Tag Archives: leaks

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OSHA who…?

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My husband finally fixed two of the three leaking gutters he put up a while back. Although gerry rigged would be a more apt description.

The repairs involved rolled metal sheeting and so much cursing I disappeared into the house for most of it. But when I went to check the progress on the barn a few hours later….

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I marveled at the non OSHA approved stabilizing device he had employed.

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Extension ladder in fear of falling over?

Tie it to a post.

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When that repair was complete, he moved onto the section of leaking gutter on the garage and gathered his tools.

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When I followed him over and saw a section of tree limb was involved? I did what any self respecting spouse would do… and went back in the house.

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And the work continued….

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Day two of roof repair was not without its pitfalls.

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And Lord Dudley Mountcatten kept a close eye on the progress.

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Yes that’s a giant copper and silver cicada on my coffee table. You mean you don’t have one…? How strange.

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The weather that morning was awful.

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Rain, wind and colder than average temps. Work didn’t even start until 10:00am.

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At times it seemed like the black clouds were aiming right for them.

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But progress was made in between the showers and I was glad to see the gap in the problem corner was tightly covered with ice and water shield. A gerry rigged solution to be sure, but an improvement none the less. Had this been done the day before (as I requested, repeatedly) our ceiling wouldn’t look like this:

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But I’m just a woman. What do I know?

😡

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But what do I know?

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I don’t claim to know everything, but I do know if you’re going to strip a roof for repairs during a weekend when rain is predicted? You postpone or make damn sure you cover that sucker completely.

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My husband on the other hand, likes to gamble.

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And as you can see by what I woke up to Saturday morning…

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He lost. ( Unplug the tv and move the table? Why… when you can just cover it with trash bags? It’s times like these I question my love for that man.)

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And while I would normally enjoy a good I told you so and being right….

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The utter disaster that is our ceiling took the joy right out of it.

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Roof repair day one, the finale.

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Roof section stripped, ice and water shield in place, drip edge nailed down.

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The problem corner was recognized and discussed.

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I checked periodically and enjoyed the view from up high.

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You’d think all the hammering and noise would scare off the wildlife…

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But it didn’t stop Chuck from having a little nosh.

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No, the husband wasn’t asleep… but they’d been on the roof since 8:00am and apparently he can strategize just as well lying down.

I repeatedly asked what he was going to do with the bad corner…. and I was repeatedly ignored. Please refer to the complicated diagram below to understand how and where the water was getting in.

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They finished for the day at 7:00pm and the tarp was redeployed. But when I went back out and found the section over the door (you know.. where it was leaking!) hadn’t been covered, I suggested something might need to be done due to the forecast of imminent rain. But once again, I was ignored. Because really, what do I know?

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Holiday weekend my *ss.

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While most people were at the beach or the lake enjoying picnics and barbecues with lovely waterfront views this weekend…. my view was somewhat different .

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Because of all the times my husband could have picked to replace a section of our roof?

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He picked Memorial Day weekend. You know, the long weekend where rain was predicted Saturday morning, Sunday night and all day Monday. I suggested he postpone the repairs. He ignored me. I asked him to postpone the repairs. He told me it wasn’t necessary. I told him it was going to frigging rain! He got aggravated with me, said it would be fine and told me to go in the house.

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More on this later.

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If you’ve been paying attention you know we’ve had a serious roof leak for a while now. Our living room ceiling is a mess and though the husband has ripped off and replaced numerous sections of shingles he could never figure out where the water was breaking through.

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Me? I’ve complained for years about the gutter leaking in the corner right above the doors… but he never paid attention. What do I know?

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Apparently more than he does … because when they got it all stripped?

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The only part of wood that was wet and rotted was right over the doors. (Please note it took a boatload of restraint for me not to scream I told you so. And I wanted to. I really wanted to.)

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Of course in true nothing ever goes smoothly at our house fashion? Lowes called on Friday to say the shingles that were supposed to be delivered Saturday couldn’t be because the forklift on the truck was broken. This meant my husband had to pick up 9 square of architectural shingles, tar paper, nails and water shield in his old truck.

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The photo doesn’t do it justice, but trust me… that sucker was squatted down so far I thought the rear tires would pop.

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P.S….. for those who might be interested? After exhaustive diagnosis tests, the reason the truck left us stranded in NH was a rotted vacuum line to the EKG valve. I have no idea what that is, but someone might.

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It got interesting alright.

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Remember last week when I posted about the giant tarp and a high wind storm coming our way?

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Well, it came.

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And the tarp went.

