Water water everywhere...

It is rumored that I have a house jinx. At first people thought it was the "house from hell" that we first lived in, with it's many electrical, heating and hot water issues. But from the first day we moved into our second house we've had problems as well. It's also common for other renters to have issues with houses. But, for our family, we seem to have more than most.

We moved in last May on probably the rainiest week in a while. And with the rain, water poured into areas of the house that it should not have been. In the past 10 months they've been in to fix a majority of the problem which had been that the roof terrace wasn't sealed correctly. However, we've had a persistent problem by a set of windows that spans the entire height of the house on one side. The past Saturday once again with heavy rain we had water down in the bottom stair well. These are tiled staircases and are quite slippery when wet. So far we've been very lucky and no one has slipped. This particular window has been re-sealed from the inside and out, three times...and still water is dripping in. I had begun to suspect a few months ago that it was the window above perhaps that was letting the rain in... but there was no obvious point of entry there for water, nothing dripping...although there was some paint discoloration, it never seemed wet.

This morning as I was waiting for another call from the landlord to discuss the weekends events I was gathering laundry and was on my way up to Joseph's room, which is on the top floor...and I noticed a section of the wall near that window, (the third on top of the one that was dripping) was missing. When I touched it, I noticed it was damp. And there is a terrace wall that ends right there. I think I have found the source of the leak!!

The landlord and maintenance man are on their way over now. I feel a bit like I've solved a giant mystery...which ok, is a bit of a stretch. But it's a small victory. Now if we could just figure out where the rest of it is coming from. We'll be right as rain....or something like that.