Water Woes

I've previously explained how humidity is inevitable when an Aquarian marries an obstetrician but this last week exceeded our expectations. Our wonderful construction company managed to get further along with our project than they expected prior to the holidays, (seriously have you ever heard of such competence?) and tarped the roof and front of the house to protect us from the winter conditions. Mother nature had other ideas because on New Years Day, we had a spring thaw and then it rained like hell.

I was standing in the main floor piano room New Years morning when I felt rain falling on my head, through the plaster ceiling. So Tony and I inspected the inside of the addition to find it flooded. "Bulging membranes" I said to Tony, looking up at the tarp which was currently acting as our roof. Only one thing for an OB to do but to poke a big hole in the tarp leading to a huge gush of water that added additional moisture to our soon to be living room but stopped the water from coming in through our main floor ceiling.

Thinking I'd better check the basement for any signs of wet, I opened the basement door to see water flowing down through the natural openings in the ceiling...otherwise known as potlights. The great lake that had collected travelled through the storage room, into the furnace room and was quickly approaching the newly done man room. The ancient linoleum-asbestos tiles had begun to lift from the floor, and in that moment I gave thanks that I had not invited 20 toddlers over for Grace's third birthday.

We are seasoned renovators and understand that water happens, and what made the difference on that day was that the Towsley boys showed up to help us clean up the mess, loan us equipment to pull up the tile and retarp the house for spring conditions. Mike Holmes would be proud of them. This week we've returned to winter and the work continues with the much anticipated second storey appearing.

Appropriately, Lily has been learning about the water cycle at school this week. After her Dad had reviewed the ups and downs of rain, evaporation, and cloud formation for the 20th time I could hear him ask "Lily, what happens when it rains?" No response other than blank stare. Given our experience of the week I would say the tarp roof caves in and water pours through the potlights only to be sucked up by the shop-vac. The answer he was looking for was the ground gets wet but I understood her confusion.
Lily, what happens when it rains on you? he asked again
"I get cold" says she
"Does anything else happen?" he strains
"I get upset" says she...
And at this point in the discussion I lost control of my water.
Thank goodness for the sump pump.