The snow was falling and work was slow. It was New Years Eve and all of us would have rather not come in. Early in the morning before the day really began the boss informed all of us that we would be leaving early. It was welcomed news. I thought about how I would spend the day and the best option was to take it easy and do nothing. With a new house that required a lot of work rest had become only a passing thought. What I would learn later is that this would be my only chance to do nothing. A perfect storm was coming.
2008 was a very busy year for me. I haven’t had this much to do in years. All in all I like to be busy otherwise I’ll go nuts but I find it is also good to have rest and this I lacked. In 2008 there was a marriage in the family, a family dispute, a new house and the death of a good friend. I decided that for New Years Eve, while the snow heavily fell, I would sit in front of the TV, watch DVD’s, and eat crap. The ride home took extra long. It went from a twenty minute ride to nearly an hour. When I did finally get home I shoveled the driveway and headed in for a night of doing nothing.
I felt great, rested. I enjoyed watching the movies, shoveling garbage into my mouth, and enjoying gallons of soda. Midnight was approaching. Outside the snow slowed but the wind picked up. Gusts of over 45MPH blasted through. For the most part the night was going well. I was watching “Dick Clark’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest” and as midnight struck and 2009 fell upon us so did my cold. I kid you not at midnight suddenly I had a sore throat. From there a cold rapidly took me over. Also at midnight I lost my internet connection. I thought maybe the storm downed some wire but it would be five days until I would get it back, well, sort of back. Along with the snow and heavy winds the temperatures were below zero and it felt like it inside my house. I was using my wood burning stove for heat but it was just not cutting it. So I turned on the central heating system only to find it was not blowing out warm air. I gave up and turned it off. I went bed around three in the morning feeling sicker by the second.
I find it funny how my life went downhill at the stroke of midnight. It was as if on cue. I say this now knowing what was to come throughout the coming days. New Years Day I had plans to go to my mother’s and have dinner with my family. Before going, however, I wanted to take care of a few things. I would never have the chance though because instead I would battle it out with the furnace. Here it was the coldest day of the season and my furnace decides it is not going to run. All day I tried to get the thing going and nothing. To say I was pissed is an understatement. And my cold was worse. What angered me about that was that I got this cold from someone who was sick who had to cough in my face without covering their mouth and nose. When they did that I knew I was going to get sick. Anyways I decided to leave and have dinner with the family. Unfortunately though my mood was unpleasant and I had no appetite so I couldn’t eat any of the food or deserts that were in front of me.
When I got home I finally got the furnace to go but still the heating system was blowing cold air. That night I shivered relentlessly. It was so cold you could see your breath. Icicles were hanging out of my nose. Okay not really but it was damn cold! Finally I couldn’t take it anymore. I went to bed where I slept under seven layers of blankets.
January 2nd arrived. It was Friday. I went off to work. There things dragged. It became clear that it was pointless even going. Everyone was still in that holiday mode. Once again we were let out early. I decided to go to the local home improvement store and get some things to help warm up my place. I picked up a few heaters, door weather strips, and caulking. I planned on sealing up every little hole and space I could fine. When I got home I moved on it right away. In the ceiling there were small holes where wires once came through. I sealed those up and sealed any draft coming through the front door.
As Friday night rolled in I began taking down the Christmas decorations and then planned on sitting down and watching a movie. I was kind of sluggish that evening. I moved slow and kind of puttered around. I went into my office, where it was nice and warm, and didn’t even feel like moving. Finally I decided to go cook dinner and finish putting the Christmas stuff away. It was close to seven when I heard a funny noise coming from the furnace. I tried to figure it out but couldn’t. It was clinging and clanking as if a tiny elf was inside the pipe banging on it with a metal hammer. I then noticed from the corner of my eye the water meter spinning like crazy. I knew from that water was running somewhere. I ran around like a crazy man trying to find it .I couldn’t. I then heard the sound of water dripping on the living room floor. I ran into it the room to see the horror unfold in front of my eyes. Water went from dripping to pouring. It was pouring out of newly formed holes and pouring out of the ceiling fan. I ran into the attic where I smashed my head on the roof. I could feel the blood running but I had no time to stop. I looked for the leak but I didn’t see anything. I called my mother, she lived 10 minutes away, and my friend to see if they come as soon as possible. I needed help to stop this. I went back into the attic where I actually smashed my head again! More blood and more pain. I touched my head and sure enough my fingers were red. I crawled on the rafters looking for the leak. I figured it had to do with the heating system so I shut the valves off. I then crawled along the rafters to where the ceiling was now damaged. I felt the insulation and it was soaked. I then moved it away to expose the Sheetrock. As I touched it to see how wet it was I only had seconds to realize it had turned to mush because the upper half of my body went right through it. I was lucky I didn’t go all the way through. Now I had a giant four by four hole in my ceiling. I left the attic and for a third time smashed my head right over the other two gashes! As I entered the living room my mother arrived. We immediately began moving furniture and others thing out. As we did more of the ceiling fell down. To make things worse the icy cold chill from the poorly insulated and drafty attic made its way into the house. I moved quickly to shut the doors to the master bedroom and the office and set up the heaters in there. I knew that for the time being I would be living out of these rooms.
