Rain, rain go away...

This beautiful painting is by local artist sherri burhoe

This past couple of weeks we discovered that our porch leading out of our basement has sprung a leak! The water gurgles in, fast and furious into our family room through the door. It seems to be coming in where the house foundation and the porch foundation meet...it wasn't poured all at once so there is a definite seperation which has allowed water to leak in. Then we had a record breaking rainfall of 78mm and this added to our mess!

Thankfully, a good friend loaned us a pump (not a sump pump) to remove the water from beneath our sub-floor. We put sandbags around our porch to divert the water, we even made a berm around our sub-floor frame to hold the water in to the one area to allow the pump to suck it away...we have spent many hours with two shop vacs sucking up water and dumping them outside in the pouring rain till the wee hours of the morning. This storm we are experiencing today has been very managable and not as stressful!

Knowing this, we will now have to plan on fixing this asap and this will also include new rain gutter as the rain gutter we have is old, leaks and desperately needs replacing. Part of the problem with the leaking is the fact that the rain gutter leaks in the same spot where the foundation leaks. So, the two are related.

So, I have risen to the challenge of cutting corners and really trying to live our lives more simply...I have always enjoyed decorating my homes on a strict yard sale budget. Our goal of renovating this house reflecting our schedule and budget restraints will be revised once more to fix this issue which takes priority over new siding or new windows.

So, as I sit here on another very windy, wet night...I think of sunny days ahead when we will tackle our porch and rebuild it to be strong and water tight! I am grateful that I have a husband who can do much of the work himself which will save us money and the satisfaction we will get from fixing this very stressful and expensive mess!