I hate water ~W.C. Fields
(Actually the whole quote is, "I hate water - fish f*ck in it." ~W.C. Fields)
Status report. I have been told that the roofers are supposed to come today to dry-us-in. That is, they won't actually fix anything yet - we are still about a month away for that, but I have been advised that the chimney and the valley over the art room will be temporarily stanched. They will also look at the tarp over the window in the girls' bath and see if they can seal it. (Still leaking there.)
This is the leak around the chimney. I didn't bother to go up into the upper attic to show the leak on the backside as well... basically, the chimney, embedded in the corner where the two wings of the house meet, is functioning as a hole in the roof. God knows it doesn't actually function as a chimney.
This is the leak in the art room. We poked a hole in the plaster ceiling because it was so close to the light and we didn't want any build up around the fixture that would lead to short-circuits and death by fire. It has worked pretty well, because not only are we not dead, but the light still works too.
This is the leak in the basement. While it is much much better than it was, and the seepage from the old boiler platform and the crack in the floor has been stopped, it seems that the sump pump has not completely licked the problem. We are still leaking out of the pinholes in the concrete steps down to the lower basement. (We also have the leak coming from the outside wall of the coal bin, but are confident that when the new garage roof is finished, that one will be eliminated.)
Here's a new one. When Rob set the lid last week, he kind of pushed the downspout snake out of the way, which ripped it open. When they knocked off the flying buttress on the corner of the front wall to make room for the new garage wall, they left a hole. These two holes are in very close proximity, allowing the cascade of water off the roof to be directed into the hole in the side of the house. I know there is a Socratic chain here, but I can't put it into words... maybe hole in downspout + hole in house + water in downspout = water in house.
And finally, the sump pump did NOTHING to improve conditions in the laundry room, which flooded much worse last night (thanks to the melt as well as the rain) than it did even in the record breaking downpour we had in January. Korrect Plumbing will come take a look at adding a new drain, or another sump pump at this level. I think our choices will be either a sump pump for $1,500, or trenching the back yard and adding a french drain (like we did around the crawls space,) for $15,000.
Update on the pool: Phil the pool guy stopped by to take a look. He remembered the pool from when the Messicks lived here, (PJ - pre-johngineer) and said the pool is in pretty stable shape. We will have to have it drained and cleaned in the spring, and also have the broken valve replaced and the lines pressure tested to see if there was any damage other than the cracked valve from the freeze. That's kind of good news to us.
Tommie-Cat is getting fat. He used to free-feed at his old home, but there were 7 cats there and from what I understand, he wasn't very high on the totem pole. The vet told me to limit his food and it's been problematic. Because he likes to party all night, I've been locking him into the kitchen. When I got up Wednesday morning I found he had attacked the challah bread that was on the counter and also yarked all over the kitchen. Yesterday he helped himself to a good portion of the ground turkey I had just browned when I went to change Naomi. The vet warned me that a heavy cat is more prone to health problems but I'm to the point now where I feel like I'd rather have a dead happy cat than a live nasty one. Besides, I figure he'll trim down once he gets outside in the spring/summer, like the rest of us. Eat on, Tom!
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