Welcome! – good luck getting in the front door.

I wanted a house of my own more than anything, and for the past four years I have worked hard to come up with a down payment to get one and amazingly enough, I am now a home-owner.

Did you ever see the movie “The Money Pit”?  The couple moves into a big, beautiful house and then it begins to fall apart – in a big way.  Well, my situation is not that bad because I bought my home knowing it had lots of problems, but it is definitely a money pit.

One thing I knew was that the basement was wet, and my first focus was on fixing the water leaks. Come to find out, the front steps were the problem (in the front anyway – there is another leak at the back). Water gets in where the stone steps meet the rotted siding of the house, and apparently that has been a problem before because there is a worthless piece of metal laying across the area where it leaks.  Someone tried unsuccessfully to fix things and ended up doing no good at all.

So once I moved in, I was in the basement with big towels soaking up the puddles after every rain. Then Hurricane Irene was on the way – (oh yes, this is my typical run of bad luck). Two days of heavy, hurricane rain was forecast. My basement would become a swimming pool if I didn’t do something. So black plastic, duct tape and heavy slate was what I used to rig this “tent” over the leaking area.

And it worked! All throughout the rains and winds of Irene, the plastic held and the basement stayed dry. (I really lucked out and did not get hit badly in my area.)

Now, whenever rain is in the forecast I go get my piece of plastic and rig up the tacky black tent over my front steps. Fortunately I have another front door that I can use near the garage. I am working on having the siding replaced and that should take care of the leak, but until that happens, this is my solution.

Someone also has previously painted the inside of the tub and the paint is now peeling off.  At least it hasn’t fallen through the floor.