We Bought a House

My wife and I just returned home from a very long weekend getaway down south. Yes, it was warm (low 70s) and yes I was able to wear shorts the entire time!

I stayed closely in touch with the news and local happenings back home as I usually do. I was afraid when I heard about the heavy rains and winds that ripped through the state. Our basement has a tendency to take on water and the warm temperatures coupled with the heavy rain made me feel uneasy, but I opted to put it at the back of my mind in order to enjoy my time away.

We were going to return home on Monday but decided to try and save money rather than staying in a hotel in the DC area.

We pulled into our driveway at 11pm Sunday evening. My wife opened our front door and I heard the horror in her voice…”Chris – you’re not going to believe this…” was the first thing she said when walking into the house.

The basement hadn’t flooded and the windows were all still intact from the high winds. Rather, our drop ceiling had collapsed in our front room.

I think I can call it a drop ceiling…10 inch tiles were hung up probably in the 60s or 70s, stapled into furring strips on the ceiling. We have seen this throughout the house – faux wood paneling attached through furring strips in walls, ceiling tiles on the ceiling, so this isn’t anything new.

The one thing I did not expect was to see my ceiling laying on the floor.

It wasn’t terrible, but enough to sour our mood for the rest of the night and going into Monday morning.

I wish I could go into some heroic tale of how I came to the rescue after walking into the house and taking care of the issue at hand, but I went to bed and tried to forget about it for the night.

Monday morning came and with it a renewed sense of “getting stuff done” after a quick trip to Dunkin’ and watching the newest installment of 1883.

Aside from the amount of dust and dirt that I pulled down with the old ceiling tiles, the old plaster and lath ceiling above it was in remarkably good shape. Only a couple of spots had to be covered by cardboard to protect us from things falling from the ceiling.

Our only wonder will be what we will return home to next when we leave for a long weekend.