Drip...Drip...Drip...!

Okay, this is a less fun aspect of the Arizona monsoon.  Here is a picture of the latest roof leak over my bookcase, caught in mid-drip.

It's a problem on two counts:

1.  My Taxes for Dummies book got water damaged, the ink ran still further on the label to Noodle's ashes, and there could be other damage (to one-of-a-kind interview cassettes, for example) that I don't know about yet.  When John sent me in to check for the leak, it was seconds away from harming some of my precious L'Engle collection.

2.  John has been patching that roof for years, and the leaks keep coming back.  What's going to happen when the appraiser gets here?

Yes, as I alluded to Friday night and at least once previously, we're refinancing this 1958 house that we've lived in for 11 years.  It was a fixer-upper then, and it's still a fixer-upper, but it's worth over twice as much money now.  We're hoping that the refinancing will make it possible to finally fix it up properly, and improve our finances generally.

One step in the refinancing is a visit from an appraiser.  Because we don't want to show him a messy house, a messy yard and a leaky roof, we're scrambling to clean and fix things up and throw things away.  I'm pretty sure an appraiser won't like it if the roof leaks.  John says he can get the materials to fix the roof properly this time.  I hope he's right! 

Like most roofs in Tucson, it's what's known as a rolled roof, a nearly flat expanse of white, covered with some kind of Space Age material with a brand name like Kool Kote.  These leaks pop up along a seam between sections.  John said something about getting more "cement" to seal the whole seam this time.  Wish him luck! 

I'm almost as worried about that part of the job as my own ability to do the cleaning I need to do.  This is not a small house, but there's never been enough room to put everything neatly away.  And I'm not exactly Ms. Neatnik under the best of circumstances.

I figure you guys are probably getting tired of my Tucson cloud pictures, but here's one more anyway, taken this afternoon in my back yard.  The dark blue clouds you see here were more like burnt charcoal in the real world, more black than blue or even gray.  A couple of hours later, it was pouring again.  But John had patched the bookcase leak by then, at least somewhat.  So while it did indeed leak in the front room, causing plaster to peel from a load-bearing crossbeam (or whatever), my books stayed dry this time, and the Charlie Bucket popcorn bucket did not receive another drip.

It gives me hope, y'know?  Maybe John will get the roof fixed, after all.

It's supposed to be extremely monsoon-y all week, so I don't know when or how John's going to get any serious roof work done.  Good thing I already postponed the Wednesday appointment with the appraiser.  Still, John and I both have serious work to do.  And we'll have to do it all soon, regardless of how active the monsoon gets.

Karen

P.S.  I knew there was something else I wanted to say!  This is my reminder to you that the latest Round Robin Photo Challenge is coming up this Wednesday.  The topic, suggested by Mary of Alphawoman's Blog, is "Oasis."  Check the Round Robin Challenges journal for details.  Believe it or not, my entry will NOT involve pictures of Tucson weather, Mount Lemmon, or my church.  Are you relieved?