In the week before Christmas we had 4 cold days of constant rain.  One evening on the 4th day of rain, as I was working downstairs, I saw a familiar sight that made my heart sink.  Water was bubbling the paint in the ceiling.  I touched the bubble (which was the size of a grapefruit) with a screwdriver and water splashed down on to my head.   A leak that had only showed itself after 4 days of rain.  How depressing.

Last Saturday, as we were headed into a forecasted 9 days of rain, Lucas our roofer came over to check things out.  He grabbed a flashlight and began examining the roof area around the furnace that appeared to be the location of the leak.  After about 10 minutes, he showed me that the condensation line of the furnace had come out (been removed?) from the scupper and was draining onto the ceiling.  The area was was wet to the touch.  We returned the condensation tube to the scupper so that the water could drain correctly.

After 6 days of *solid* rain, there is no more water coming through the ceiling.  I am confident the ‘leak’ has been plugged.  Normally, we barely use the furnace.  During those 4 cold days, the furnace was being run for long periods of time.  The water built up enough to run down to where I saw it. 

I call finding the source of the water a ‘hallelujah and a half’.  First, we found the source of the water and fixed it.  Second, if the water hadn’t made itself known through the bubbled paint, it may have gone un-corrected for years.  It would have continued to slowly leak onto the drywall ceiling and we would have never known except when the softened drywall fell from the ceiling, like before.

The punch card is closed.  Check out the scan of the punch card below.  I circled the important part in red.

We broke ground in December, 2005.  Our first inspection signature (for new garage footings) was on 1/13/2006.  It has been a long road.  We still have a ways to go (painting, countertops, stair carpet, etc), but as far as the city is concerned we are good enough.

My goal is to get the final inspection signed off before the end of 2009.  A couple of weeks ago, the Carpinteria inspector, Jeff, came by to talk about what needed to be done to get the final sign off.  He had a list of 5 things that he needed to see completed before the final inspection.

We worked on the list and we have completed all of the tough tasks.  The main 3 things that needed to be done were:

• Have a solid divider between the mechanical space under the stairs and the conditioned, living space.  This was completed by using one of the old doors that we removed.  This door is temporary as we have plans to build a hinged book case in this space.  But for now, the door should satisfy the requirements.
  
• Have a working kitchen sink.  We have the sink dropped in.  I just have to hook up the water and the drain.  Toby picked out a Franke Composite Granite single bowl sink.  It is very large.   Below is a picture from the Lowe’s website.
  
  No counter tops, but the sink is in.

  

• Have a stair rail for the first flight of stairs.  I would have loved to not have a stair rail, but the building code in California requires one.  Pop and Kevin spent a long time making this just right.  It is not painted, but it is solid.
  

I will do the final hookups to the kitchen sink on Saturday and then call the inspector, hopefully for the last time.

Can you tell what this picture is?

This is what I saw the morning that I left for some computer training in Las Vegas, NV.  With no time to do anything about it, I just took the picture.

When I got home, the image hadn’t changed, and I knew I had a problem.  The picture is my foundation wall and the dark spot is water on the concrete.  The white lines show that the water has been running for a while.  Since there are no leaks inside the house, this means that the leak is either under the house, or worse, in the wall.

I went under the house and found the leak.  It was easy to find due to the puddle of mud.  I counted a drop every 4 seconds.  I wiggled the pipe and the water started to spray out.  No more slow leak.

Poppa and I opened up the wall, but the leak was actually in between the floor and the baseboard.  I had driven a 16 penny nail straight though the middle of the copper pipe, probably back in July, before the drywalling.  We were able to cut out the leaking section and I got to sweat the copper under the house (my favorite! <end sarcasm>).  At least no hot solder dripped on my arms this time.

Now that there is no leak, there is no dark spot on the foundation anymore.  Woohoo!

We are all about utilizing spaces.  Pop built a drawer for under stairs.  Right now we use it for shoes.  He spent a long time getting it right.

But he needed a little bit of help from a friend to complete the installation.

Speaking of help from friends, we had a Sunday painting party recently where everyone got involved.

Max and Lucy decided to have races while Pop and I worked one Saturday.

Pop and I have spent the last 2 long weekends putting in the electrical trim and various other things that need to be done.  In the evenings, I have been putting together ceiling fans and painting with Toby.
We are getting there, slowly but surely.