The One Where Our House Sprung a Leak
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I figured I’d title this blog post like it was an episode of Friends, because this post is something I’d only share with a friend!
It’s more of a behind the scenes post. An OHMYGOSH I can’t believe this happened post. A thank the Good Lord we found out when we did post!
(As opposed to my usual DIY project, or a pretty room styled for fall, or a cottage reveal post.)
You get the idea.
Anyways, our house sprung a leak. So I thought I’d tell ya the whole story and explain why I had to re-paint the outside of our farmhouse. Well, at least a section of it.
But first, we have to rewind a few weeks because this whole thing started when I decided to finally clean my windows.
If it ain’t one thing, it’s a water leak… I think the saying goes something like that!
This summer, I had it on my mind to deep clean the exterior of our farmhouse. Wash the windows, clean the siding, etc.
I’ve used this Windex Outdoor window cleaner for years and it works so well to clean the outside of my windows without using up 18,427,132,349 paper towels.
You just hook it up to the hose, spray on the solution, and then rinse it off. That’s it! So simple and easy. 10 out of 10.
This year I wanted to try something new for the siding though. I’ve used Wet n Forget in the past. And it does work, but it takes a while for it to work and for you to see the difference.
It’s also like $30-something / bottle. And I knew I’d need several bottles to clean all 4 sides of the house.
So I gave this Home Armor Mold & Mildew Cleaner a try.
It was so much cheaper than the Wet & Forget, and the results were almost immediate! I’m telling y’all, it looked like we had repainted our house. It worked that good!
So I bought like 8 or 10 bottles of the Home Armor cleaner and started working my way around the house.
When I got to the chimney side of our house, I saw this weird little algae looking green slime on the foundation of our farmhouse.
It almost looked like water had been dripping there for a while, like long enough to get nasty and slimey. But it wasn’t right under the water spicket. So I wasn’t sure where would the water have even come from?
I felt the underside of the wood and the siding right above where the algea was, and the wall was completely soaked. Then I felt all along that underside of the house, and the entire length of the wall was dripping wet at the bottom.
We didn’t know exactly where the water was coming from, but that’s how we discovered that we had a leak.
We called a trusted contractor who was able to find it right away!
See that teeny tiny stream of water spraying out of the pipe?
It doesn’t look like much of a leak in the photo above, but the water damage was no joke!
This little leak had been spraying water inside the exterior wall of our home for who knows how long.
We uncovered so much water damage that we had to replace and reside part of this wall. The plywood and the beam were completely rotted in some parts.
The silver lining is that we found the leak just in time!
If you look closely in the photo below, you can see just how close the water got to our insulation. We were literally inches away from a much more extensive and an even more expensive repair!
Our contractor said that with how small the hole was, and to see the extent of the water damage that we had, this leak could have been going on for years.
Are you kidding me? We had no idea!
Had I not decided to spray off the house with the Home Armor cleaner, and had it not been for that little green algae growing on the foundation… there’s no telling when we would have found the leak.
The good news is that it’s all fixed now! Our contractor fixed the pipe, replaced the wood that had wood rot, added new house wrap, and re-sided this section of our home.
After he finished, I painted the new siding to match the rest of our farmhouse.
And looking at the photos now, I truly think if I hadn’t told ya, you’d never have known about the leak.
They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, but photos alone don’t always tell you the full story.
I’ll be honest, finding the leak and all the water damage took the wind out of my sails a bit towards the end of the summer.
Unfortunately, even though we were able to fix the leak and repair all the water damage, we uncovered a bigger issue with the way our siding was originally installed.
It’s bad! And at some point in the hopefully far off future, we’re likely gonna have to re-side the entire house.
Life goes on though, and there’s not much we can do about it besides keep the house caulked and painted to prolong the life of the old siding.
On a more positive note, things have been a little slower, and a little quieter here on the blog and on my IG lately… and that space made way for something new for me and you!
I launched a new blog series here on whiteandwoodgrain.com – and it’s been helping me find that creative spark again!
If you haven’t seen the new P.S. series, you’ll have to go check it out. I thought it would be a fun way to share the photos, the homes, and the creators that are inspiring me the most right now.
P.S. You’re gonna love these
pins and saves!
And there’s also spoilers in those posts about future projects I’m planning and dreaming up!
Speaking of future projects… The big kid room refreshes are still to come. I put a pause on that to paint the new siding. But soon we’ll be talking about paint colors for that upcoming project and I cannot wait!
In the meantime, thanks for stopping by the blog today!
I know this post was sort of all over the place from the leak, to the painting, to the unfortunate news about the rest of our siding… to a brand new blog series!
The leak definitely took the wind out of my sails. But the slowdown that came with it brought me a renewed inspiration to continue sharing here, to continue working on making our house feel more like home with every project… the fun ones and the not so fun ones.
So thanks for stopping by and catching up with me today! Until next time…
