I am NOT singing in the rain

"That's the last of the animals,

Noah. Get in."

Could it rain any MORE? I've counted and it seems like WAAAY over 40 days! Brian the roofer was supposed to start on the 17th. Well, it is now the 31st and we have had 2 straight weeks of rain. You've probably heard about the midwest flooding on the news...Iy, iy, iy!

I'm really trying not to stress about this (and the fact that Brian already has my $$$$) but every now and then I get a phone call from neighbor/handy-man Derrell giving me an update on the current state of Pondicherry. It seems that there is very poor drainage around the cottage which has no gutters at this point and the leaky porch is still ...well....leaking. Roofer Brian says the ground is so saturated that he can't get a dumpster on the grounds without it sinking into the mud (EMPTY, even!). Git me my rubbers!

Go ahead, chide me. The kids and hubby have already acknowledged how appropriately I named the cottage. "POND-i-cherry." Yeah, but you will notice the CHERRY part. And when I am done with it, it WILL be cherry! :) Only I don't like to think about the pit......

Well, the GOOD points are these- a)Pondicherry is NOT underwater b)it is really God's little house and He is the one sending the rain, so He knows what He's doing c)I still have money for paint.

Oh, and one more REALLY good thing! My 84yr old Uncle Paul made sweet little corbels for me to put on the new porch when it gets built! He is a master woodcrafter!

Well, FEAR NOT! This too, shall pass, and soon I will have a nice dry summer in which to work!

"Thanks, but we ordered Merlot..."

The Work Begins

We bought this cottage on Feb. 1, 2008. Since then, we have had snow, rain, ice, rain, rain and more rain. You get the picture. Well, there was finally a decent day to get under the house and see about jacking the floors up. Our "Fix-It-Man" Derrell went down in the dank, dark underbelly of the house and was able to raise the floor 2" where it was badly needed. There are still a couple of low spots but we need dryer weather to try again. Apparently, the ground is quite soft now due to the weeks of rain draining through the hole in the center of the porch and running right between the crack where the inside of the porch meets the house!

Backing up a few weeks, there were a couple of dry days that we were able to do a little clean-up work. My 15 yr old son had not been in the house yet, so he went over with me to pull a few weeds and clean up some trash. He is a cheerful and diligent (if not distracted) worker and was happy to help. After giving the house an initial "walk-through", I asked him what he thought. "Well, Mom, I hate to say it, but," he hesitated, leaving me hanging, "I LIKE IT!" Then he gave me a big grin.

This is in sharp contrast to the reaction of my 16 yr old daughter. Last week we went again to bag up trash and remove it. She had never been in the house until then. She walked around, not saying anything, then got to work cleaning up. I got up the nerve to ask. What did she think? She answered, head down, continuing to stuff into lawn bags, clothing left by the previous owners, two words...."It's depressing." I'm still not sure if she meant the cottage or the work! In a nutshell, this gives you a glimpse of the polar differences in personalities between my two children.

I met with the roofer yesterday (an entire blog page in itself!) and they are to start work on Monday. We have had rain for the past 3 days and in my mind, they cannot start soon enough! Mind you, there are NO leaks inside the house, but the porch needs to be rebuilt ASAP to stop the water from running under the house.