I don't have much to add other than words of support. You have been to hell and back with this build. We had a terrible experience with our new home and I can finally say it feels home after living here 15 months. Just this weekend hubby was in the attic and found the range hood pipe is vented into the attic. The vent is installed in the roof, but the installers did not connect the pipe! Our hardwood flooring was laid in the same direction as the floor joists so we have squeaks and lots of movement, and one last issue is the water damage because they installed the washer without the "O" ring. They thought it was a washerless connection. The last error is about $15,000 in damage. Fortunate for us we have a great insurance company. Did I forget to mention the builder declared bankruptcy and walked away when the house was just closed in? Stay strong and stand your ground. All it would take the bricker is extra time to cover everything. And they probably charge by the hour!

Mmm, I had my chimney reflashed this year and it was about 200 dollars (that included sealing and fixing a couple bricks) it has a warranty for five years I think. anyways, won't the new chimney have flashing? Then it will fail in about 3-5 years and you will have to get new flashing again also, regardless if it is new or an old chimney. So Eventually I think that it will look ugly, like the older chimney. also you have an old house and old house owners know it isn't as easy as you think (nor as cheap) if you tear down the top of the chimney I bet you will find other things that need to be repaired and the cost and time will increase! If it were me I would go with just the flashing repair. We had tar all over the chimney also so the repair was done with some sort of epoxy or something. It looks black but isn't tar. Anyways, the chimney looks SO much better now. I think they cleaned up the tar a little while they were up there. Because of the degradation of the chimney bricks, which were then tared over, it would be difficult to put the metal flashing on our chimney. Also the bricks are very rough. Our house is over 150 yrs old also. Our chimney is not used anymore though. We use the front chimney and we have a liner in that.

Ichabod, we're in the desert southwest, but I probably should have expanded on that comment! Our annual average rainfall here is under 10". Snow does happen but is not common. Ice dams are not a problem here, for example, so local code does not require ice and water shield at the eaves, either. We recently had a wet 6" snow but that is fairly remarkable for us, down here in the southern part of New Mexico. Also to you and tlbean2004, thanks for your thoughts on the metal flashing. We may request metal valley flashings, with ice and water underneath. Metal flashings got the roof through 17 years with no problems, so I'm not sure why to abandon them now...unless the technology of modern underlayments has rendered metal valley flashings obsolete. I thought that was what the roofer was implying, and we weren't sure if that was correct. I'll admit I am also a bit more worried about this roof than I would be if it was not such a low pitch. So you folks are a big help. klem1, thanks for your explanation. Nope, no interest here in removing the 2x2 trim to try to treat the rafter tail end grain (DH would leave me if I suggested that) so it looks like the consensus is to keep a very wide metal flashing. I guess it will be less distracting when painted to match the wood. Our house was built in 1965 and I sure don't want to make uninformed decisions that lead to damage...all for the sake of looks. (As much as I dislike the look of the big drip edge.) I guess a smaller drip edge and rotted wood would not be very pretty, either. I need to figure out which ice and water shield product will work in our hot temperatures, if we want it under the metal valley flashing. One bid specifies GAF Weatherwatch (but the contractor isn't local.) I don't know how heat resistant that product is. I know Grace Ice and Water has the best reputation, but I was surprised to see the Grace website says that only their most expensive product, Grace Ultra, should be used in the desert southwest: Grace IWS Contractor's Guide So if the esteemed Grace Ice & Water Shield (regular product) will not stand up to desert southwest heat, I wonder how any of the (much less expensive) GAF ice and shield products would work. There are a few scary stories in some roofing forums about "bitumen bleed" when ice and shield products are used in higher temps than recommended. (Roofing is not for sissies, have you noticed?)

My windows have copper sill pans that have lasted for 125 years. It was the standard until the 60's. It was the change from factory installed casing trim to nailing-fins with field applied casing trim that caused wide spread confusion. To limit their liability the manufacturers of the windows, the flashings, the weather barrier and the exterior claddings each published installation instructions with little or no coordination. This might have worked if any of them knew anything about exterior envelope waterproofing. I have always followed the advice of WR Grace which changed its mane to Grace Products and then to GCP Technologies. If you were unsure of a detail you could just call them and they would explain it to you. Many of their materials have been copied by others so the details don't depend on using their products anymore. When the head trim was factory installed, the cap flashing was placed over the top of the head trim. Today there are competing opinions about where flashing belongs on a nail-fin window. Some say flashing tape is adequate. Others say there should be a "Rigid Head Flashing" over the top nail-fin and a drip cap over the head trim. Others say to use one or the other but not both. I miss the old windows. Good luck.