We weren't looking forward to this weekend QUITE as much as we might have, in part because we planned to spend it painting our garage. For years, I told people that the garage was "quaint" or "shabby chic". But, those of you who have SEEN the garage know that it is actually a mess of chipped-up paint right now, so this is a project that has been in the works for quite some time.
Well, the painting plan was the first to go wrong. Turns out, the weather was destined to be stormy. We'd both taken off on Friday to take care of the painting prep work (scraping, sanding, etc.), so we had the day off... we'd also called the A/C man to come and inspect our central air unit for the upcoming warm season. (Yes, we do get one of those. Even here in Wisconsin.)
When the A/C guy showed up on time at 9:30am, the day was looking like it might look up. Until he gave us the bad news. We had a bad capacitor on our a/c unit -- and it would cost a bit to replace. Not only that, but the failed capacitor had everything to do with a leak in the unit, so we'd have to refill the freon (more $$ down the tubes). And we hauled out the checkbook... STRIKE ONE.
Rather than dwelling on our less-than-good luck, we decided to reclaim our time. We called up our garage painting friends and took a field trip to the LakeFront Brewery for an afternoon tour. Fun, fun... When we got done there, the sun was shining, so we grilled out (and had bison weenies!). Yay! All was right with the world.
Our hopes up, we entered into Saturday with a great deal of enthusiasm. After cleaning the house, we headed off to the farmer's market to see what we could see. Not much available yet (although there were plenty of plants there, symbolic of the bounty that is to come!), so we headed off to run a few errands. On the way home, we got caught in a serious downpour that left us sitting in the car in the yard, watching the rain, for about a half-hour after arriving home. No big deal. Or so we thought.
Turns out that nasty, monsoon-like down-pour, had wreaked some havoc on the house. We found water streaming down one wall of the basement. And down the wall in one of our closets. After some investigation, we determined that the water was emanating from the roof. Peef was Very Brave and he got into the (tiny) crawl space in our eaves and hunted around for the source of our grief. Sure enough, there was a problem with the roofing in a section of the eaves. BLEH. STRIKE TWO (complete with photo).
Peef called out to Lo, who was sitting in the closet with a flashlight pointed into the crawlspace. "Can you run and get a bucket?"So, Lo tromped down into the basement to retrieve an appropriate water-collecting device. On her way down, she stopped short of the last step. Water was rising slowly against the bottom step in the basement. The sewer drain had backed up. STRIKE THREE (we've spared you the photo). She held her screams to a minimum as she hopped OVER the water to retrieve the bucket for Peef. Running up the stairs, she tossed him the bucket and ran back downstairs to see what she could do about the water.
A bunch of mopping, some rags, and a few nervous breakdowns later, we had at least some of the water under control. Now, it was time to wait things out. As the storm receded, so did the water in the basement. Thank goodness. We'll be having someone out to look at that once Monday rolls around. The roof is another story. Looks like we'll be calling our ne'er-do-well roofer for another go-round. Hurrah for us!
Sunday has come and (almost) gone. But the rain hasn't (and the forecast seems to indicate that we're going to be dealing with storms all week). So, we've been faithfully emptying our bucket, changing our rags, and waiting. The power was out for about 3 hours today, which curtailed some of our activity. STRIKE FOUR? (God, isn't that enough?) Maybe. But, there is still enough light to read, so Lo is working on "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" (Kingsolver) and Peef is managing to get some of the studying for his accounting exam done, despite all the craziness.
Maybe tonight the rain will stop. Maybe.
We're crossing our fingers.
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