G managed to get to the "cricket"-- a little tent shape that was added to the roof and butted up against the back of the chimney (why, I don't know). You can see the very large skylight right behind the tarp and my very nice new roof shingles.
And inside-- rotten beams and mold and other very bad things. All, we just got off the phone with the insurance adjuster, NOT covered by our insurance as the damage is older than 14 days. More like older than 20 years. Like, it was already leaking when we bought the house and we were too dumb to know that this was a VERY BAD THING. We just thought the chimney needed a cap. Which we had installed.
What does it mean? Sigh. A big chunk of our retirement savings is going to the roof repair, the mold abatement, new windows and lots and lots of carpentry. The odds are we would never have been able to sell this house without fixing the damaged chimney. And we need new windows. So G and I are just going to do what has to be done and hope that we see the money spent, returned to us when we eventually sell the house.
This whole thing has played out, in three acts, since I walked into the house from a VERY bad day at work at 4 pm. So like three hours. Reveal, insurance call, roofer call, estimator letting us know we have no coverage and, then, G and I staring up at the skylight, the bead board ceiling under the skylight, which will probably need to be removed to check for mold, and looking at that crappy brick inside the woodstove "nook". The insurance guy and the roofer are coming tomorrow. My day off.
Water has always been our problem. We are both Fire Dogs. Water. Anything that has gone wrong has always involved water. On our worst days--water and electricity.
Oh, well. Other than paint and a new roof--we haven't done anything to this house in 20 plus years. And think about it--I will have so much to write about for the next six months or so. For some reason I don't feel real worried right now. Whatever happens--we'll be okay.
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