Is there such thing as "rear roof envy"? Yes.

Assuming the front roof was jealous of the rear roof we figured we might as well give it a makeover too. As you can see from an earlier picture, the two dormers on the front of the house were very small. After further inspection we notice they were in fact two different sizes and they weren't framed properly. It was almost as if the previous homeowner had simply cut a hole in the roof and stuck both dormers in - not a very good idea.

So Kevin and I climbed up on the roof and took them down piece by piece. They came apart fairly easily!  We also cut the openings wider so that our new dormers would be proportionate to the size of the roof and they'd be matching sizes.

We then covered them with plywood to keep the rain out until the crew we hired could come out and build new ones.  In the meantime we removed all the old shingles.

We decided to hire a crew to get everything closed in quickly. The crew started by taking measurements of the rough openings that we framed and got started on adding the first dormer.

Then they got to work! Within 40 minutes our new dormers started to take shape.

Here you can see one of the dormers is already framed and the crew is sheeting the rest of the roof with plywood.

One dormer down, one to go! They were fast workers!

Framing for the left dormer was being completed while the guys finished sheeting in the right dormer.

Here's a closer picture of the left dormer.

With the right dormer complete the guys started putting down new tar paper while they finished sheeting in the left dormer.

Here's a view from the inside. As you can see we'll be able to put larger windows in the dormers allowing a lot of sunlight to come in upstairs.

Here's a view of the left dormer.

The new dormers are complete! Look how much nicer it looks now that the dormers are proportionate to the rest of the roof! The crew finished the dormers in 7 hours. It would have taken us over a week.

When we're ready all we have to do is cut out the plywood covering the openings and install some windows. Several weeks later the new shingles were installed!