Beach Creek Frog

Last Tuesday was a beautiful day. It was warm, but not too hot. That all changed on Tuesday night. A strong storm front swept over us. We were watching a TV show together on the couch, Foyle’s War, which we have been working are way through slowly, but surely. The Saint Louis heat island effect shielded us from any violent weather, but as His Majesty’s loyal subjects, one-by-one met an untimely end, the storm roared over us. It really poured. Our new storm sewers were getting a good workout and then Anne squawked! Water had begun dripping on her end of the couch. I felt that she had overreacted, but then my end of the couch was still high and dry. I paused the show and we got towels to mop up the water. The storm soon passed and the drips soon abated, but the die was cast. Years ago, a similar leak had occurred, under similar circumstances. I was still working then and then only got as far as buying the caulk, but not to actually applying it. Hey, I still had a life back then. Wednesday, it was still too wet to do anything about the leak, but yesterday, we sprung into action as a team, the dynamic duo, Caulk Man and Ladder Girl. 😎 & 😎

The suspected source of the leak was the gap above a steel bar that is just above the window frame. All of the windows in our brick home have similar bars, to support the bricks above the window. Caulking necessitated getting out and erecting a ladder to get to the gap. Once up, the ladder needed to be stabilized and leveled. We used lumber to make a couple of “steps” for the step ladder. It didn’t really take that long to do the caulking. I climbed the ladder, while Anne steadied it and also handed me up paper towels to clean up the extra caulk. It will likely be years before we know whether or not we were successful or not.

This bit of domesticity has motivated me do more home improvement. I found a still pretty full can of exterior white trim in the basement. I know that this paint is not as old as the caulk was. I had begun painting the trim several year ago and got some of it done, but with our ever lengthening summertime out-of-town excursions, progress had slowed quite a bit. This stay-at-home summer should be much better. I might even get to finish this job of home beautification.