A Small Diversion

 

I've been going full tilt since October and I think it finally caught up with me. The cats must have felt my fatigue because they let me sleep in till 10:30, which is remarkable because they usually demand breakfast by 7:30. Even after I woke up they just stayed snuggled between my legs as we listened to the rain.

The rain.

It rains a lot here in the Pacific Northwet [sic] and this house has needlessly suffered for it.

While flooding is a thing here, it's uncommon and not the main problem. It's the steady drip drip drip of rain over the years that has done a lot of damage--damage that could have been easily avoided.

Sarah's off visiting her parents and I felt my motivation flag. Plus, like I said, I'm bone tired. So I took it kind of light today, which in the end was for the best because small preventive measures pay big dividends. 

I installed more downspout extensions. Most of the downspouts already had them, but some didn't. So I bought a couple yesterday but not enough. A more methodical person would have counted first. Live and learn. So I had to get resourceful (which is a polite way of saying half-assed it) and cannibalized a chunk off a 10-foot corrugated pipe already in place. (It was one of two lengths I got for free via trashnothing.com.) It worked and I was appalled to see how much water had been previously allowed to pool up against the house and woodshop.


Each raindrop is so small but they really add up.

I also pest-proofed a couple of crawlspace vents with hardware cloth, then laid a hundred square feet of 6 mil plastic sheeting to suppress ground moisture under the kitchen. It was a little thing but it felt so good to close the books on this dirt phase.

Much of the work so far has been pulling things apart. Laying down this membrane marks the turning point where we start to build back up.

 
 
And the Cat Branch continues to win approval...



 






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