Madilyn here:
Cody promised we would tell about the process of settling into our new home for the year. However, there is one major aspect of this settling in process that requires a bit more explanation than the rest, so it is getting its own post. No, it is not culture shock or the difficulties of navigating in an entirely new place.
It's The Damp.
Particularly the damp in our house. The house is built up against an old stone wall, and our landlords warned us that the wall would leak moisture into the house. (It was not quite clear how, but they showed us a box that repelled the damp by running an electric current through the walls. ????????) Unfortunately they did not prepare us for...........The Damp From Above.
We woke up on the morning of our second day, newly refreshed and functional from a night of sleep, to discover the kitchen floor was filled with a puddle of water from a series of steady drips from the laundry room doorframe. This is not a good thing to discover the morning after you sign a lease.
When our landlords redid the house, they doubled the size by turning the back garden into an extension. To make up for the lost green space, they turned a section of the kitchen roof into a small patio. The way they described what it looked like before, this was a huge improvement since it added so much more space and the garden was no longer surrounded by 20-foot walls on every side.
Unfortunately, the builders did a shoddy job building the kitchen roof, and by the time we arrived, it was no longer safe to walk on. This was fine with us since it meant a discount on the rent, which means more potential budget for traveling around the country, but no one realized the other potential problems associated with a roof that has been structurally compromised.
Considering that the weather forecasts in Ireland range from "might rain today" to "will definitely rain today," the leaky roof put a bit of a damper on our arrival.
We tried to address the problem with a series of buckets and a tarp, but between three hardware stores the best thing we could find was a plastic drop cloth for painting, which looked incredibly pitiful. It has not helped that we are not supposed to walk on the roof because it is not technically safe. Instead, Chris and Martin, the landlords, called their sons to help since they know the safe places to walk.
Tuesday, Chris was scheduled to stop by with a contractor to look at the damage and see what could be done. We tried to plan dinner around the visit, but we were a little late and she was a little early. She brought her friend who had helped find a builder and wanted to see the house. The builder, an engineer, and Martin quickly followed, which was how we suddenly had five people in the house in the middle of dinner after a few days of seeing almost exclusively each other. Despite being slightly overwhelmed with company, we ended the evening with the assurance that the roof can be fixed with us still in the house.
Thursday, the builder came back to put an actual tarp on the roof to prevent any additional water damage until they can come in to begin working. This was great until later that day when a large rainstorm spent the entire afternoon making a small lake in one corner of the tarp.
As the door was nailed shut during the process of securing the tarp to the wall, the only way to get outside was to climb out the window in the spare bedroom/office. I was home alone at this point since Cody had orientation, and I was also still not allowed to go on the roof. I still needed a way to remove the water from the tarp, and after a few minutes rummaging through the house I came up with half a solution.
Cody promised we would tell about the process of settling into our new home for the year. However, there is one major aspect of this settling in process that requires a bit more explanation than the rest, so it is getting its own post. No, it is not culture shock or the difficulties of navigating in an entirely new place.
It's The Damp.
Particularly the damp in our house. The house is built up against an old stone wall, and our landlords warned us that the wall would leak moisture into the house. (It was not quite clear how, but they showed us a box that repelled the damp by running an electric current through the walls. ????????) Unfortunately they did not prepare us for...........The Damp From Above.
We woke up on the morning of our second day, newly refreshed and functional from a night of sleep, to discover the kitchen floor was filled with a puddle of water from a series of steady drips from the laundry room doorframe. This is not a good thing to discover the morning after you sign a lease.
When our landlords redid the house, they doubled the size by turning the back garden into an extension. To make up for the lost green space, they turned a section of the kitchen roof into a small patio. The way they described what it looked like before, this was a huge improvement since it added so much more space and the garden was no longer surrounded by 20-foot walls on every side.
Unfortunately, the builders did a shoddy job building the kitchen roof, and by the time we arrived, it was no longer safe to walk on. This was fine with us since it meant a discount on the rent, which means more potential budget for traveling around the country, but no one realized the other potential problems associated with a roof that has been structurally compromised.
Considering that the weather forecasts in Ireland range from "might rain today" to "will definitely rain today," the leaky roof put a bit of a damper on our arrival.
We tried to address the problem with a series of buckets and a tarp, but between three hardware stores the best thing we could find was a plastic drop cloth for painting, which looked incredibly pitiful. It has not helped that we are not supposed to walk on the roof because it is not technically safe. Instead, Chris and Martin, the landlords, called their sons to help since they know the safe places to walk.
Tuesday, Chris was scheduled to stop by with a contractor to look at the damage and see what could be done. We tried to plan dinner around the visit, but we were a little late and she was a little early. She brought her friend who had helped find a builder and wanted to see the house. The builder, an engineer, and Martin quickly followed, which was how we suddenly had five people in the house in the middle of dinner after a few days of seeing almost exclusively each other. Despite being slightly overwhelmed with company, we ended the evening with the assurance that the roof can be fixed with us still in the house.
Thursday, the builder came back to put an actual tarp on the roof to prevent any additional water damage until they can come in to begin working. This was great until later that day when a large rainstorm spent the entire afternoon making a small lake in one corner of the tarp.
As the door was nailed shut during the process of securing the tarp to the wall, the only way to get outside was to climb out the window in the spare bedroom/office. I was home alone at this point since Cody had orientation, and I was also still not allowed to go on the roof. I still needed a way to remove the water from the tarp, and after a few minutes rummaging through the house I came up with half a solution.
I tried scooping the water out and throwing it towards the drain in the far corner, but it was still raining and half of each throw just made it back into the pool. When Cody and Collin, one of the landlords' sons, arrived that night, we discovered that pouring the water down the shower drain rather than back outside was much more effective.
The kitchen is now a bit harder to deal with since it was primarily lit by a skylight that is currently covered in two layers of tarp, but overall it is helping. This house is still one of the better housing arrangements Cody or I have had during college. (It's certainly no Xanatwo.) We can manage until work starts, especially if the weather is good for the next few weeks.
Cody has only fallen into fits of melancholy about the leak every few hours since we discovered it.
The cheerier tales of moving in will appear in the next few days once we've had a chance to dry out.
The kitchen is now a bit harder to deal with since it was primarily lit by a skylight that is currently covered in two layers of tarp, but overall it is helping. This house is still one of the better housing arrangements Cody or I have had during college. (It's certainly no Xanatwo.) We can manage until work starts, especially if the weather is good for the next few weeks.
Cody has only fallen into fits of melancholy about the leak every few hours since we discovered it.
The cheerier tales of moving in will appear in the next few days once we've had a chance to dry out.