, though satisfied a repairs was good over a patching theatre — and his thatch abilities.

So a neighbors collected during a cooking celebration and plotted how to help.

One placed an ad in Craigslist looking for giveaway thatch material. When thatch executive Ben Mears, of Kent, initial saw a ad, “I suspicion it was a scam,” he said. He called a neighbor who’d placed a notice and “he was a good guy,” Mears said. He motionless to representation in.

Mears called a thatch association he works with, Stoneway Roofing Supply, that concluded to yield materials during 75 percent off, and he volunteered to do a labor for free. In all, a new roof cost $1,000 — $250 from any of 4 adjacent families — a fragment of a $6,000 guess Piper had received.

“We all have skills, and we only do what we can. This is only one roof,” pronounced Mears. “It’s fun for me, and a timing is impeccable. We should all have neighbors like this. They are unequivocally display a Christmas spirit.”

Piper concurred her aged roof was frightful when she attempted to scale it. “I’m very, unequivocally thrilled,” she said.

The 4 neighbors, and their spouses, finished it transparent a new roof comes with no strings attached, promulgation Piper a Christmas label with a note tucked inside.

“Merry Christmas. Six of your neighbors would like to give we a present this Christmas,” a note read. “This is a present given giveaway and transparent of any destiny obligation. Please accept this present as an countenance of a caring for you. We don’t wish we to be soppy this Christmas.”

One of a six, Michael Redmond, pronounced assisting a neighbor is “what people should be doing all year around.”

“We caring about her,” he said.

Mansfield pronounced a neighbors are not finished yet. Next up: repair Piper’s electricity.

Another chairman who competence advantage from their acts of generosity? Mears 7-year-old daughter, who is vagrant for a bicycle for Christmas.

“How can we give a lady a roof and my 7-year-old not a bicycle,” Mears said.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com