Bad Turns Good

The Bad-
Last weekend, when we got back from St. George, our tenant informed us that there was a leak somewhere behind the north wall of her living room. The carpet was ripped up and evidence of black mold was seen. What a way to end an already crazy holiday weekend. On Wednesday night, Rhyetta and I went down and started ripping holes in the wall (This was the living room that we did so much work on to make it look nice a year or so ago. Very sad to be ripping up the wall.). While cutting holes in the wall, mold was between sheet rock and wood paneling. We eventually had to cut over 16 feet of wall. We found a crack in the wall right next to the main water line that comes into the house. We called a water damage company to give an estimate on what it would cost to remediate this problem (talk about almost $3,000. Not what we wanted to hear.).

The Good-
Even though we found a crack in the foundation of our house, it was not an active leak and so a leak in the water main was ruled out. Rhyetta called her dad and brother for advice on what we should do and if we could do it on our own. We decided to do it on our own. Warren called us earlier in the week informing us he was coming up to help us. We also called a friend that used to work with concrete to see if he could help. We decided Saturday (yesterday) was the day we would get started. Rhyetta and I started digging up the flower bed in front of the house (too bad for the tulip bulbs that got dug up) around 8:00 in the morning. I spent most of the morning digging down almost 6 feet until I got to the footing of our foundation. Our friend came by and helped digging the hole. Kian helped dig the hole. We located the entire crack in the foundation. Warren got to our house around noon and all of the digging was done. What really was a good blessing is Clarence, our friend that worked with concrete, brought over foundation tar, sheet rock, and 2x4's so we got done much more than I was even expecting. The crack was sealed and the wall replaced in one day. Warren helped fill the trench in front of our house and we were finished by dinner time.

What was initially extremely bad news, turned into huge blessings for our family. Thanks to Clarence and Warren for their help. Thanks to Rhyetta and Kian for their help. Lastly, what makes this even sweeter: my body is not sore from digging all day long.