I Spoke Too Soon

Judith, ,

Yesterday I happily said “it was fun to be back in my studio — all still dry despite the recent downpours.” Those downpours have been fierce, bringing as much as 6″ or 7″ of rain around the area. Through it all, the studio remained dry.

This morning we woke up to yet another storm. The wind was howling, the rain was beating down on the roof. I was delighted when my husband and I went down to the studio and found it “high and dry” as the pirates might say. Thank goodness! I thought of what a horrible mess we would have had if he’d not done all that work.

We came upstairs, had breakfast, and he headed out to work. The rain had eased up a bit, so it was a good time for him to get on the road. It was also a good time for me to head to the studio, check the blog, and get started on my day.

I did, and that was when I had to make a quick call to my husband. “We spoke too soon,” I told him. Yes, there was water in the studio again. I hate to share this photo because now you can see for yourself how messy my studio is, but after two previous floods and a lot of frustration, this is how it looks this morning. The good news is that it’s not nearly as awful as it was in the past. Before we had much more water coming in, and with the previous storm, we also had a lot of dirt washing in. That didn’t happen this time.

My husband’s advice was “throw that old blue bedspread down,” and “don’t worry about cleaning it up.” He’ll probably come home a bit early today to handle the clean-up, and as soon as possible, he will do more work on that window well. It is located, by the way, to the right in this picture, directly above the area where the spread and a towel are.

Yesterday I was happily painting, glad to be back in the studio again after the flooding problems. Earlier this morning I was looking forward to going downstairs and doing a bit more work on the landscape painting you can see on my easel, as well as getting busy with plans for next month’s art show at the Cass County Fairgrounds. Now, I’m shaking my head, feeling a bit discouraged, but once again being thankful that there was no damage to any artwork or supplies.

I should be thankful, too — and I am — that only a small area of the studio is involved. Before, the water covered a much larger area. What you’re seeing in the photo is only one corner. Unfortunately, it’s the corner I use most often! But I’m reminding myself over and over that it could have been much, much worse.

In time, we’ll get the problems resolved, and in time, I’ll be able to spend my days having fun in the studio again. I’m looking forward to it.

 

23 Comments

    1. It could have been much worse. My husband just called from work and said it’s pouring down buckets of rain there — about 30 – 40 miles from here. It’s not raining here yet, but he suggested I “get prepared” in case the storm comes this way. So I’ve put down more towels and used my storage bins (plastic) as “walls” to — hopefully — contain any water that might come in today. I appreciate all the good thoughts. 🙂

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  2. I’m so sorry. I understand this frustration well. My front yard slopes slightly down toward the house. The front of my house has a very low foundation. There is a drain pipe that runs under the house. Every time we would get a severe storm we would be out there making sure that drain was clear otherwise and at times even with it clear, we would be fighting flood water on the front porch and this room here. I ended up lining cement blocks in front of the house to create a diversion for the worst of the water coming down the yard. It isn’t perfect but it helps. I hope you get your issues corrected soon and that there is no more flooding.

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    1. Thanks. We have a similar situation here, with our backyard sloping down toward the house — and that window well. My husband has done what you did, fortifying the area with bricks, and he’s worked to clean out the well. He’ll probably end up putting some sort of pump in. It’s been raining again all morning, but not a heavy downpour. So far, so good. The studio is still dry… so let’s hope I’m not speaking too soon again!

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      2. It’s a disaster today (Thursday morning). The rains came down all night, and we had water gushing in through the window well this morning. It’s finally stopped, so we’ll be spending the afternoon cleaning again. As before, I can be grateful that there’s no damage to my artwork, my supplies, or my equipment. But I’m sure getting frustrated by all the mess. 😦

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  5. oddly i have had that happen to one of my studios as well..back a few years ago in a house i rented, the room i used as a work space started with a small area of the ceiling paint crackling and coming off. I called our landlord, someone came out to look and they told me – “oh it’s just old paint- no worries” . I knew better but had no choice but to let it go, fast forward a few more months and sure enough water started coming in..first one spot then a few more. It took several calls and finally a threat to call a few legal agencies for this “slum lord” to fix it. By that point the guy who came out had to spend all day – re doing the roof , the ceiling and floor area below the leak. He said and i quote “if they had fixed it when it first started it would have been a $2-300 job. But it cost them $2-3000 by trying to get out of it”. Anyway, after about 6 months of not being able to use the room and having to transport everything one flight down, i decided to use it as an art storage area instead because i had so much more room downstairs…in that regard, the leak was a blessing.I now own my home and turned my living room area into an art work/storage space. Just thought i’d throw in my own leaky art studio story…lmao!!

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    1. I hear ya! It’s always so much easier to fix a small problem rather than wait and deal with a much larger one. Right now, I’m really frustrated. More rain. More flooding in the studio. It’s a horrible mess downstairs this morning, so I won’t be “arting” today or tomorrow. I’ll probably not be doing any art at all over the holiday weekend. The rain has finally stopped (but might return later) so when my husband gets home from work, we’ll spend the afternoon cleaning up — again. This morning he was able to see exactly where the water is coming in, so hopefully that will help him find a solution. He assures me that we WILL get the problems corrected, and I have confidence that he’ll find a way.

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      2. Yes, thanks. I’ll be cleaning and re-organizing the studio over the holiday weekend. No rain in the forecast until next week, and we’re hoping my husband will have the problems solved by then. Today I’m going to do some graphite drawing, I think. I can bring my drawing pencils and a sketchbook upstairs, or I can go sit outside. That might help me relax a bit after all the frustrations.

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    1. We’ve had so much rain! It rained all day yesterday, and there was more flooding. 😦 The rain is out of the forecast now until Tuesday so hopefully my husband can address the problems before then. It has been frustrating.

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    1. I’ve really frustrated at the moment. The storms were horrible yesterday! Water was gushing in, and the studio is a mess all over again. The good news is that there’s no more rain in the forecast until next week. We’re planning to spend the weekend working on the problems. My husband will work on putting in a pump (or doing whatever else he needs to do), and I’ll work on cleaning the floor in the studio and once again re-organizing everything. Yes, I’m very glad nothing has actually been ruined or damaged. All of my art is safe, and all of my supplies are secure. It’s just discouraging at the moment though because I want to be in the studio painting. Right now, that’s just not possible. I think later I’m going to do some graphite drawing. I can do that upstairs here.

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      2. We’re spending our holiday weekend doing clean-up and repair. My husband has the window well completely cleaned out from all the dirt that’s washed into it over the years. There is a drain there, but because the yard slants downward (and the rain carries all the dirt with it), the drain alone can’t handle the problems. He’s going to add a pump, plus he’s doing more brickwork around the well. Meanwhile, I’m cleaning the floor in the studio and re-organizing things again. Happy Fourth of July!

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