Hi Kathe,

I don't even know what to say, because "frustrating" seems so inadequate! And you're dealing with the weather as a factor on top of that.

I'm glad you at least you had a good company to work with for the repair.

Maybe it will help to keep picturing on how great it will all look when you do get to the finish line!

*big hug*,
SugarCookie

Thanks for the hugs SugarCookie. DH feels like all these delays must be for a reason. I can see his point. We knew rain, snow and freezing temps were forecasted for this past weekend and this week. Our goal was to get the window insulated and partially drywalled. We only got as far as the insulation because DH was so busy at work. If we had drywalled the window area, it would have been damaged by the rain. So there's definitely an upside. I just hope this is the last of the surprises. I've had my fill.

You're right about staying positive and focusing on the finished kitchen. It will all be worth it in the end.

So sorry to hear of your surprises and the delays. Yes, we've been there, too.

Sometimes it's better to have the rough weather come and test our work earlier rather than later. We moved into our house in the spring, and saw that we might have a drainage problem caused by a very large concrete handicap ramp blocking the flow of water away from the house. We'll have to get around to removing that ramp, we figured. Sure enough, soon enough, one night we had a deluge (the night before we were hosting a large family celebration, of course) and found water coming into the basement. Maybe the ramp was causing water to pool, we thought. We looked out back and saw -- a lake (!) ten feet wide and twenty feet long, and a foot deep, against the back of the house. I have fond, ridiculous pictures in my head of my husband sitting on an overturned bucket, in the rain at two in the morning, holding one end of a garden hose under the water level to siphon our lake down, through the hole of the hastily disconnected drier vent, into the drain of the laundry tub in the basement.

No, it wasn't fun to put off thinking about cabinet styles and appliance choices for the kitchen, while we removed the ramp, fixed the gutters and downspouts and attended to the grade around the house. And removing the ramp led to the restoration of the whole back porch and the need to restucco a section of the back of the house. Ten months later, I almost have a finished kitchen.

You'll get there, too. Hang in there.

Thank you for your words of encouragement mnerg. Wow, a lake, that sounds like way more than you bargained for. It's great that you can look back and have a chuckle, but I'm sure it wasn't funny at the time.

It's great that you're almost finished with your kitchen. Post pics : )

Kathec,

When my GC opened the wall for my new hood duct, we also found a leak. Further exploration disclosed some needed repairs to the roof. I'm just glad we found the leak before things got worse, other structures were damaged, mold developed, etc.

So maybe your leak is a good thing and you have the chance to prevent further, bigger problems? The silver lining of the cloud, perhaps.

You've been here long enough to know what happened to us. I'm sorry you have interesting water issues too.

Because the outside of our house is stucco, we also had to wait through winter and part of spring before being able to re-attach the stucco. During that time, we found three flashing issues that leaked. I am grateful NOW for the long delays that proved out the new window installations. At the time, all I could do was look from the water problem to my 5 square foot temp kitchen and try not to burst into tears.

It's hard to see this as a good thing, isn't it? But it's wonderful that you are able to deal with it instead of camouflaging the trouble just to deal with it at a worse time.

Here in our climate, one of my homespun maxims is "If it's gonna go wrong, it will do so at 20 below zero." You may not have quite that severe a test, but the rain is your trigger for some serious thinking about how to face stuff and fix it right. Painful but good in the long run. Another of my maxims is "some day we'll laugh about this." The severity of today's trouble usually does fall into perspective, in time. But by then, the hard emotions are past.

Hope that all works out well.

Oh, gosh, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry you have to deal with this. Renovation is a huge headache. I have not experienced that particular problem you are having but we are struggling right now with our own issues, and that's why this site is so great. Unlike some of your family and friends, who don't understand "why is it taking so long - shouldn't you be done already?" - we on this board get it.

Take heart - it will be lovely and *dry* someday in the not too distant future!

dandylandy, I had to chuckle about your comment about family and friends. You're spot on.DH's parents were in town over Christmas, luckily they stayed at SIL's 25 miles away. I think they expected us to be further along and not see studs and open wiring. FIL wanted to help DH "get it done" but I don't think he realized how much we still have to do as well as the fact that we're paying as we go. He did help DH put in the window, but that's about all in the 2+ weeks he was here.

I have to say DH is handling this all pretty well. Out of the two of us, he's usually the one to get stressed out when things aren't "squared away." He handled his parents concerns with reassurance that well get it all done someday. Honestly, I was very proud of him. This is our 2nd remodel together. The first was 10+ years ago when we had no children. He totally stressed over that kitchen. This time, we have 3 kids, so a lot breaks in between the work to feed and care for them. No all nighters to knock out punch list items.