Wednesday, December 30, 2009

The mystery of the water

I love a mystery, a puzzle; finding a lost item, discovering the root. I sure had a challenge on my hands here in my new home. It began with some water damage in the 3rd bedroom. When I first discovered it, it was shortly after a day and a half of very heavy rain. There is one good-sized window in this room, and the cill is only about a foot from the floor. I had placed a desk in front of the window, and it was nearly 2 weeks after moving in that I was sitting at the desk and realized my foot was tapping a soggy carpet. My first thought was that the rain water had come in through the open window. I shut the window, sopped the moisture up with a towel, turned the ceiling fan on and didn't give it much further thought.
About a week or so later, after having had the window closed and the fan on, I decided to check on the dampness of the carpet. I was aghast to discover that the carpet was even wetter than it had been before. I called in sick to work (although I did have a physical ailment: I must've scratched my eye in my sleep and it was swollen!) and then hauled out the shop-vac. I vacuumed up in excess of 6 gallons of water. I called brother Ken and asked him to help me trouble shoot.
It was 9 AM on a Friday morn, and I'm sure Kenny had his hands full of a dozen or so other projects. He was kind and patient and walked me through the steps: was it the exterior wall, was the ceiling wet, drywall, etc. The first thing to look at was a gap in the outside wall where the air conditioning pipes entered the house. " A little water goes a long way with carpet and drywall" Kenny had said. I bought a tube of silicone and a gun ( later to find a half-dozen of same here in the garage) and Lauren's boyfriend, Kevin, helped me caulk the gap. I was feelin' good.
To Be Continued......

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