It’s Saturday and today I’m not a lawyer. I’m a roofer. Literally.
Although I just had my whole roof replaced by pros, there is a deck off the master bedroom that was badly weathered after baking in the AZ sun for 27 years.
This type of deck has a special name – “walk deck” – and my roofer refused to touch it. I also called about a half-dozen other roofers. All said the same thing — sorry, we don’t do walk decks.
After doing TONS of research, I finally understand why — any roof that is flat (or close to it) is more likely to leak than a sloped roof (water runs off a sloped roof quickly, but not when the roof is flat). Because a walk deck is both flat and part of the roof, it requires very special (and expensive) materials to be installed in a very specific way to ensure it remains waterproof. That’s the part that scares away normal roofers…because the process is slow, complicated, and expensive….and risky (because if you do it wrong, the roof will leak).
But as luck would have it, I am a life-long DIY guy. I could literally build a house from scratch including wiring, plumbing, drywall, tile — you name it. As long as the house didn’t have a walk deck.
But I couldn’t leave this unresolved. So, I did TONS of research and finally got a plan together to install the new deck surface myself. This involved new plywood, and then SIX layers of coatings applied in a very specific way (as shown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6pkzIxFSWs&t=1990s)
The Old Walk Deck – Surface Peeling Up
New Plywood Going Down w/ Black Waterproof Adhesive
Seams Taped/Epoxied
First Full Epoxy Layer Done
That’s how it looks today.
Next step is a 2nd epoxy layer, then let that dry for 3-5 hours, then two layers of base color material (which cost a shocking $560 for a 5-gallon bucket). Then you throw a layer of very specific sand on it (which costs $30/bag vs. maybe $5/bag for normal sand). Then two more top coat color layers.
With any luck, this should be done tomorrow (hopefully). After that, I have one final project that needs to be completed before my house is ready to go on the market.
In the mean time, during breaks on the roofing project, this morning I sat and re-read that AMAZING new SCOTUS case, Chiles v. Salazar…including the lone dissent (which, surprisingly, was from a liberal justice — Ketanji Brown Jackson).
After giving this a second read, I am 1000% convinced — this directly overrules any legal authority Jim Lee believed supported his position (I think Jim Lee’s favorite 1984 case was overruled by many other cases decades ago, but Chiles leaves ZERO doubt at this point).
Also interesting – Chiles is NOT really about the First Amendment. It’s actually about religion….and since Donald Trump is so strongly pro-Christianity, that makes sense.
The reason I know Chiles is about religion is due to the subject matter the parties were fighting about — “conversion therapy”. That is a purely religious issue.
Just consider the dissent’s description of conversion therapy —
OKAY — NOW I GET IT. Colorado passed a law making it illegal for licensed healthcare professionals to use “conversion therapy”. Put differently, Colorado made it illegal for religious people to try to “cure” gay people (to my knowledge, the only people who are openly anti-gay are bible thumpers).
SO, that’s what was really going on here. Ms. Chiles wanted to CURE GAY PEOPLE of their “sickness”….because Jesus told her to. Of course.
Colorado said – no, sorry lady – you can believe in Jesus if you want, but you can’t use your state healthcare license to tell vulnerable gay kids they are going to burn in hell if they love someone of the same sex.
Now I completely understand Justice Jackson’s decision to dissent.
At the same time, the decision in Chiles was 8-1, and really it would have been unanimous but-for the pro-religious undercurrent.
Having read the case twice now, there is no question it renders Jim Lee’s argument dead-on-arrival. The case specifically talks about previous attempts to create a “First Amendment Free Zone” for professionals including lawyers. It then says those efforts are 100% unconstitutional….because: “The Constitution does not protect the right of some to speak freely; it protects the right of all.”
What a fantastic quote. So simple and clear, even Jim Lee can understand it. I expect he will still try to mislead the court about it…or just pretend it doesn’t exist. Guess we’ll see soon enough.
Anyway, back to my walk deck restoration project….
