Springing leaks
There is a leak in my ceiling. This is what I had been dreading.
Well, not the leak in particular. No, I wasn\’t sitting around worrying about when a leak would spring in the foamy ceiling tiles above the family room (previous post on ceiling tiles, in the kitchen that time, is here).
But when you own a house you just know things are going to start breaking.
We moved into this house last summer, and spent months fixing it up and painting. But things break. Everything deteriorates. Entropy is the way of the universe, and also of houses.
And now it has happened; the flat roof above the family room has been penetrated, somewhere, by the moist finger of spring. And the result is a yellowish stain on the carpet below.
I tried to get the spot out, using a potent combination of carpet cleaner and my best Lady Macbeth voice, but it was not useful. The spot made itself at home there, on my carpet, beside the fireplace.
To be fair, they are small, this leak and spot. They are not in a noticeable vicinity, and I have had few complaints about them.
But the leak means my house is starting to break. My house is about 100 years old. You can\’t feel too bad when something this old starts failing; I\’ll be thrilled if my only problem after a century of life is a little leak and a yellow spot.
But still, I know the leak means trouble. It means more like it are coming. Leaks and cracks and holes and short circuits and possibly infestations.
Bad things like to go where there are other bad things, so if I\’m not careful, my house will soon be a playground for domestic inconveniences.
I\’ve already noticed the retaining wall in the front yard beginning to crumble.
That is also something I had been dreading.
So what will I do?
It seems clear that the best response to a leak, no matter how small, is to plug it before it gets bigger.
But like I said, entropy is a Sisyphean kind of rock; by pushing it higher up the hill you\’re just giving it more room to roll down. And once it picks up speed my main interest is going to be getting off the hill, not stopping the rock.
So it is with household things, right? If you fix them they will break. But once they\’re broken they can\’t break again.
Of course, this is all my fancy way of saying I\’m lazy, and I don\’t know how to fix a leak in the ceiling.
And if you think this is something, you should see my explanation for putting off an oil change; it\’s a ballet of illogical arguments and procrastination.
Just remember, it\’s always easier to write about simple household maintenance than it is to do it.
Other posts about fixing broken houses:
Belling the Fish