“I thought the whole place looked perfect, beautiful until I went to look at the foundation.” – Caroline Wheat

Bad Luck

There had been a large snow storm three weeks before.  The sun then warmed things up for a couple of days before an ice storm hit like a full punch in the face from Mohammad Ali.  That ice storm lasted four full days before the sun returned and began to melt it away. It had been bad!  And, the last of the ice was still hanging around for the following two days before the rain began.

The rain wasn’t a hard rain, but it was steady.  It melted the last of the ice by the end of the first day it fell.  That didn’t stop it.  It rained more, as if the Jolly Green Giant had picked up the watering can from his garden and allowed it to sprinkle, and sprinkle, and sprinkle.  By late in the afternoon on the second day it was obvious that Jolly Green’s watering can was about empty.  The rain was coming to an end.  But, that wasn’t all that was coming to an end.

Caroline’s trip into town was ending as well.  She had driven with her husband, Anthony, and their belongings all the way from Florida.  Her parents had come too.  They’d driven from their home in Louisiana to see the new home their daughter was about to purchase.  The four of them arrived together and they were all smiles as they stepped out of their comfortable car.

Their smiles broadened as they walked through the front door of Caroline’s soon to be new home.  You know how it is.  They were visualizing where they would place their furniture and how it would look.  Everything was just as they had hoped.  Yet, their hope was soon to be washed away by the rain.  As soon as we walked into the dark crawl space.

Perhaps crawl space is a poor description.  There was no need to crawl beneath the house.  They flipped on the light and the once dark space was instantly illuminated.  By the time the underside of the house was alight the rain had stopped, but the sound of falling water hadn’t!

“I thought the whole place looked perfect, beautiful until I went to look at the foundation.”  Caroline said.  “This is a disaster!”

So, it would seem.  There was a garden hose sized, steady stream of water springing from the foundation just about five feet from the front of the house.  It had been running for a long time.  It was the unseen side of the rain storm.  And it jumped out, as if a jack-in-the-box leaping out in surprise.

“I know it looks that way.”  Caroline’s father answered.  “But, I’d say it is good luck!”

He had a lot of experience in this kind of circumstance, being a civil engineer.  He explained that the issue could be solved with some contextual repairs, a carefully placed rain gutter, French drains to push the flowing water away from the house, and a cut through the foundation to make sure the water hadn’t eroded the packed-fill beneath the garage floor which was located right above and behind the leaking wall.

“You haven’t closed on the purchase yet.”  He continued.  “We’ll meet with the contractor tomorrow so we can speak with him about these essential repairs.  Can you imagine what could have happened later, lurking unknown, below, without having this kind of rain culminating at the exact right time?”

There had been a large snow storm three weeks before.  The sun then warmed things up for a couple of days before an ice storm hit like a full punch in the face from Mohammad Ali.  That ice storm lasted four full days before the sun returned and began to melt it away.  And, the last of the ice was still hanging around for the following two days before the seemingly “bad-luck-rain” began.  

That same rain also changed what at first appeared to be bad luck into a new understanding.  Experience and perspective didn’t stop the rain, but it changed the way one young woman’s view became fresh as rain.  What luck!