The Old and the New

When Chris and I were first married we lived in this ooooooooold duplex. It was built in 1949. How do we know that? There was a stamp on the cement front porch proudly proclaiming the date.

It was quaint and small and charming in it's own way. Hard wood floors throughout, lots of windows making for gorgeous light. Of course, it only had 2 square feet of counter space, one kitchen drawer, a propensity for bugs of all kinds and completely unreliable plumbing. But it was cheap and it was home for two years so I look back on it with a degree of chagrined charm.

The other thing you should know about this apartment is that it was sufficiently old that the foundation had sunk or settled enough that the doors no longer fit the frames very well. There were noticeable gaps at the top and bottoms of the doors. It made it drafty in winter and when it rained, and rained HARD and the wind blew--it meant that it rained INSIDE.

Now, I just sort of assumed that this inside weather was due to age, one of the downsides of being an older property. But now I know how very wrong I was in this assumption.

We are in a BRAND NEW apartment, people. No one has lived here before. So new, we aren't even on Google Maps. And I am here to tell you that it is RAINING INSIDE MY APARTMENT.

I had opened the blinds this morning and smelled rain and thought, "Huh. Well, that's kind of odd. But it IS raining out so maybe that's all it is." I started laundry, I fed the Boy, I did my chores.

I went back to check out the swamp behind us and the carpet was wet and I thought, "What the CRAP?!?" So I pulled the blinds up and lo, there was water water everywhere.

Being the problem solver that I am, I attempt to ascertain from whence the water is coming. It is coming from the OUTSIDE. Um, duh. It's RAINING. But I look up the inside of the window and hey! What do you know! It's NOT sealed. It's NOT caulked. And now there's a gaping crack where the window meets the wall! Lovely!

You know, I thought moving in when the apartment wasn't clean was bad enough. Now I'm starting to wonder what else in our apartment that THEY JUST DIDN'T FINISH.

I've called. They're sending someone out, but of course, they can't do anything until it STOPS raining and at this point, we'll float away before it stops raining.

In the meantime, I'm doing laundry, I'm cleaning, I'm smooching the Boy, I'm playing and I'm TRYING to have a sense of humor about this.




Pray for us sinners...our sense of humor is almost gone.