Once my brothers and my friend arrived things had only gotten worse. A tough conclusion was made. The whole ceiling had to come to down. We all cleaned up the mess as much as we could. On Saturday we would take down the rest of the ceiling and prep for the reconstruction. For me I was fed up. I could not believe that the new year would start out like this right from midnight on New Years Eve. I was beyond disappointment. My family tried to convince me that we would rebuild and make it better than it was. They all offered to help me pay for it.
Saturday was spent cleaning up the big mess. A HVAC tech found that the heater coil had bursted open from being frozen most likely. The rest of the ceiling had to come down and we pulled out the wet insulation which was also covered in mouse crap. I’m talking mounds of the chocolate shots. The previous owners must have been infested. I never saw any signs of them while I’ve been here. The next step was to piss my money away. I decided to insulate the hell out of the attic and while the ceiling was down update and add media wiring to eliminate the mess of wiring that was scattered all over the place. That night it was colder than the night before. My dish soap actually started to freeze.
Sunday we finally put up a new ceiling and we began putting in the insulation. I again banged my head right on the same spot. That night when all was gone I rushed to finish the insulation. I wanted to prevent anything else from freezing. While I insulated my goggles kept fogging up so I had to remove those which of course exposed my eyes to fiberglass particles. I also found a dead mouse under the old insulation. I was hoping not find anything else. This house is over 50 years old and the attic is like another world. It smells, it’s dirty, and previous owners left a lot of their crap up there. By the time I finished for the night I was exhausted.
Monday morning came and when I woke up I couldn’t see. All the fiberglass particles were caked in my eyes. It took hours before it would completely clear up. My cold was in it’s worse stage, and my voice was deeper than James Earl Jones (now that was a good thing). I finished the insulation and worked on the wiring which turned out to be a son of a bitch. Later in the night my youngest brother stopped over to tape and plaster the ceiling. Finally I had a ceiling again. To make things extra worse I had just about run out of wood. The little I had was needed to heat the room up so that the plaster would dry.
The rest of the week was spent tying up loose ends and fixing all the little things. By the end of the week I was so tired I could hardly stand. Saturday, Jan 10th more would be added to my list of things that sucked in 2009. My youngest brother was coming over to paint the popcorn texture on the ceiling with an electric sprayer and another person was over to check out my Internet wiring so that I could separate the phone and net for faster service. He was confused by my wiring and couldn’t comprehend it from what it seemed. I’m not sure what confused him as I did a good job with it. As a matter fact a few weeks later I updated the entire phone system with new wiring, modules, etc. and it works great. Anyways while I was showing him the set-up I opened the attic door where the folding ladder unfolded into my face. I had blood all over my face. It looked worse than it was. Anyways later on this guy informs me he broke the main incoming phone line and now I have no phone or net. He said he’d be back in three days with help. No phone? No Net? This just keeps getting better. On Sunday I tried to fix the phone but couldn’t figure out the mess. Later my friend’s friend who has electrical experience stopped over and fixed it. I had actually had it right but I had an old unused wire connected that was causing a short. His main purpose however was to fix a kitchen ceiling light which was popping the fuse every time the switch was hit. He spent hours trying to figure it out .
During the next week the furnace gave me more trouble. Now it was smoking. I called a guy to come look at it. He said he would call back and fix it over the weekend. He never did. Meanwhile the heaters are popping fuses and the brutal winter carries on. Lucky for me though my friend gave me a truck load of wood so that I could keep the house warm. By Wednesday the house looked like it had never happened and it was indeed much better than it was. I wasn’t out of the woods yet.
On Saturday, Jan 17th the backwater for the washing machine backed up and flooded the kitchen. I believe the drain pipe may have been frozen. By Thursday Jan 22 I had no furnace. It was finally done. It wouldn’t be until Sunday that I had someone fix it. Now it runs great. This monster that I have been fighting since the first day I moved in is finally working great.
I find it ironic that on Friday, Jan 2nd I caulked up some small holes in the ceiling and then later that night I would have one giant hole where a ceiling use to be. I did get lucky however. Usually on Friday nights I’m not home. This time I was. If I wasn’t that water leak would have flooded the house and destroyed everything inside. The Sheetrock and insulation had to be replaced but all of my belongings were fine.
I also saw the best in my family and best friend who all stepped out of their lives to help me fix this problem. They even helped paid and volunteered more money if I needed it even though they all were struggling financially. If I had to do it a lone I’d still be fixing it and the house would probably become a giant ice block.
It all started at the strike of midnight as 2009 rolled in. From the heater failing, the furnace failing, the water leak, the ceiling collapse, the broken phone wire, smoking furnace to dead furnace, the four gashes on my head, the washing machine flooding the kitchen, gash in my face, and bad cold. I can only imagine what’s next. Sometimes I feel like I should just step back and say “Screw it! Let’s go have pie!”
Well I need to go. A tree just crashed through the window allowing a squirrel to break in who is now in my kitchen roasting his nuts.
Copyright COPYRIGHT 2011 Mike M Burke / Mystic Night Pictures
