Yesterday at the office, I mentioned that water problem in Mark's bathroom and under the house to one of the women I work with. She happens to work for an attorney who prosecutes redhibition cases against builders so she suggested I check with a guy they use as an expert witness in a number of their cases - an engineer named Chaisson. So I gave him a call last evening and he said although he was going out of town for the weekend he would come by sometime next week. Then this morning first thing, he called to say his out of town trip was put off and he could come over right now. Great! The guy is terrific. He's an engineer who's been doing home inspections for years and is REALLY good at it. When the attorneys from the office buy a house, they use him to inspect it. (But when they sell one, they refuse to let the buyer use him! They know he WILL find problems.) And he's not only good, he's a VERY nice guy.
Anyway, he took one look and said (1) we are extremely lucky that we don't have termites because of the way the crawl space is enclosed since we haven't been treating for termites annually, and (2) there's no water leak after all! All that water dripping off the joists is condensation from the extremely high humidity and the fact that the floors are not insulated. That was certainly a huge relief. So we're going to completely close in that space with heavy-duty visqueen and install a dehumidifier. He said there were two options -- open it up completely so it can be fully ventilated, or close it up completely and dehumidify it. Since the brick walls on the house go down into the ground on three sides, we really have no other option but to finish enclosing it and install a dehumidifier with what amounts to a small french drain for the water to go into. Been trying to find one where the dehumidifier can be outside the crawl space, but so far haven't been able to come up with one like that for less than a couple thousand dollars -- a ridiculous amount for a dehumidifier no matter how good, if you ask me.
Okay, THEN -- just as he was headed down the front steps -- Mark's sister and brother-in-law drove in from DC. One of his nieces is getting married this weekend so they will be staying here with us for a few days, then moving downtown to the Hilton where the whole family is staying for "wedding week." Going to be a big deal. She's getting married at the big cathedral downtown, then riding in a horse drawn carriage over to the old governor's mansion where the reception will be held. We will NOT be attending. The fact that it's a black tie affair is just too much for us, I'm afraid. Neither of us has anything appropriate for something like that any more!
Now I'm getting ready to go clean up so we can go out to eat tonight with Vickie and John. I think we're just going to go down to Roberto's right around the corner on the River Road. It's practically within walking distance, but we haven't eaten there in a year or more -- not sure why that is. Check out their menu -- they're a nice traditional cajun restaurant.
Tomorrow Jerry will be here working but Mark and I are going to head over with Vickie and John to his other sister's place over in Opelousas for lunch. I think she's making seafood gumbo and we'll take a nice layered salad and maybe some dessert. Mark's niece and her husband and kids are coming up there from New Orleans for the day and we haven't seen them in a long time either so it feels like a holiday of some sort!
Well - I guess I better get on with it or they'll be going to eat without me!
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