Wednesday, July 23, 2008

When it rains...

...old houses leak, aparently. I have nightmares about finishing the ceiling in the guest room just before my parents came to visit several years ago for the first time, and then having the whole thing ruined by a rainstorm, just a few days prior to their visit. We found out then that it was a ridge vent that had blown off the peak sometime prior. No idea how long that was going on.

Well, today appeared to be another nightmare. Jim called me upstairs to show me dripping water all over the ceiling in the hallway of the 2nd floor. Not sure if this picture does it justice:



We started our mini-investigation to find the source and any further damage...

Here's the crawlspace in the attic - way in the back you might be able to see that the boards/wall are also wet.



and here is inside the knee-wall closet in the attic. LUCKILY, this is the same closet that I have been keeping my vintage sewing pattern collection. Nice combination: water and 50+ year old tissue paper patterns... I don't think any of them were damaged yet



And here is looking outside of the window in the attic - notice how all of the clapboards are wet. We weren't sure if it was that rotted out cornice trim missing a cover - maybe rain water was getting into that and soaking up the walls?


Then Jim looked outside at the roof. He thinks he found the source. Again, I'm not sure you can really tell from this picture, but it appears to be a small dip in the roof...


I think he's going to look at it closer tomorrow. After he takes the dog to the internal medicine specialty service because she's not eating again. I need one of those money trees. Does anyone know where they grow?

4 comments:

alisa and sometimes brandon said...

Um, yikes?!! That looks seriously unfortunate. Good luck finding the source and getting all of that fixed. We've had some mysterious discolorations show up in the walls of our apartment. Maybe I should be concerned.

And I thought money trees grew in grad programs. No? Well this explains a lot.

Gabriella said...

Oh noooooo! Stupid water. That sucks! Glad your patterns are safe, though. Hope the puppy is all right too!

tallasiandude said...

money tree?

I think the government sells them (they're called defense contracts), but it'll cost you... your soul! mwaahahahaha... ahem.

sorry to see all the leaking water; I'm hoping our house holds together because we wouldn't know where to start to fix it ourselves.

Stacey Lund-Walker said...

Yes! Yes! I know where the Money Tree grows!! I gave a speech about it in high school--the Ozarks of Texarkana! Woo hoo! Unfortunately, they only grow I'm Mad About Madison fake money (my visual aid).

That stinks about the leak. Water will find its way just about anywhere.