On Sunday after church, Justin and I got ready for the pending storm by pulling the TV away from the wall, rolled the carpet back, and got the electonics/electrical stuff off the floor in this vulnerable area of the house. We left the glass on the shelf in the windows in certain hope that nothing would happen. Yesterday morning, my neighbor, Jeff, observed that one of the windows had in fact broken one of its clips which holds it in place. I have a phone number for the man who repairs this brand of window, the company no longer being in business. Fortunately, the window was secured on the other corner and did not come out! Yikes!
Monday morning, the roar of the wind woke me just before 4:00 a.m. I had been awake yet at midnight so this was a short night for me. I listened to the wind and rain, wishing I could see outside to see what was happening, at the same being glad I could not. Before 6:00 a.m., as I lay on my bed with the laptop in front of me and the TV on, I heard it----drip, drip, drip. NO!!! It was coming from the wall behind my head, with no obvious water coming through. I got my phone list of my neighbors and started calling. Patti, next door, could barely hear it, and not as regularly dripping as what I heard.
I called Misty upstairs and at first, she said no, nothing was amiss. Two seconds later she called back, frantically reporting wet ceilings in her m. bedroom and water leaking on the beds in the back bedroom. Oh, great! I called Herve, who lives above her, and he shut off his water, which was the default reaction to such a call.
I called Jeff, my downstairs neighbor who is in charge of building maintenance plus my go-to guy for things like this. They would also be on the receiving end of water leaks, as we well know, so he said he would come up later to check it out. Tommy, the Condo president, did come up to press his ear to my wall to hear the dripping, and actually did hear what I heard. Yay!! I told him about Misty's leaks and what Herve had done to address it. But the dripping continued long after he would have shut it off. Hmmmm....Just as I called Jeff once more, the dripping stopped, almost abruptly, so I told him this good news. But wait, there's more....
I heard it yet again---drip- drip, drip. Okay, where was THAT coming from? It was the living room this time, dripping from the ceiling and the doorframe to the river room, the French doors. Rats! We had not pulled the carpet back far enough, not anticipating the doors dripping, as they are somewhat down the wall from the corner. The two coffee table books propped against a vase were wet, splashed from the drips on the floor, the rug was damp, and the floor quite wet. I called Jeff and he said he was coming up, and Herve came with his wet vacuum and buckets. I told them I had plenty of towels to mop up. Herve helped me move the furniture some more, pull the rug away, and start laying the towels. The wet vac was not needed but we did use buckets to catch the drips from above. Rats!
The ceiling is wet and stained, the wall paint bubbled from the water running between the paint and drywall, and the picture hanging there was wet on its back. Should be okay, though, no damage to the photograph. As you may recall, this is the same area which has leaked in the past, most recently last summer when the power strip shorted out and singed the floor. The water here comes from the river room upstairs, which is glassed in like mine is, but the water comes from above their unit. Somewhere somehow there is a breech that allows the water access to the fourth floor ceiling and then, down to mine. Last summer it got as far as the 2nd floor but I caught it soon enough this time to prevent that.
Right in the center of this photo is the door frame with drips hanging down from it. Jeff is concerned about what is behind the drywall in the living room and I think I might have this corner's drywall be replaced with the type of green board used in showers! The ceiling can be repaired as well and already I dread the mess involved with this project.
In this photo, the towels are all taken up already but the pails remain to catch the residual drips. Misty refused the offer of help and the use of the wet vac, having several able-bodied young people with her who can help mop up the floor in her river room, which will stop or slow the flow of water into my home. Water wants to find a way down, and does not care who is in the way on its mission! Even if it gets soaked into the floor boards on my living room floor!
After the chaos was over, all this excitement before 8:00 a.m., I calmed down and collected myself at my desk, printing off newsletters for my favorites at church who have no computers, plus other busy work. By later morning, the skies were beginning to change some so I took these photos, all at the same time, looking from north to south. This one is looking north....
The center shot is straight out toward the east, and then this one looking south....
What an amazing contrast from dark to light there was! It did not last but at some points during the day, blue sky would be visible here, while raining torrentially just up the river or on the Westside. The forecasters did not have an easy job keeping up with the changing status of the storm, tracking the locations of the downpours and such. The flooding in regions was obvious to report on, but where the showers were, not so much!
What an amazing contrast from dark to light there was! It did not last but at some points during the day, blue sky would be visible here, while raining torrentially just up the river or on the Westside. The forecasters did not have an easy job keeping up with the changing status of the storm, tracking the locations of the downpours and such. The flooding in regions was obvious to report on, but where the showers were, not so much!
This shot was taken today, Tuesday, after lunch as Justin and I came out of Mojo's BBQ. There was a peek of sun making its way through the ominous clouds overhead. A welcome sight!! I am so thankful to have my helpful neighbors come to the rescue (Justin was gone to his friend's house overnight. When I told him what was going on, he offered to come home but there was no way he should be driving across the Buckmann Bridge!!). Randy even called me yesterday and again today to see what was going on.
Joanne called me a couple times, having driven back from Atlanta in that wretchedness yesterday. She called again this a.m., being concerned about mold in my living room, but I explained my plans to have Mike K. come to check it out for me. She feels like there is a curse on her or something, since the two homes she has helped me buy had water problems! One was the lake, and this time, it's either rain or plumbing!!!