Sailing off the roof, across the lawn and down into the woods where it rolled into a large ball and sailed right back up to the house.

How well did those grommets hold?

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Not very well as it turns out.

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Sadly along with the wind came rain. And with the tarp protecting nothing but snow covered ground, our ceiling leaked again.

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And the water broke through my previous patch job on the beam.

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So today I’ve been spackling and sanding trying to fill the hole.

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And bleaching the numerous stains on the ceiling…. which is getting quite ridiculous. Every storm brings a new stain in a slightly different spot.

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I’m seriously thinking of painting the damn thing in polka dots until spring.

And if you’re wondering what Lord Mountcatten was doing through all the excitement?

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Trying to ignore it of course.

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Well that was (not) fun.

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When your roof is leaking in the middle of a Maine winter and you have no idea why…. there’s really only one solution.

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You chip the ice and snow from around the door, set up a ladder….

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Climb up on the roof where you have to chip away more snow and ice…

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And lay a giant ass tarp. ( We’ll be the envy of all our neighbors now, so stylish! ) Then if you’re my husband, you leave a large part of it flapping in the corner.

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What?

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With a storm moving in, I had to fight him to secure the damn thing before it blew halfway to the next county.

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One little string, through one little grommet was all he would do.

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The snow came, turned to rain and miraculously the roof didn’t leak. But we’re due for strong winds in a few days so things are apt get interesting.

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Enough already.

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It rained again, in January, in Maine. That’s not supposed to happen. Most years we’re positively buried in snow.

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And I have to say I’d much rather be doing this…

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Than dealing with this…

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It rained…. and our roof sprung yet another leak.

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In yet another brand new spot. Every time the husband thinks he’s fixed it? It leaks somewhere else. And while the temperature has been mild (for us) it’s still not warm enough to strip and replace a roof. So while we wait for spring and pray for snow, our ceiling is being ruined. I’ve bleached this 3 times …

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And it still bleeds through.

Kill me now.

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Thank goodness for friends.

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When your ceiling looks like this?

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And your fireplace looks like this?

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You call in the cavalry.

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Or rather two friends who aren’t afraid of heights.

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Then you buy lots of this…

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And hope they can find the source of the leaks.

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A full day was spent searching, stripping, caulking and replacing shingles….

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In less than balmy weather.

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The view out my window was interesting at times :

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And 7 chilly hours plus one large spaghetti lunch later? They think they solved the problem…. but I guess time will tell.

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When it rains, it pours.

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(And I sincerely hope it keeps raining today because that’s probably the only way I’m going to be able to take a shower.)

I woke up this morning, slowly and creaking because of my knee. The husband, who’s been underfoot since March … who hardly ever has to visit a client since working from home… left at 7:00am to visit a client.

And that’s when the proverbial waste product collided with the rotating blades.

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I heard a noise.

And since I’m an anal retentive woman, every noise must be investigated. I tracked the noise to our so filled with crap I never go down there anymore cellar. Stairs are not my friend right now, but I hobbled down in pain and discovered it was the water pump.

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(That’s the little blue doohickey to the right for the plumbing challenged among us.)

The water pump was running. For no reason. Cycling on and off every 15 seconds. This is not what you want a water pump to do. So I climbed back upstairs, slowly and with more than a few sound effects, to make sure nothing was turned on, running or leaking. Nothing was. I hobbled outside in the rain to make sure the outdoor faucet wasn’t left on. It wasn’t. Reaching the end of my diagnostic skills, I called our plumber.

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No. That is definitely not me.

Miracle of all miracles he answered the phone and walked me through a few steps to check the problem. The pump is only 5 years old, the heater a mere 3. Nothing seemed to be wrong inside but when he had me go outside and check the well…

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And I looked down inside..

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The cap to our well was crooked and water was positively bubbling out of it. (picture taken later, sorry… no bubbles) ((The bag of sand was my husband’s answer to the well house blowing over in high wind. He might come to regret this quick fix, please stay tuned.))

When I explained what I saw, the plumber told me to run back down to the water pump (which didn’t happen because, ya know… torn meniscus) and shut power off to the water pump, water heater and recirculator. (another waste of money gadget the husband had to have which doesn’t make a bit of difference).

So I shut power off to everything because he thinks one of our pipes has cracked or broken.

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Yeah. Big time. He doesn’t think it’s a pipe in the house, but rather one leading to the house… and that can’t be good.

Thankfully he’s coming this afternoon… so if you’re a person who prays? Please pray to the god of plumbing for a swift and easy fix for your dear friend River. And rest assured if there are any photos worth posting?

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I will.

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