Awww, s@#t

Andy and I had our first homeownership rude awakening (literally) last night when we were getting ready for bed. I noticed that the paint on the wall above the fireplace was looking a little strange and sure enough... we had water dripping down the walls. We quickly put two and two together and realized that something must've happened when we had a contractor come in to reline our chimneys. Andy didn't waste any time getting on the horn to that contractor, but at 11:40 at night with two more hours of pounding rain predicted, we knew we were in for a fretful night.

Needless to say, what began as a gag Christmas gift from my parents only served to fuel our nightmares. Who could forget the first night that Tom Hanks and Shelley Long spent in the house with water pouring onto the floors in buckets?! (In truth, trading jokes and scenes from that movie helped us put our issue in perspective.)
After about 24 hours, we're feeling a little better about the whole situation. We had the contractor come out this morning and we're going to negotiate money off the work we just had completed on the chimney. AND this problem will be alleviated for good by the new roof that is scheduled to go on this week... but wow. For a while there we really hated being homeowners.