Raining Again… and, You Guessed It, Leaking Again

December 4, 2020 This episode actually starts on November 30th, when it rained hard overnight. The photo tells it all, yes, it is leaking despite the fixes already done to the hatch area and lightning gash in the tower. That very unattractive puddle is 3 floors down from the top, so sadly, this is not a trivial problem….

Bob L arrived on Dec 2nd to diagnose and fix the issue, since it is clearly leaking in the wall “somewhere” and coming down the interior walls below the deck. From the inside, you can see it leaking from the seam under the “porch” or small deck, that is accessed by a door from the observation room with the windows. Investigating began with exposing the seal between the deck and house. The exterior cedar tongue and groove siding felt weak when you pushed on the wall to the east of the door, so Luke began cutting and ripping it off to see what was under it, and allow access to the metal seam and seal. Mind you, this is the same face of the tower that just received 2 coats of paint. We had some questions about why this hadn’t already been addressed, and waited to see all that would be revealed, as they say.

While we were at it, we also wanted to know what this ugly, nasty blackish stain and puddle was in the hatch room, and if/how it was connected to leaking in the past. Various visitors had speculated (always fun to guess, why not?) that it was from roofing material seeping and bleeding down the joists, to urine stains from the famed raccoons in the tower. Either way, UGH!

Further exploration of the rotten wall continued on Dec 3rd. The lightning system connection through the wall to the railing had to be dismantled as well, hope none of the pieces go missing. A winter’s nest of ladybugs was discovered in the wall – they are supposed to be good luck, but how ironic they are found in a hot mess of rotting tower wall… but maybe the good luck is still to come! Fingers crossed!

Today, Bob L. and Luke cleaned, filled and sealed the seam, and covered in plastic (no photos of that). It was very evident that water had been here for years to create this amount of rot (did it also extend around the corner?) and the question is, where is it coming from? Rain is in the forecast for tonight, so I guess we will find out.

Michelle and Tony came over for dinner tonight. Bob is leaving tomorrow for a week, driving the Touareg to MD for work, and we all hadn’t had a chance to get together for quite a while. We celebrated our friendship, their support on this crazy project, the progress we have made so far, and the hope that the dang tower would be soon fixed! I had been keeping this bottle of Moet in the back of the fridge for 10 years, no kidding, since our wedding in 2010, waiting for just the right time to drink it (which never seemed to arrive). It was a gift from our NH Porsche friends Nancy and Edgar, and the bottle had been from NH to MD and now back again! Time to enjoy it, why not, with mismatched glasses on a cold rainy night in our slightly sketchy but slowly getting more cozy apartment over the garage, with great friends! Cheers! It was delicious.