My Roof's Got A Hole In It

“My Roof’s Got A Hole In It!

And I might Drown!” These lyrics from a catchy old song called “The Crooked Little Man”, by the Serendipity Singers, were running through my head this morning.  Fortunately, I don’t think we’ll actually drown.  The hole I’m looking at is not in our roof, but in our living room ceiling, and it was self-induced!  It wasn’t a case of just being curious about what was under that neat white painted surface – it was done to discover what was causing the curious star shaped bulge that formed in it and then started to spit drops at us.  I thought perhaps the house was into entertaining us with a balancing act: now that we had the ‘roots in the drain’ problem temporarily solved – it called out: “Oh dear, sorry about this, I held out as long as I could, but look up!”  It seems like, once it let go, it decided to let it all hang out – “You might want to check the ceiling in your bedroom – whoops!”

  I’m now looking out at our newly-built, tightly sealed garage, and wondering where I might fit a bed!   Actually, the news is not all bad – In the process of having to re-surface the offending flat roof on one side of the house, we will go for the full renovation that we were planning to do down the road - including new flooring!  So much for our budget for the foreseeable future.   In trying to be positive, I keep thinking that we’re lucky to have a pretty nice home, despite its problems: It’s been keeping us snug and warm and deserves to be treated to a few treats – like ceilings and plumbing and drains and weather stripping and airtight windows, and…….sorry about that.  My mom would probably have taken  these problems in stride, with her large store of patience - She raised seven children in a very tiny renovated cottage on the banks of the Rideau.  When I come to think of it, I believe that the above song was a favourite at our family sing-a-longs!  And I was oblivious to the fact that, for my mom and dad, it might have been hitting a little too close to home.  Music was and is a great healer – it helps to patch the holes in our roofs.