A Hole in the House – Un hueco en la pared exterior
Things are bad. They are very bad. We do not exactly have a hole in the back of the house, but we might as well have for all the good the wall is doing.
Las cosas van mal. Van muy, muy mal. No tenemos un hueco en la pared exterior de la casa, exactamente, pero la pared está en tan mala condición que da igual.
After writing my post last week, we decided that we could procrastinate no longer. It was time to bite the bullet and find out what was going on. I wanted to cry while watching Douglas make the first incision in the ceiling. It seems like just yesterday we finished painted that ceiling, and my arms hurt just thinking about it. I guess we will be doing that again soon. Arg!
Después de escribir lo que escribe la semana pasada, decidimos que no podíamos procrastinar más. Era la hora de aguantar el dolor y aprender qué estaba ocurriendo. Yo quería llorar mientras miraba a Douglas hacer la primera incisión en el techo. Parece ser ayer que terminamos de pintar, y todavía me duelen los brazos con sólo pensar en eso. Me parece que vamos a tener que hacerlo otra vez y pronto. ¡Ayayay!
Things did not look so bad at first. After Douglas made the first hole, things looked nice and dry up in the ceiling, which confused us. What would cause the ceiling to crack if there was no moisture coming from above?
Las cosas no se veían tan mal al principio. Después de que Douglas abrió el primer hueco, todo se veía bien seco en el techo, lo que nos confundía. ¿Qué causaría que el techo rompiera si no hubiera humedad de arriba?
At this point I closed the door to prevent the dust from infiltrating the rest of the house, while Douglas continued ripping down the sheetrock to try to investigate further. The next time I peeked in he had found some mysterious tinfoil up there. At that point we thought that it had possibly be put there to catch water from a small leak in the tenant’s plumbing before I bought the house.
En ese momento, cerré la puerta para mantener el polvo de infiltrar la casa, mientras Douglas continuó tumbando el techo para investigar más. La próxima vez que abrí la puerta, él había encontrado papel de estaño allí arriba. Entonces pensábamos que lo habían puesto allí para atrapar agua de una pequeña fuga de agua de la tubería de los inquilinos antes de que yo compré la casa.
Pulling down more of the ceiling revealed that was not the case. There was no sign of a leak anywhere. We were more baffled than ever.
Después de bajar más del techo nos dimos cuenta de que no era eso. No había evidencia de ninguna fuga por ninguna parte. Estábamos más confundidos que nunca.
Then, Douglas noticed that there was water on the interior of the exterior wall. It was wet, but not up above like one would expect if the water were coming from the upstairs bathroom.
Entonces, Douglas se dio cuenta de que había agua en la parte interior de la pared exterior. Estaba mojada, pero no arriba como uno esperaría si el agua viniera del baño arriba.
From there we went to see what was happening on the outside of the house. It seemed that the water was coming in at the point where the kitchen roof meets the back wall.
De allí salimos para investigar que pasaba en el exterior de la casa. Parecía que el agua salía del punto donde el techo de la cocina toca la pared exterior.
The paint is peeling off the siding in several places below that point. Oh. No. This does not look good. I started to get a sinking feeling in my stomach.
La pintura está pelando del revestimiento de la casa en varios lugares debajo de ese punto. Oh. No. No se ve bien. Empecé a sentirme mal del estómago.
Douglas then opened up a hole in the wall. Yes, the wall was wet. Houston, we have a problem.
Después, Douglas abrió un hueco en la pared. Sí, la pared exterior estaba mojada. Houston, tenemos un problema.
The bathroom was now a complete mess. That was the least of our problems. Douglas cleaned that mess up fairly quickly, but now we have to decide what to do about that wall. It is not as easy as it could be because the siding is asbestos. Our trip to Scotland is also coming up, and we do not have time to deal with this.
El baño ya estaba completamente desarreglado, pero teníamos problemas más grandes. Douglas limpió el baño rápidamente, pero ya tenemos que decidir qué hacer con esa pared. No es tan fácil como pudiera ser porque el revestimiento es de asbestos. Estamos al punto de salir para Escocia, y no tenemos tiempo para enfrentar esto.
The next step is to contact the roofer. We had a new roof put on in November of 2012, and we are wondering if something was not done correctly. Contact the roofer and cry. That is about all that we have come up with so far. Any suggestions what we should do? In the meantime, the bathroom is probably going to look like this for a while.
El próximo paso es ponernos en contacto con el techador. Contratamos un nuevo techo en noviembre del 2012, y preguntamos si hubo algún error. Ponernos en contacto con el techador y llorar. Esas son las soluciones en que hemos pensado hasta ahora. ¿Tiene alguna sugerencia más? Mientras tanto, el baño estará así por un buen rato.
On a happier note, Kahlua is doing well. We took a long walk on Saturday right before we started destruction of the bathroom, and she was happy as could be. That is our friend Paul in the second picture.
Pasando a cosas más agradables, Kahlua está bien. Hicimos una caminata el sábado antes de empezar a destruir el baño, y ella estaba más feliz que una lombriz. Es nuestro amigo Paul en la segunda foto.
Also, spring might not be here, but the trees think it is. They have already started budding.
Además, no es primavera, pero lo árboles piensan que la es. Ya han empezado a brotar.
Happy Homemaking!
¡Que todos sus sueños caseras se cumplan!
I am a teacher, traveler, artist, writer, homemaker and a whole lot more. In January 2009, I bought the Cape of Dreams. It was the second house that I had ever owned, but it was the first that I bought by myself. I now live in the house with my husband Douglas, our dog Kahlua, and Crème de Menthe, the cat. Because, what life is complete without a little Kahlua and Cream? I love arts and crafts of all kinds, and I refinish furniture as well. We are slowly redoing our entire house. You can read about my projects on my blog www.CapeofDreams.com
I’m crying for you!
Crying doesn’t do any good. Come help me fix it!
oh that wicked sucks! bleh. glad kahlua is doing better, and loving your short hair!
Thank you! I thought of you cutting your hair really short also.
how stressful, should there be flashing (rain deflector shields) at the seams?
It is hard to tell from this angle if there is. I know that there is flashing on the dormers in front because I saw it up close when I was up there painting. It would surprise me if they put flashing on the front and not on the back, but we are going to have the roofer come out to check anyway.
At least you know where the problem migth come from (it’s always difficult with water damages). I hope the person who did the roof will be honest. Glad to read Kahlua is happy.
We are now thinking that it might be coming from the pipes after all, but nothing has been determined for sure. At least Kahlua and the rest of us are doing well. That is all that really matters.
First, great to hear about Kahlua. You can get the house fixed, but Kahlua is more important.
But … the leak situation really sucks. I feel for you. It’s so anxiety-producing to rip open one’s home! But, it will get fixed. It’s only money, honey!! 🙂
Only money. Not like there is anything that I would rather do with that money, right? 😉 At least I can be glad that we have the money and don’t have to worry about the house rotting away around us.
I echo D’Arcy. You’ll get it fixed. I know a water leak, especially a hidden one, is a HUGE drag. It does look like you were caulked instead of flashed. Grrrr. Jo @ Let’s Face the Music
We are going to use this project as an excuse to put in an exhaust fan that we desperately needed, so we would have had to open up the ceiling anyway. I do need to find out if this is something that we can put through insurance or is it better to just pay for it ourselves?
I’m no expert, but you might want to google “kickout flashing” and see if that generates any useful info.
Thank you for the recommendation. The roofer came out and supposedly fixed it. We are going to get the siding replaced and make sure that everything gets fixed correctly.