We had taken a little hiatus from working on the house due to all the celebrating and what not but we were settling in nicely and getting used to living in a construction zone. The weather man said a little rain was on the way so I put up some new trim and weatherproofed the back door as it had leaked during a previous sprinkle. Then last Sunday the storm of the fricken' century rolled in. Good news was the back door was totally leak free, the bad news? The rest of the house wasn't. Turns out the flashing on the south side of the house had totally pulled away so mother nature's wrath was coming right through and pouring into our living room. And sun room. And garage. And loft. And the big elm tree in the backyard lost some huge branches and the trunk split down the middle due to the huricane force winds. So we said screw it, put down some buckets for the drips and went and got the best pozole in town at Los Cuartros Vientos(The Four Winds, funny right ?) and figured we'd deal with everything when the weather calmed down.
Food was more important than getting pictures of all the buckets but this is the aftermath.
Called the roofer Monday morning. He came out, looked at it and had new flashing up by Thursday afternoon. The only problem is that some of the underlayment that is supposed to waterproof the roof is deteriorating badly so more repairs are in order but the roofer took off to go surfing in Mexico so a tarp will do until he returns. Another $5oo or so and we should be as watertight as a duck's butt.
As far as the water damage goes there really isn't much. Most of the drywall that got ruined we were replacing anyway and we're living in a house with just subfloors so no need to worry there. A little clean-up and life under construction goes on.
I also had a friend come out and drop the damaged elm tree. It was split enough that it was coming down sooner or later whether we liked it or not so I figured it better come down where and when we wanted it to. It was big enough and close to the house enough that I wanted a pro to drop it but to save money I handled the cut-up and clean-up myself. I do love my chain saw. And since I was out there I figured might as well take care of everything else. Two days of chop wood, carry wood.
From this:
To this:
To this:
We are going to rent a big, bad chipper in the next couple of weeks and turn it all into mulch. Figured it would be a good idea to keep all the biomass on the property and improve the soil for when we get around to building our dream yard. Also, the chips should keep the mud at bay this winter. Don't want Lola to end up looking like those African warrior dudes that cover themselves in mud from head to toe before battle. Though she may end up looking like that no matter what we do. Now we can get back to work on the inside of the house........Oh, brother.
