That 1%

I haven't blogged many projects in a few months because we've been working on boring house maintenance and repair work. But, thinking back, that's an interesting and important topic to write about as well, so here goes.

The mid-Atlantic area has been hit with rain, rain and more rain for the last few months. Everywhere we look housing are experiencing major flood damage. Unfortunately, we own one of those houses. The situation is so bad that when we called to get someone in to look at our flooding problem, we had to wait, get this, a month just to get someone out. And that's if I received a call back at all! On the positive side, we had time to save our $$ to pay for the repair.

We actually had two major problems.


Using an old picture, I've illustrated the areas damaged by water. I'm being generous. The circled items are just where the damage originates. We have way more damage than just in the circled areas.

Problem #1: First up is the small roof above the garage. You'll notice that the back of the house has no gutters (why, I don't know). Because of this, water was falling off the deck roof directly onto the roof below. Water was trapped inside this roof causing all the wood to rot inside. This was not evident without removing the XXX. I discovered the damage when a sheet of wood fell inside the shed because the structure holding it in rotted. Goody. Ironically, the shingles had no damage.

So, we needed to replace this entire roofing structure. Despite being a repair cost of at least $1,000.00, this project was actually too small for most roofing companies to bid. These guys are so busy, they are turning work away! We got a total of 2 bids. One was more than double than the other. We selected the lower priced option because this company actually provided a solutions to the problem in addition to replacing the roof. They will be installing a gutter system above the deck. This will be done this week!

Problem #2: This addition in the back of our house contains our master bedroom and laundry room. Every single time it rains, both rooms are flooded. The water originates from the corner I've circled. I should mention we just put in new flooring in our master bedroom less than 1 year ago and now it's ruined. After months and months, we finally had a professional in to assess the situation. Turns out that 99% of houses like ours (a raised ranch/bi-level, split foyer) do not need a sump pump. Looks like we're that 1%. We felt so special. The solution is to install a french drain that leads into a sump pump in this back addition. This too will be done this week.

So, looks like these projects will be done soon, and I can work on (and blog about!) fun projects. I can't wait!